I've said a lot of crazy things but this time I'm innocent

Ali Williams: Using Google translate is a terrible idea. Photo / Getty Images

It hasn't been a great week. I took my first foray into being a columnist in a foreign language and it was a disaster.

I have said a lot of crazy things in my time and I may even have a reputation for opening my mouth at the most inappropriate times (sorry referee) but, this time, I'm innocent.

Mostly.

Lost in translation is all I can say. I want to be careful about trying to defend myself too hard as I don't want it to sound like he doth protest too much.

But, for the record, what happened was that I was interviewed by L'Equipe and answered their questions honestly and, of course, with what I thought was a bit of my own particular brand of humour.

Yes, I said a few things about England in that piece: that they frustrate me because they have shown they can play with width and adventure but rarely do so; that the Celts and Kiwis do not like losing to them; that the Twickenham crowd is vocal, brutal, hostile even, but that it all adds to the occasion and that it would indeed be a bad day if England win the World Cup - only because it would mean New Zealand hadn't.

So what happened next was that the piece was run through Google translation - terrible idea - with half of what I said deliberately left out. There I was on Sunday receiving a txt from my brother saying I didn't even know the meaning to half those words. I nearly choked on my cornflakes as I read a headline in an English Sunday newspaper that said I - and by extension the All Blacks - hate the English. What hurts more than anything is the disrespect that it would have shown to a game that gives us all so much.

I'm public enemy No 1 in the place I now call home and more than a little nervous about going to Twickenham to watch the opening World Cup game against Fiji. I'm going with former England lock Simon Shaw, so we won't stand out in the crowd.

A lesson learned, but as much as I wanted all of this to go away this week, the All Blacks will share that desperation just to finally be playing.

I can recall in 2011 being more nervous before that opening game than at any other stage in my career.

I had played at two other World Cups but it really hit me that the waiting was over.

I'm sure plenty of the All Blacks will feel like that too which is why they will be keen to be playing. The thing about when you are out there, doing it, you have a process to think about. Do this and the results will take care of themselves. The work you have done leading up to this grand event gives you confidence, like any big challange in our lives.

That's what the All Blacks have been doing all week.

Each day the game gets closer, the more you want to get on with it. So let's get this cup started.