Ali Williams gets stuck into NZ's media

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It starts with a flea in our ear and ends with a group hug. Seriously. The big, sweaty All Black lock grabbing a colleague and myself and giving us a bit of man-love, Ali Williams style.

That's Comical Ali for you. Demonstrative, outspoken, entertaining. Sometimes all three at once. Like at the Blues' fitness testing day in the Auckland Domain last week. A request for a word with the comeback All Black who missed the entire test year through Achilles tendon and shoulder injuries was met with Williams getting a few things off his chest.

Fresh off an earlier-than scheduled sabbatical in the United States and a book promotion tour around New Zealand, Williams had a bee in his bonnet. And not even a gruelling fitness session was taking the wind out of his sails.

He's not happy with the New Zealand media's negativity, and it seems he's on a one-man crusade to do something about it. Thus the hug. "Feel the love," said Williams with a grin as he preached his message. And beneath all the humour and the gregariousness, there's a deadly serious plea from the 58-test All Blacks lock.

By all accounts he had a ball Stateside, where he picked up on a certain vibe as he mixed time rehabilitating his shoulder and leg (both had surgery), sniffing out a business opportunity or two, and just cruising California-style.

"It was just the attitude I liked," he said. "You know what it is and I keep harping on about it. We live in such a small country but we can be so negative on each other.

"It's up to you guys to drive the positivity because, man, we seriously don't know how lucky we are. The media, I love you guys, but write some nice stuff."

Clearly Williams hasn't been reading the US media's coverage of Tiger Woods' fall from grace, but he admits the negativity in his own country "completely frustrates me".

He says his time in the States opened his eyes to a "different way of life. I met a lot of different people, and the best part was people didn't pre-judge me. I was just a tall foreigner basically."

The good news on the rugby front is that Williams' ailing body has been fully mended and he feels refreshed and reinvigorated.

"Now I'm back with the boys at the back of the trail and trying to work my way up," he said.

"It's a long process when you do something like a shoulder and Achilles. I'll just keep chipping away, mate."

Despite the invigoration provided by his stint in the United States (with girlfriend Casey Green) and a well-received book, Ali's Book of Tall Tales, on the shelves for Christmas, Williams admits it has been a "hard year" with so little time spent on the rugby field.

Then having to watch a succession of second-rowers fill his boots in the All Blacks and remind him that there is life after Ali Williams added to the difficulty.

"That's what makes this team so great," says Williams of the All Blacks, who eventually corrected their faltering test year.

"One guy can fall off the trail and there's someone instantly in behind to, if not fill the gap, to improve the gap and set the bar even higher.

"Basically they've set the standard higher than when I left it.

"So now I've got to get there."

But then something sets him off again. He's asked about Brad Thorn, responds by calling his second-row mate a "human legend" and then diverts back into his subject du jour.

Turns out he'd felt he'd been unfairly treated by a Nelson reporter. "I was trying some positivity, and the next thing I know I don't want the Makos. What a lot of bullshit.

"It gives you guys a bad name, eh. You should all get together, have a big group hug, have a few beers and say `let's drive positivity in this country'."

It's fair to say Williams' book received a pretty positive hearing around the traps, after a "celebrity" tour promoting his lighthearted look at life as a rugby pro.

"I wouldn't say celebrity, mate, you just don't want to face the shame of having your book in the bargain bin," he responds, equanimity returned.

"But it was fun to do. It was one of those things that forces you to think about some funny situations you've been in, and makes you reflect and say `whoa, I've had a good life'."

And then comes the hug, and he's off.

Without even a verse of Kumbaya.

- © Fairfax NZ News