It’s no joke: Williams blackens a cherished legacy
OPINION: Once an All Black, always an All Black; Ali Williams may have hauled the proud black name through the white powder dirt.
He’s not just a silly boy with money having a bit of a lark outside a Paris nightclub.
He’s Ali Williams, All Black lock, 77 test caps, World Cup winner in 2011. Wearer of the Silver Fern, dispenser of the haka.
He’s Ali Williams, charged with buying two grams of cocaine for $260. He will never not be an All Black. Check his CV. If he has one, ALL BLACK will be the highlighted bit with arrows pointing at it.
That will be where Williams accentuates how good he is at rugby, why he is worthy of many, many, euros in his contract, money that enables him to buy the finer things in life, even when he’s retired as a test player.
We’ve heard many times; once you are selected for the All Blacks you are a member of an exclusive club. Forever. No matter who you are. With that comes a commitment to maintain certain standards. High standards.
You have a profile and responsibility. You can’t pick or chose, you can’t opt out.
Richie McCaw will always be an All Black. Sixty years after he was first selected, Colin Meads is still an All Black, so is his former team-mate Keith Murdoch, even though he has shunned publicity since being sent home from Wales in 1972.
So the illegal act Williams is alleged to have committed would – if he is convicted – hurt not only himself, or those close to him – such as his wife and small children, but it would harm the All Black legacy.
It would be more than a simple mistake made in isolation by a rugby-playing larrikin known for his broad smile, his sense of humour, and for often putting his football boot and a fair amount of alcohol in his mouth. You say ‘‘non’’ this has nothing to do with the All Blacks? Well, on eternal All Blackness, read this quote.
‘‘You have to understand, New Zealand is a very young country and rugby has put this country on the map. This country earned respect from the rest of the world for three things: what we did in two world wars, and to a lesser extent what we’ve done on the rugby field. So over time rugby has become a major part of our national identity. And the current All Black team, the All Black teams of recent years, have always tried to add to that legacy, that history.’’
Sir Graham Henry said that to The Guardian. When Henry coached All Black Williams, that was the ethos he no doubt preached to him. Hammered him with. Accentuated.
Yes, players can make mistakes. They’re not perfect. They’re under immense stress at times – it comes with the adoration and the rewards – so they can blow off steam in a fashion that gets them scalded; there’s been a fair bit of gauze bandaging and burn cream applied to players over the past 12 months.
While New Zealand rugby fans would be miffed if high-paid imports at the end of their careers turned up here and went AWOL in Nightclub Land, that’s not so much the case in France.
While players headed to French clubs sign contracts in which they agree to adhere to a code of conduct, many clubs are run by flamboyant rich businessmen inclined to react to misdemeanours with the trademark Gallic shrug.
France is more tolerant than New Zealand, which makes it an ideal home for Kiwi players with a nose for what can broadly be defined as ‘‘trouble’’. Wine, women and song, shall we say?
Whether the laying of criminal charges against Williams and Wallaby James O’Connor leads to a French rethink around signing such ‘‘characters’’ falls under the ‘let’s wait and see’ category.
When an agent is touting their star player around they list his many rugby skills, with a footnote about his unimpeachable choirboy-like character. If Williams has achieved anything over the past week, it could be to move the balance of the skills-character formula, so that clubs sign players whose wild streaks are less broad, less wild, and less streaky.
Whatever, it’s hard to see him laughing this one off.