When Ali Williams popped the question to his girlfriend of seven years, Casey Green, her first reaction was far from what either of them had been expecting.
“Ali completely shocked me,” says Casey (30), who got engaged to returning All Black hero Ali (30) in April.
“He is such a larger-than-life guy, both in personality and size, that I thought he’d do something really crazy.
Instead, he waited until one morning after he’d played in a Blues match and came over to my side of the bed.
I didn’t think much of it as our wardrobe’s there, but I asked him how his body was holding up after the match. He replied, ‘It’s okay, but my knee’s a bit sore,’ and got down on one knee, pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him.
“I was so surprised, I couldn’t speak – he says I was catching flies for about 10 minutes before he had to say, ‘Well, are you going to say yes?’ of course I did, and then we were so hyped up by the excitement, that after we’d told family and friends, we spent the morning spring-cleaning the house!”
“It’s been a crazy six months,” admits Ali. “At the beginning of the year, I was injured and I didn’t know what was in store. Now here I am, back in the All Blacks and engaged.
“Casey and I have taken our time, and we haven’t rushed into getting engaged. I know all her good and bad points, so I’m ready to do this.”
While the actual engagement hasn’t come as a surprise to anyone, Casey included – she’s been ring hunting at
Ali’s suggestion since January – the timing was completely unexpected. “I was so sure he was going to propose when he got back from the UK in February,” says Casey, who runs a pole fitness studio and teaches Body Beautiful, a fitness technique which combines yoga, Pilates and ballet.
“He’d told me to go and see what ring designs I liked before he left, so when I got a message with some flowers, telling me to pack a bag and to wait for a driver to pick me up, I was like, ‘Wow! It’s all on!'”
on checking into her favourite Auckland hotel, Casey was treated to the works, including a massage, and told to get ready for dinner. “oy heart was pounding out of my chest!” she laughs. “Then I got a message to go to my favourite restaurant, and there was Ali, tucked away in a private corner table. I was so excited. I was like, ‘oh my God, that’s the face of the man I’m about to be engaged to!’
“I knew this was ‘my day’.
I checked the Champagne glass, but there was nothing there, so we settled in and had entrées, the main and dessert.
I was rooting through the dessert for my ring, then another glass of Champagne,” she recalls, laughing. “By this point my energy was really starting to deflate, but I figured, ‘okay, he wants to do it privately.’ So we went back to the hotel – and the next minute, I turned around and he was fast asleep!”
Casey admits the emotional rollercoaster ride left her a wreck. “It was only much later that I admitted to Ali what I’d expected, and he told me he’d just missed me so he wanted to spoil me. His friends gave him heaps – they couldn’t believe it hadn’t entered his head that I’d expect a proposal! But that’s just Ali. He spoils me rotten.”
But it’s clear that Casey is the soft spot in the notoriously gruff lock’s armour.
“Just look at her – she’s gorgeous,” he says. “I’d been away for six weeks and I wanted to spoil her and let her know how much I loved her. I had no idea she thought I’d propose!”
When Ali did finally pop the question, he was typically flamboyant when it came to the ring. “I’d found this gorgeous white gold ring in a little Auckland shop, but when I first saw it, it was just a dainty band without a stone in it,” says Casey.
“I’m a complete tomboy with no sense of style, so I took a girlfriend with me just in case I’d got it completely wrong, but she loved it too.” By the time Ali put it on Casey’s finger, it came complete with added bands of multi-rowed diamonds, and a fine-coloured blue sapphire in the middle. “He’d ‘Ali-fied’ it, blinged it up!” laughs Casey.
But it’s not just the ring Ali has changed, because before she met her handsome All Black, Casey was a small-town farm girl from the West Coast, with absolutely no dress sense.
“It was Ali who introduced me to high heels and dresses – but don’t take that the wrong way,” insists Casey, who spent her childhood riding horses and getting covered in mud. “He turned me into a little lady. When we met I lived in jeans and T-shirts.”
While her revelations about the 2.02m-tall Auckland-born rugby star’s shopping prowess may be surprising, more so are the stories of Casey’s own upbringing. “The life I lead now is completely different to the way I was brought up,” says the vivacious blonde, who excitedly donned her Driza-Bone and took the Weekly on a trip round her old stomping ground of Hari Hari, 74km south of Hokitika on the South Island’s West Coast.
“oy mum moved here with my stepdad when I was seven, and I loved it. The West Coast is so character-building, whether you like it or not!”
While Casey’s career means she regularly builds up a sweat, she says it’s nothing compared to the running around she did on a daily basis with her best friend, Kylee Simpson, who turns up on the day, mercilessly teasing her old friend. “Harden up. You’ve got soft, Princess!” she laughs as Casey struggles against the harsh gales. “Being down here, it’s where she got her abs from,” Kylee laughs.
And Casey agrees. “I feel like I laughed the whole time I lived here,” she says. “I honestly feel really privileged to have been brought up down here. I really miss it – riding my horse Toby, riding motorbikes, milking the cows, spraying the ragwort.”
And despite some critics accusing Casey of being a socialite blonde All Black WAG (Wives And Girlfriends), her current business success is undoubtedly due in part to the competitive edge she honed as a child. “I always won at Pony Club,” she insists, despite Kylee’s protests that, “There’s no winning at Pony Club!”
She was also often top of the class when it came to pet day at school. “The others would bring birds or fish – I took a calf,” remembers Casey. “I’d persuade it to follow me to school by letting it suck on my fingers, then I had to make it walk around the ring. It was awesome!”
It’s ndddddot too far into our West Coast trip that it becomes clear that despite her delicate looks, Casey was anything but precious as a child. “Fashion and heels were absolutely not in my vocabulary here,” she laughs.
“I’d ride Toby every day. He was so gentle, and I trusted him so much. Kylee was scared of riding, so I made her get on him and jump over me as I lay under a jump in the paddock.”
And her other favourite pastime? “I’d tie a tarpaulin onto the back of the four-wheeler and my brother would drive round at full speed with me on the back, hanging on for dear life. You had to do it after the cows had been in there though – the cow pats make it more slippery, so it was more fun. I’d come out absolutely covered in it!”
Casey’s also an ace on the rugby field herself. “I loved playing rugby,” she says. “It was crazy, the weather we’d play in – the ground would be thick with frost and we’d be out there, getting bloody knees. I loved it.”
So strong was her love of rugby, that Casey remembers the day when legendary All Black winger Terry Wright visited her home town. “We were so excited,” explains Casey. “He asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I told him I wanted to be an All Black. Well, I guess I’ve got pretty close!”
But while Casey admits her rugby skills are now more often utilised on the sidelines at Ali’s games, for now she’s learning new skills – that of planning a wedding and hopefully children.
“I’m very clucky. The last time I got clucky, Ali had to buy me a dog,” she laughs. “As a child I never dreamed about having the perfect white wedding, but I’m actually enjoying the planning process. But I won’t
be a bridezilla… that wouldn’t go down well in Hari Hari.”
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