I’ve been avoiding wading in on the Sonny-Bill Williams saga because it’s being done to death in the papers so here’s 4 perspectives

1. End the hurt – get everyone you can

New Zealand haven’t won the World Cup since the first one in 1987

That’s 24 years and 5 cups that we have gone without and it hurts – a lot!

For a nation that prides itself on producing the best rugby players and has the best rugby team, we aren’t doing it when it really matters.

We are the England of football. They won the football world cup in 1966 when they hosted it and haven’t won it since - despite a lot of their fans thinking/expecting that they should.

Brazil are treated like the favourites almost every time a football World Cup is played, just like the All Blacks in rugby. But Brazil have won 5 out of 19 football world cups, a 23.6% success rate.

We have won the rugby World Cup once out of 6 times, which is a 16.66% success rate.

Australia and South Africa are at 20% with 2 wins each and we are with England on one win.

New Zealand is the third equal performing rugby team in world cup history

We demanded that the Rugby Union take action and they tried to get the best players for this World Cup

They went out to entice some of our top players back and recruit Sony-Bill Williams

  • Karl Hayman
  • Nick Evans
  • Luke McAllister
  • Chris Jack
  • Aaron Mauger

Two of the ex-pats came back but neither have made the squad.

Luke McAllister was one of the standouts of the 2007 World Cup. He was making breaks and creating tries. He also backs up at first five eigth, a potential problem area for the All Blacks.

McAllister had a great season with Sale in the English Premiershi and came back to play in the World Cup but it didn’t work out.

We got SBW - and good on the Union for that.

2. In the modern game the All Blacks need X-Factor to win a World Cup

New Zealand has tried to play platform, highly disciplined rugby in the past but it didn’t work that well.

John Mitchell had a very regimented playing style and it resulted in a bad loss at home to England in the lead up to the 2003 World Cup and a loss to Australia the following year in the semi-final.

Why doesn’t a conservative, platform-oriented style work?

  1. We aren’t as big as many of our opponents (South Africa; England)
  2. Set pieces aren’t the focus of New Zealand (domestic) rugby
    so we don’t have a culture of scrum and mauling; and our lineout has been shakey under pressure 

Ours is a fast, expansive game. Australia proved last weekend that this can be shut down.

We need exceptional individual players in key positions.

Chris Laidlaw talked about x-factor in the lead up to the 2003 World Cup. He was concerned about the style of pley we would adopt and where tries might come from. Basically, we could compete at several areas of play but lacked penetration and genuine try-scoring ability.

We have more of that now than before, but the argument is simple

  • New Zealand needs serious x-factor
  • Sonny-Bill has serious x-factor (regardless if it has yet to be exploited to its maximum potential)

3. There really isn’t that much competition at second five

The only centre-playing guy I’d like to see in the squad who isn’t there is Rene Ranger – and he is injured.

Ranger is a risky player but I believe he should be given more opportunities to see if he can reduce his error rate on the international stage. Ranger scores tries that other players cannot.

After Ranger, New Zealand does not have a lot of elite talent in the centres at the moment. Robbie Freuen is the exception and he plays centre, not second five.

Conrad Smith and Richard Kahui are in front of him at the moment. Perhaps he should have been given a chance before now.

4. There’s still time to see SBW at his full potential

I personally would have loved to see Sonny Bill play sevens. He was rushed into top rugby in France and rushed into it in New Zealand and we never got to see him run, pass and tackle in the more open format of sevens rugby.

There are 4 less players on a rugby league field and I think sevens rugby would have helped his transition. It has worked wonders for many other players.

Jonah Lomu sparked the interest of everyone including coaches and selectors when he was running in the open spaces of Hong Kong Stadium in 1994 as an 18 year old schoolboy. He was not even in the frame for the 95 World Cup at the time.

In fact, he was back in Hong Kong the following year just 2 months out from the World Cup in South Africa still not considered a world cup prospect. 

Jonah Lomu was a very late inclusion in the 1995 World Cup team and his impact is the stuff of legend

We need players running off SBW when he has the ball and we need him threatening the line more.

When he played league – defenses were in 2 minds when he was running. Stop the man and then try to cover the guys he might pass two while you are trying to stop him because he can get the pass away with 3 men on him.

Tries got scored off his back-flip passes. It’s up to All Black tacticians to make the most of the talent that is SBW.

There is still time to see him at his best in a black jersey. If we do not, then those responsible for his development have just as much to answer as he does.

As for the 2012 super rugby and NPC competitions?

Who cares!

Win the World Cup

End the Hurt