All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams subject of documentary showing how he is helping NZ heal after Christchurch massacre
Former NRL star and current All Black Sonny Bill Williams’ influence is going well beyond the football field as he reaches out to help support those affected by the Christchurch massacre.
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Sonny Bill Williams says his “wildness” has not disappeared. Instead, that energy has been directed towards Islam and, in turn, the All Black says he has learnt to look outside of himself.
Williams, who is playing in his third and most likely last World Cup, is a self-described “shy” character but has managed to fight past that to become a pillar of not only his community but his country.
The hard-drinking, scandal-courting side is well and truly gone. Williams, soon to be a dad of four, quietly and powerfully has helped unify his country in wake of horrific tragedy.
Five months ago, in a time of horror and sadness after the mass shooting at Al Noor mosque in New Zealand, a place he has often worshipped in, it was Williams who rose up when people needed him most.
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Such is the magnitude of his actions, Williams has become the subject of a HBO Real Sports episode, which screened this week in the United States. In that program Williams openly reflected for the first time on heading directly to Christchurch after a massacre that killed 51 people, mostly Muslim immigrants.
“That was my time and I needed to step up,” Williams told Real Sports. “I know I represent the All Blacks, I know I represent a lot of different people, being a Muslim, being a Kiwi. We were all hurting. I had to get to Christchurch.”
In a landscape when many sports stars lend their name to “a cause” and then drift away from it when the cameras are off, Williams has continued that work with that community with little fanfare and attention.
Last month the usually media-reticent 34-year-old allowed Real Sports reporter David Scott, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and producer, to spend days with him in Auckland and time at the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch.
Scott tells this column that moments that didn’t make the final cut of the program, or happened when the cameras weren’t rolling, were times which included Williams flying up members of the Al Noor mosque, including the Ibrahim family who lost 3-year old Mucad in the massacre, to be at the Bledisloe game in Auckland.
“He’s not looking for publicity or credit for those things, it’s just who he is,” Scott said. “You have to admire the guy, whatever he has been through in the past, he’s found a way to genuinely contribute. He’s the real thing.” “He has an authenticity.”
Scott saw it too, on a small scale, when after playing in the driving rain and cold in Auckland last month, Williams was the last All Black out on the ground signing autographs, still an hour after the game, when most of his team mates had “long gone”.
“He’s the guy, who will literally tell no-one ‘no’,” Scott said. “Cynically, you could say; ‘who wouldn’t want that adulation and attention?’ But this is who he is, every day, I am persuaded that it is for real. He looks for opportunities for big and small to put his imprint on the country or a child fan who will remember it for a long time. He is a genuine guy. Even his critics would concede that much…it’s hard to hide true authenticity.”
Five months on from the tragedy, the HBO program also captures Williams praying in the very room where so many worshippers were gunned down. A room he used to often pray in when he played for the Canterbury Crusaders. He breaks bread with families, including the Ibrahims, that have lost loved ones. He sits in a park opposite a mosque, he meets with young men still traumatised by the events. He sits on the grass with them, and advises teens and kids about not feeling shame about their religion.
“To be proud to be a Muslim I know it is easy said than done, in some instances and situations...I’ve been there,” Williams tells them. “It’s going to be easier, with hardship comes ease.”
As well as his work with Christchurch Muslim community he also regularly helps out in a kids’ ward at an Auckland hospital. The charge nurse calls him up on his mobile whenever she senses a child would benefit from a visit from him.
It’s well known that Williams wasn’t always destined for excellence off the field. There were a string of drunken off-field indiscretions and the most controversial exit in NRL history. That was followed by a French rugby stint and European tour with the All Blacks – he discovered religion - then he started becoming more introspective. In a 2011 interview, Williams said: “I think I’m evolving, I’m always in search of bettering myself, how I can improve as a sportsman and as a person.”
While he’s won NRL premierships with Bulldogs and the Roosters, played for the All Blacks (he is one of only three current All Blacks to have played in three World Cups) and went to the Rio Olympics to represent in the rugby Sevens – he’s well and truly “bettered” himself as a person.
Williams’ self-described “wildness” – has become his greatest strength. “I’ve got a wildness in me, I found that Islam it didn’t pacify the wild streak in me, I turned it and pointed it to want to grow and be better,” he told Real Sports. “That’s when I started openly coming out with my positive messages, who I was and what I stood for”.