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Rugby

12th Apr 2016

‘Bloody legend’ Sonny Bill Williams gives Hong Kong Sevens trophy to crying New Zealand fan

Gareth Makim

When you’ve given away gold, what use have you for silver?

Sonny Bill Williams is gaining quite the reputation for generosity.

The New Zealand rugby star made the headlines when he gave his World Cup winners’ medal to a young fan, and he repeated the gesture following the final of this weekend’s Hong Kong Sevens.

Williams spotted a young All Blacks fan in the crowd who was upset at New Zealand’s defeat by Fiji in the final, so he popped over to take a selfie, then left his runners-up cup in the hands of the youngster.

Tan Guerin-Rodda, mother of eight-year-old Cooper, wrote on Facebook: “NZ lost to Fiji in HK 7’s and after they collected their own runner up cups, the team walked past us and I called out to Sonny to have a selfie with us. Not only did he take the selfie, he gave Coops his runner up cup!!!! What a bloody legend!!!”

Guerin-Rodda later told the South China Morning Post: “At the end of the game, we were just waiting to take photos with the players. My son was there and I called out to Sonny. He just turned, looked and handed my son the cup, which at the time I didn’t know about.

“Sonny took a selfie with us and just walked off. It was [husband] Jeff who said, ‘Oh my God, did you just see what he did?’ I was just gobsmacked. We had no idea that would happen, we were caught unaware.”

The youngster also recorded a video in which he thanks Williams for the “awesome gift”.