KEY POINTS:
For all his skylarking, all his bluster, there beats a very serious rugby animal within Ali Williams.
He acts the clown at times, more to test the reactions he provokes than anything else. But he does not like anyone to consider he is anything but a dedicated rugby
player.
The All Black lock is one of a trio from Hong Kong asked to front up again in Scotland, and is the sole survivor of the last All Blacks outing against Scotland during the 2007 World Cup. He is not the skipper - that honour has gone to his soon-to-be Blues teammate Keven Mealamu - however, as a senior member of the pack, Williams will be asked to lead in deeds and commands.
He will be expected to use his experience of 59 tests to assist some of the newcomers round the Murrayfield track so they do not suffer the disappointment he felt when he lost in a second-string All Blacks side to England at Twickenham in his 2002 debut. It would be even worse to be the first All Black side to fall in the 103 years since they began test combat against Scotland.
The warnings from Williams would be simple, he explained. He did not expect his teammates to be sloppy in any of their preparation because there were too many new faces to let this chance slip. Scotland would be very physical from the start and if they got early points and the crowd support, it could be a torrid duel.
"We have to make sure we start well and shut the crowd out, make sure we are not swayed by any of the hype, do our own jobs, take it slowly and it will fit into place," he said.
Scotland would look to their forwards where they had plenty of experience, power and skill to try to gain an edge, before offering extra variety to their game. The task for the All Blacks was to counter that, or, even better, start by asking serious questions of the Scottish eight.
The test will probably be played under changeable, cold conditions so its style and pace will be different to the side's opening international against the Wallabies in Hong Kong.
Williams refused to resurrect any of his criticism of tomorrow's referee Wayne Barnes nor did he want to go into details about his test debut other than to offer some comparative advice for tomorrow's newcomers.
"Once you get through the haka it is a relief but then for the first 10 minutes you run around like a headless chicken trying to do everything," he warned.
"Then you slowly settle down and realise it is just another game of rugby with other guys but the beauty of it is you have this black jersey and the silver fern on your shoulder and that gives you extra arms and legs."
Williams will lock the scrum with the promising Anthony Boric and will lead the lineout calls which stayed solid in Hong Kong even with the early disruption of losing hooker Andrew Hore to injury. Williams' familiarity with Mealamu's throwing should help though Scotland have some tall jumpers who could pressure Williams, Boric, Adam Thomson, Liam Messam and Kieran Read.
This is a test where a rock solid effort from the pack should be able to unleash a backline with too much venom for Scotland. Any frothy, frilly rugby though will be punished and Williams knows his standards will be a barometer for the outcome.
