SONNY Bill Williams inspired New Zealand to World Cup glory with some trademark offloads but his biggest pass was giving his winner’s medal to a young fan.

As the star centre made his way around the field at Twickenham in the aftermath of his country’s 34-17 win over Australia in the final, a youngster ran onto the pitch to greet his hero.

A security guard tackled him to the ground and Williams picked him up, dusted him down, handed him his medal and walked him back to his family.

The cross-code international said: “I was walking around doing a lap of honour with the boys and a young fella came running out and he got smoked by the security guard.

“He full-on tackled him.

“So I felt pretty sorry for the young fella and gave him my medal.

“It’ll be a night that he remembers hopefully.”

It’s the 30-year-old’s second act of kindness in as many weeks that has pulled on the rugby world’s heartstrings after he consoled a devastated Jessie Kriel at the full time whistle of the semi final win over South Africa.

There were no words of consolation this time from the Auckland-born man, despite him being close to a number of the Wallabies squad.

“Obviously I’ve got a couple of close friends that play for Australia  and there always has to be a winner – there always has to be a loser – so thank God we were the winners,” he said.

“It could have quite easily been us on the other side of that draw, but you can’t really say too much to console them afterwards and that’s the sport we play and that’s why we love it.”

As for words in the build-up to the match, Williams admitted again no words were necessary with the likes of Ma’a Nonu, Dan Carter, Conrad Smith, Keven Mealamu and potentially Richie McCaw playing their last games in the famous All Black jersey.

He said: “Words are words, especially in weeks like this, because it’s such an enormous event.

“You can say all the words you want because that intensity is going to be there because of the magnitude of it and the quality of players that are leaving.

“It probably wasn’t spoken about too much, but we knew we needed to send our skipper off a winner, we knew we had to spend the rest of the boys out winners too.”

Williams has had to make do with playing second fiddle to Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu this tournament as he watched the first half from the bench.

New Zealand made a powerful start with huge hits by Kieran Read on Israel Folau and Conrad Smith on Michael Hooper in the opening minute.

The super sub admitted it was a tactic to come hard at the Wallabies early.

 He said: “I think so.

“I think Australia had been the form team all tournament and obviously we built into ours.

“We spoke about it during the week that games aren’t won without the forwards going forward and our pack definitely laid the platform.”

He made his bow for Conrad Smith – who had been the best player on the pitch in the first 40 minutes - at half time, and made an immediate impact to set up the first try.

An offload to first half try scorer Nehe Milner-Skudder got his team over the gainline and the next phase Williams found himself at first receiver.

He took the ball into contact, taking with him five Australian defenders, and popped the ball out basketball-style to his centre partner Nonu who raced in to score in the 42nd minute stretching the All Blacks’ lead to 18 following the conversion from man of the match and World Rugby Player of the Year Dan Carter.

When asked if he saw Nonu, fans favourite Williams joked: “Nah, I just closed my eyes and threw it.

“Of course, bro, I wouldn’t have passed it otherwise.

“He did his magic and we were lucky to get the try there and get a few points ahead.”

Assessing his form, the 6ft 4in Kiwi said: “I knew I’d been playing some really good footie this tournament, but I didn’t want to just leave it there.

“I wanted to go out there and make an impact – I knew I was going to get some time – so I’m just pleased for the brothers.

“Especially the boys that are leaving and moving on, it was a pretty happy dressing room but more importantly it’s a happy country back home.

“All our friends and families have supported us the whole way through and not just them – the public support has just been immense and we’re just really happy to get that win in the end.”

Australia battled back in the second half with Ben Smith in the sin bin for a tip tackle on Drew Mitchell.

David Pocock grabbed a try from a rolling maul and a Tevita Kurindrani score brought them to within four points.

But Williams expected a response from the Wallabies and said it was the All Blacks’ team spirit that allowed them to pull away.

He said: “It was always going to come.

“It’s not called a World Cup final for no reason and you’re up against a team that has quality and thank God we hung on because it was getting pretty tight there.

“But the boys dug deep and that’s when you know the team is more than a team it’s kind of like a brotherhood because you just your guts and you cover those tackles and push that extra bit because you’re doing it for each other.”