A judge has ordered former Bulldogs star Sonny Bill Williams or a legal representative to be present in court on Friday for the hearing of an application for an injunction to stop him from playing for any other team.

Williams, 23, is being sued by the Bulldogs and the National Rugby League for breach of contract after he walked out on his Belmore teammates 10 days ago to play for French rugby union club Toulon.

They are also seeking an injunction against Williams playing for Toulon. He has reportedly signed with the club and may play a trial match as early as Saturday morning Sydney time.

Justice Robert Austin ruled in the Supreme Court today that Williams does not have to be personally served with court documents in the case against him.

He ruled that the court papers be served to Williams by 8am tomorrow, Sydney time, at his Sydney home, at the office of a company he appeared to own and at the Toulon club.

He also ruled Williams be notified via text message that the papers had been served.

Barrister for the Bulldogs, Arthur Moses, told the court his client was also initiating legal action against Toulon and Williams's manager, Khader Nasser, for inducing the star forward to breach his contract.

He said serious attempts to serve Williams with a notice of motion of proceedings against him had failed.

Newspaper reports had revealed that Williams had moved hotels three times while in London but it was unknown whether Williams had "deliberately sought to evade" being served the papers, Mr Moses told the hearing.

"Our concern is to ensure that he does not enter into the contract ... and play for that club prior to being heard in this court," Mr Moses said as reports were filtering in from overseas that Toulon had already signed Williams.

He said the matter had been made difficult by the fact that much of the information they had about Williams since he left the country was provided by newspaper reports from unknown sources.

He said if the court allowed the court papers to be served to Williams's home the "game of cat and mouse can stop" and the proceedings could start "rather than putting it through the media ... and rather than shadow boxing".