Schoolkids pull no punches with Sonny Bill

Fans get their picture taken with Sonny Bill Williams at a Crusader's Charity calendar signing at Whitcoulls book store on Queen Street this afternoon. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Rugby superstar Sonny Bill Williams will tomorrow partly make good on a promise he made after he ran out of gas on a country road in Canterbury last year.

Farmer Bevan Mehrtens gave Williams and his friends diesel late at night in Springfield, 68km west of Christchurch, in August.

The local petrol station was closed.

Mr Mehrtens did not accept an offer of money from Williams to pay for the fuel. So Williams promised to give him tickets if Canterbury made the final of the national provincial championships.

He forgot.

So pupils at Windwhistle School - where Mr Mehrtens' wife, Kathy, is a teacher - wrote to Williams, via the Canterbury Rugby Union, after the final.

They congratulated him and the team on their success - but pulled no punches and asked why he hadn't sent out the tickets.

The rugby union responded, saying Williams would host the school at the Crusaders' early-season training at Terrace Downs resort near Mt Hutt - which is tomorrow.

A union spokesman said no free tickets would be given out, but Williams would host the school pupils.

In an interview in the Sydney Morning Herald, Williams recalled his broken promise.

"And these kids sent me a letter - they had this thing going in class, 'Will he remember to send the tickets to the final?' Obviously I didn't. I got the letter, and I just felt so bad," he said.

Kathy Mehrtens said she was so excited for the school.

"Being such a small school, it's fantastic to have this opportunity," she said. "And we are such a rugby-mad community. When the children found out they were meeting them their jaws just dropped."

Taylor Cleland, 10, wrote one of the letters to Williams.

Taylor said he was so excited his biggest hero was coming to his school. "I can't believe I'm going to meet him and get his autograph. I really hope I get to kick a ball around with him."

Williams was one of three Crusaders stars at Whitcoulls in Auckland yesterday. Kieran Read and Andy Ellis were also there signing copies of the franchise's 2011 calendar.

- APN