Sonny Bill Williams: All Blacks have evolved to putting religious differences aside, being open about struggles

The All Blacks have evolved during his decade with the team to the point where putting aside differences including religion and speaking openly about personal struggles is the norm, Sonny Bill Williams says.

Williams, who made his debut in 2010, said the conversations he was having with teammates now probably wouldn’t have happened in his first year in the team.

“I think the cool thing in the last 12 months is a lot of boys in the team are real, speak their mind but it’s not always just the picture-perfect things, we talk about the hardships that we face and overcome,” Williams said.

“Obviously for me I’m a Muslim, Jack Goodhue is a Christian, some boys don’t believe in faith, we all put these differences aside for the betterment of the individual.”

Williams felt that the current state of affairs made the team stronger.

“I think that’s the cool thing that we have in the All Blacks in the moment,” he said.

“For myself, it has probably evolved, you know I’ve been in this team, in and out, for 10 years and I don’t know if I could have had the conversations that I probably had today with the couple of the boys 10 years ago.”