Williams brothers just wanna have fun

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LAUGH A MINUTE: Stephen Donald (left), Ali Williams and Sonny Bill Williams field questions from the media.

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The All Blacks should not give up their day jobs - as wannabe comedians they make fabulous rugby players.

During today's press conference at their West Auckland training headquarters, designated team clown Ali Williams and his stand-up - or in this case sit-down - sidekick Sonny Bill Williams made a cringe-worthy attempt to lighten the mood ahead of Sunday's World Cup final against France.

As a stab at comedy, it fell as flat as the proverbial pancake. A sizeable international media contingent gets precious little time with the All Blacks as it is, and having to put up with the Williams double-act in full flight just days out from the biggest rugby match of the last four years clearly irked a few members of the broadcasting troupe.

Ali was asked a long-winded question about whether the All Blacks had recovered from the rigours of the semifinal, and had their feet back on the ground.

Big Ali then leaned over and whispered into Sonny Bill’s ear. “Ali said our feet are definitely on the ground,” said SBW.

A Parisien reporter then asked Williams if he was only speaking French now, thus getting his responses translated.

Another furtive whisper, another answer from the ventriloquist’s dummy: “Ali doesn’t speak French.”

A stern-faced TV type then asked Sonny Bill about his yellow card on Sunday night and – you guessed it – he leaned across and whispered into Ali’s ear

“We don’t have much to say on that,” said Ali... “That frustrated you, didn’t it?” The TV type then points out that “we” were just trying to be professional and we “sort of expect the same from you guys”.

Ali: “Ooohh, so let’s talk about the game then, eh, why about one incident?” When told it was because Sonny was up here and his views were wanted, Ali (not Sonny), shot back: “It was just a tackle gone wrong.”

And, seriously, you could not even see Sonny Bill’s lips move.

Perhaps it's being unfair to mock the budding humourists, for maybe they were trying to achieve something with their little routine.

Quite what, is anybody's guess.

But Comical Ali is often a genuinely funny guy. Remember his Spiderman routine when he was with the Crusaders? That was a hoot. Back in 2003 when he arrived at the World Cup in Australia in a moon boot he was hilarious when he told a packed press conference about it being a space-age piece of adidas footwear designed to give him an edge in the tournament. Again, genuinely funny.

This was him at his worst. It was forced. Contrived. And it puzzled 75 per cent of the media in attendance who had no idea what was going on.

Williams did perhaps offer a glimpse into the state of mind in the All Blacks when he was asked about the fine line between complacency and being relaxed enough to perform at your best.

"If you're too relaxed you overlook the little things, the intricacies of the game but if you're not relaxed enough you get too tense and you don't enjoy the moment," said big Ali.

"We're just trying to enjoy the week because it's different from any other week we'll ever have. We want to have fun - we don't want to forget about it. Come Sunday night the result will take care of itself and the best team will win on the night."

- © Fairfax NZ News