Memory of horror match inspires Williams

Ali Williams

Blues lock Ali Williams has six incentives seared in his psyche as he approaches tonight's heavyweight Super 14 match with the Crusaders.

The teams' Eden Park contest last year left Williams' test place in peril after he was banned for six weeks for trampling Richie McCaw.

The senior tight forward is not seeking revenge for that suspension. Instead he wants to use the memory as a springboard for a Blues resurgence and his own progress.

The Blues last year were walloped 41-19. It was part of a rough patch the side endured, much the same as the struggles the 2006 version is having.

"That wasn't a flash game," Williams recalled. "I had been dropped in 2004 and then last year I got fit and then dropped myself.

"But I can say playing a team like the Crusaders always gets us excited, it gets us pumped and, strangely, it allows us to feel confident."

Williams said that was simply a case of the Blues' talent pool responding to the high-calibre Crusaders.

"They are a team that uses their heads especially well, a very smart side who can make a mess of you if you are not switched on."

Suggest to Williams that this may have been a problem for him this season and he has a different point of view.

It was still very early in the Super 14 after a long summer break and the All Black glory last year.

"I am aiming to bury my head in the tight stuff at this stage, scrums, lineouts and hitting rucks and mauls," he said.

"I am concentrating on those things and enjoying it. You can't be at your best after just a few games but the feeling is getting there a bit more."

After analysing their opening three matches, the graph for the Blues lineouts was on the rise, the scrum was improving while there was a great spirit developing under new coach David Nucifora.

Lineouts tonight would be part skill, part guessing game for Williams as he faced some of his All Black comrades.

"I would have spent about six months last year with Chris Jack or James Ryan [Highlanders] and you get to know them and their play pretty well," said Williams.

Williams is not yet 25 but is already into his fifth season locking for the Blues in Super rugby. He is a reliable aerial talent, an athlete about the park and someone who also does his share of the hard grind.

Williams needs all of those components to be in sync tonight, to back up skipper Keven Mealamu and inspire the rest of the pack for what will be a forward challenge to match any they have faced so far this season.