Sonny Bill ‘a charity champion’
Sonny Bill Williams hasn’t had a stellar season for the All Blacks on the pitch – but he is still a champion off it. The 33-year-old’s play polarises people. Yes, Father Time may be doing press-ups in the back field as he enters the twilight of a 15-year career in two of the world’s toughest sports.
But no-one, surely, should doubt Sonny Bill Williams’ commitment to a good and just cause.
The Aucklander was back in the boxing ring on Saturday night to raise money for charities supporting homeless people in Auckland and Sydney.
The Kiwi code hopper cops a lot of flak, but he deserves respect for his willingness to use his sporting profile to help others.
Plenty of All Blacks have done great deeds off the field – none more so than John Kirwan, rightly knighted for promoting depression awareness among men, or the late Sir Colin Meads, a tireless fundraiser for the intellectual disabilities sector. You can put Sonny Bill Williams in the same bracket.
His detractors are quick to forget how he donated $100,000 from his professional boxing purse for an earthquake relief fund in 2011, at a time when he was in his first – and only – season with the Crusaders.
Williams gifted his 2015 Rugby World Cup winner’s medal to a young Twickenham fan who was knocked to the turf by a security guard as he attempted to get All Blacks autographs after the final whistle.
The devout Muslim has also taken moral stands.
In 2017, he taped over the BNZ logo on his Blues uniform. It was later revealed he had invoked a ‘‘conscientious objection’’ clause in his New Zealand Rugby contract around supporting finance companies, banks, alcohol companies, tobacco companies and gambling interests.
Just before his latest fight – against Australian reality TV star Stu Laundy – Williams refused to pose for photographs with bikini-clad ‘ring girls’. The women were dressed more modestly on fight night.
SBW has also been known to be generous to his friends. He loaned fellow former NRL star turned boxer Anthony Mundine $500,000 when Mundine had a family emergency in 2017. The sum was repaid after Mundine had a prizefight later that year.
When former Wallabies player Quade Cooper was dropped from the Queensland Reds late last year, Williams invited him to visit him in Auckland to train together.
Williams’ fault-finders will argue that his actions are publicity stunts but his comments seem sincere.
Saturday’s fight was billed as the ‘Banger under the Hanger’’ because the venue was close to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
‘Bangs’ were few and far between as the two men honoured a pre-fight pact to go easy on each other.
Who cares? Anyone wanting real boxing action can get their fix from Deontay Wilder v Tyson Fury. Why would Williams go hell-for-leather against a 45-year-old non-boxer after a long rugby season which ended when he injured his shoulder?
It was SBW in the ring in Sydney but it was the Auckland City Mission and Sydney’s Exodus Foundation in the spotlight, and the cause was close to the All Black’s heart.
‘‘My nana used to work with the Auckland City Mission back in the days,’’ Williams said in September when the fight was announced.
‘‘Being able to go and get clothes from there when I lived in a housing commission house growing up, it’s always touching.’’
Since 2004, Sonny Bill Williams has thrilled – and frustrated – rugby league and union fans with his line breaking runs and big hits on defence but his charitable deeds will linger in the public memory long after his final off-load.