John Roughan: SBW's gesture betrays fans and teammates

Sonny Bill Williams of New Zealand hands his medal to a young fan after winning the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final match. Photo / Getty Images

Spontaneous act latest in a long line of strange behaviours by hugely talented but enigmatic All Blacks midfielder.

What a strange thing it was that Sonny Bill Williams did. All the previous strange things in his career have been blamed on his manager but there was nobody in Sonny Bill's ear when he decided to give his Rugby World Cup winner's medal away.

It was his own spontaneous gesture to a lad who had run out to the All Blacks during their victory lap and had been tackled by a Twickenham security guard. The kid was not hurt and probably not surprised to be tackled. Williams and Steve Hansen picked him up, put an arm around him and Williams steered him back to the fence where on a parting impulse he gave the kid his medal.

A trifle excessive, I thought. Also a bit demeaning for the prize the All Blacks had just won, and I wondered what his teammates thought. I also hoped the boy's parents would realise it was a needless gesture, probably made in a moment of excitement when the man was not thinking clearly, and one he would later regret.

I hoped they would later offer it back, which indeed they did, Williams has said. But he told them, "Nah, better he has it than it hang on my wall". Was he modestly depreciating his generosity or did he really not want this thing?

Generosity normally bears some sort of proportionate relationship to the predicament of the recipient. If this boy was tragically disabled or had suffered some heart-rending misfortune I could understand an All Black being so moved as to give him something as precious as a World Cup winners' medal.

But to give it away for no reason at all suggests he really didn't want it. Strange.

He is not alone among top sportsmen is having little interest in keeping memorabilia - but it is fairly unusual to give it away a moment after it has been draped around their neck. Insulting too. His teammates might never say whether they found it insulting but as a fan, I did.

It felt like a betrayal of our enthusiasm for their achievement and the exquisite agony of those early mornings on the couch.

I don't know whether I'm more disappointed in Williams or the many who see it as an utterly admirable act of generosity. By the time the medal was offered back to him he might have been reading too much of their praise online to feel able to take it back. Maybe that is why the World Cup organisers gave him another. Or were they simply capitalising on a story that was playing well for Williams, the All Blacks and rugby.

Generosity is too valuable to be reduced to a public relations gesture. I don't think Williams was making a public relations calculation at any stage, I think he was acting on his own inclinations, and they can be strange.

I wish this wasn't on my mind. Last Sunday morning was so perfect in every other way. And the part that Sonny Bill Williams has played for the All Blacks has been one of the best features of this World Cup.

He accepted his bench role this time in a way he never did at the last World Cup. He was so frustrated four years ago that when he was finally on the field late in the semifinal he immediately shoulder-charged his opponent and was sent off. Under Steve Hansen this time, all the bench players were important and all rugby teams will consist of 23 players now.

When Williams didn't show up for the All Blacks' victory parade in 2011, I thought I would never forgive him. But the way he fitted in this time, cheerfully acknowledging his fellow midfielders, clearly popular in the team and injecting his own special dimension to the game whenever he got on, I thought I could forgive him anything.

To see him get the whole second half of the final was one of the elements that made the match a perfect ending. Another was Conrad's Smith's final touch as an All Black, making the straight run and inside pass that created the opening outside for the first try. Then there was Dan Carter's kicks and crucial tackles, and Ma'a Nonu's try, a reminder of the tearaway he was before he developed into a complete test player. So why am I so bothered by that medal?

Possibly because I have been looking forward to Williams playing outside Aaron Cruden in the All Blacks next year. They had an uncanny understanding for the Chiefs a couple of years ago. But next year Sonny Bill is going to play sevens to go to the Olympics. For a medal? It is hard to know why he does what he does, or what he will do next. He pleases himself.

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