Sonny Bill Williams lifts lid on true All Blacks motivation as Wallabies 'aura' chat backfires
Sonny Bill Williams has come clean on what really goes on in the All Blacks changing room after Saturday night's record Bledisloe Cup bloodbath at Eden Park.
Revelling in the All Blacks' 57-22 demolition job, which secures the massive cup in New Zealand for yet another year, Williams was asked about Wallabies winger Andrew Kellaway's \
Kellaway said "maybe the aura has worn off a little bit" in a radio interview after scoring a try in his first Bledisloe Test.
Sonny Bill Williams is a happy man. Stan
He clearly meant no disrespect towards the three-time world champions but All Blacks great Williams said his line would not have gone unnoticed among a team always searching for an edge.
"There's nothing more dangerous than a wounded All Blacks team and we hear all that noise," Williams said on Stan Sport's post-game coverage.
"We might try and say that we drown it out, we don't listen to it but there's newspaper clippings that have been posted on the team wall, in the inner sanctum, that I can say are for motivation.
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"So that type of talk really plays its role and plays into the hands of the hungry All Blacks team."
After listening to Williams' assessment, Wallabies coach Dave Rennie again stressed what Kellaway actually meant.
Not that it now matters - the All Blacks horse has well and truly bolted.
"We never said that," Rennie responded in regards to any loss of "aura."
"Kels was asked his opinion about playing the All Blacks first up and what he was implying is that he's now played them at Eden Park.
"And it was more about last week he was heading into the unknown.
"This week he's experienced the All Blacks at Eden Park and he was up to the challenge.
"We certainly respect the All Blacks, of course.
"We're not going to give them ammunition throughout the week so it's disappointing."
The 57 points were the most ever scored by the All Blacks against the Wallabies.
Despite the unwanted headlines, Kellaway did have another good night, scoring two of Australia's three tries.
But clearly a massive gap remains between the second and sixth ranked teams in the world.
"Congratulations to NZ, they were super strong tonight, put us under the pump and played a really good 80 minute performance," Wallabies captain Michael Hooper said.
"We didn't capitalise in the start of that second half, we earned a yellow card, weren't able to put NZ under pressure, in fact they controlled that part of the game really well, showed they were all class there.
"We fronted up physically really well tonight, we've got another crack against NZ in two weeks' time, so we're licking our lips for that, but we've got to get back to the drawing board and have a good look."
Sam Whitelock of the All Blacks celebrates with the Bledisloe Cup. Getty
