Editorial: Sonny Bill does it again

Mark Dawson. Photo / File

It takes a special rugby player to be known only by their initials.

The Welsh produced some magnificent players in the 1960s and 70s, good enough to simply go by the initials JPR, JJ etc. And they went even further, having players recognised worldwide by their Christian names - "Gareth", "Gerald" et al.

Here in New Zealand we have SBW - Sonny Bill Williams - a great talent on the field and starting to build something of a legacy off it.

After Saturday night's All Blacks victory over the touring British and Irish Lions - as epic and intense a test match as you could wish for - Sonny Bill was among the ABs who stopped to have a chat with some of the thousands of travelling fans who have come around the world in the vain hope of toppling the rugby world champions.

But being SBW, he did not stop at posing for a selfie or signing an autograph - he took off his shorts and socks and handed them to a delighted British boy in the stand.

Not sure if the lad - who looked no more than 10 years old - was meant to wash them, fold them and send them back, but the gesture was par for the course for Williams.

Twenty nations contested the 2015 Rugby World Cup and each squad would have comprised 30-plus players, so let's say more than 600 players in England for the biggest event of their sporting lives.

I do not believe a single one of those players would have done what Sonny Bill did - the unthinkable.

Having helped the All Blacks see off Australia in the final, he then gave away his World Cup winners medal to a young English lad who had run toward the pitch in all the excitement and been bowled over by a security guard.

Generosity verging on madness.

Who knows what next from SBW, but he is in danger of becoming a poster boy for his Islamic faith, role-modelling behaviour that punctures the often-negative archetypal view of the Muslim world.