Sonny Bill Williams off to rugby league

First topic message reminder :

Apparently it's been leaked to the Australian media. He's signed a contract with the NSW league club, the South Sydney Rabbitos. He's also supposed allowed to play rugby in Japan and have time out for boxing. Oh well it's back to Nonu at center.

Fair enough, probably the second best 12 in the world though!

Nonu also worked on his short kicking game. I don't think he's mastered it in any way but at least he sees it as a viable alternative to bashing the ball up into the line.

SBW's time in the game was very short. Just because he didn't have a long passing game or much of a kicking game doesn't mean he couldn't have added that to his game. He tended to concentrate on a few things each game in black rather than try to do everything at once. He was quite unselfish in his early games and looked to offload rather than to attack the line running. It seemed he wanted to stand out as a team player rather than as as individual. Every so often like against Canada when he set up Nonu running with the ball in one hand as if he were Pine Treee and running the right line for Cruden to offload to him.

I'm sure if he had more time in the black shirt, his game would've grown and he would've become more complete as a player similar to how he contributed as a league player. Sometimes I think it's easy to forget just how quick his rise to the top was. Even Brad Thorn struggled initially, although you could argue his was a more difficult transition to make.

Bathite wrote:
Although I agree he is an incredible player and I love watching him play, I'm not sure it's fair to say he has it all. Haven't seen much of his long flat pass that Nonu throws so well and there is zero kicking game. Also, he has a tendency to rush up in defence and look for the big hit and occasionally get pinger for the shoulder charge.

As I write this, it appears that his weaknesses are skill sets he will need even less in league and his strengths will be even more effective!

I didn't say he was a complete player, what I said was that he had all the attributes to become the best in his position. Passing is something that can be improved with practice and defensive positioning comes with experience and familiarity with the players around you.

In terms of raw skill set and natural attributes - size, strength, athleticism, vision and handling skills - he's as good as any player I've ever seen on a rugby field, and in some of those he's probably the best. Pace is the only natural asset he doesn't have for a centre although hes deceptively quick when he hits his stride.

I actually think no 8 may have been his best position if he'd learn't the game earlier.

8 - interesting shout that!

Lomu used to be a blindside flanker at Wesley College. There was talk of him playing at 8 and 6. I would've liked to have seen it but then we would've been deprived of that 95 semi final quartet.

Personally I think 12 was an astute choice. Backrow positional play is a lot more difficult to learn than inside centre. Do you want to get rid of Read to put in SBW? If Read weren't there, you'd make a stronger case. But the learning process would've been much longer and gradual at 8 and time is a luxury you don't have with SBW.

No sorry, to clarify I mean if SBW had come to RU as a youngster or started off there no8 could have been his best position imo. He was a 2nd row/ loose forward in league and has the size and skill to play there.

Inside centre was and is the correct position for him I'm not disputing that.

Yeah fair enough Rodders. Right you are. Although if SBW had come through the system at 12 then I think he'd be a lot more complete than he ended up being.

Like Lomu though, you do want to imagine a parallel world where he was in the backrow just to see what kind of damage he could've done. I'd pay big money to see Lomu at 6, SBW at 8 and McCaw at 7. Preferably in a RWC final.

I actually think Lomu was a different kettle fo fish because he wasn't a good footballer, didn't have a great engine but was brilliant sprinter.

Sticking him on the wing was a masterstroke and revolutionized the entire sport and how backs were viewed. In many ways players like SBW are the product of that.

My point about SBW is that he has uncanny offloading ability and upperbody strength but not great pace for a 3/4.

If he'd learnt have game at an early age and could perform the bread and butter aspects of backrow play I think he could have been a brilliant no8, like Zinzan Brooke say, with his basketball type skills.

Again this is just hypothethical, he might have been rubbish... that said I think he was handled very well by Toulon and the NZRFU and he has been a real cross code success.

Lomu wasn't a good winger rodders but he was more than just a sprinter. Sure, for a big man he was incredibly quick off the mark like a sprinter. He allowed players to show him the touch line and then sprint round them with maybe a fend for good measure. He could also step off both feet and was remarkably balanced for a tall man. On the turn though, he was as slow as a turning petrol tanker. His power though was his main asset. And like the 99 RWC try against France when he seemed to carry over 5 French players, imagine him in the tight getting the ball close to the line. We may not have seen him do the damage out wide but I think he could've done huge damage in tight.

But like you say it's all hypothesis. It's like imagining Ireland without Kidney.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:
But like you say it's all hypothesis. It's like imagining Ireland without Kidney.

One can only dream Kia.....

Fair points on Lomu, but I didn't mean to suggest he was only a sprinter....what I meant was the fact that he was a great sprinter helped make him so destructive in the wide channels, he could run round defenders or over them..or even on top of them if he fancied it . In tight he could bulldoze defenders like no other before or since but, unlike SBW, could run like a gazelle too.