Sonny Bill must sacrifice for All Blacks dream

BY MARC HINTON

OPINION: Let's get one thing straight. Sonny Bill Williams will not play for the All Blacks at next year's World Cup.

There's more chance of Steve Hansen nominating himself for chairman of the Media Appreciation Society than SBW suddenly getting all his moons aligned to make a late, successful tilt at the black jersey in time.

I just can't see it happening - for any number of reasons.

The first, and most important, is that the disgraced Doggies NRL star is simply not good enough to play test match rugby for New Zealand.

That's a thought that doesn't seem to have struck certain segments of the media who breathlessly report him being chased by the All Blacks, as though the entire fate of 2011 hangs on his nod that he's coming "home".

The truth of the matter is that the All Blacks coaches have had some dialogue with him. Much as they have any number of New Zealanders who are based in the northern hemisphere and have the potential to become available at some stage in the future.

They are just being thorough, covering their bases. Who knows, the man may turn into a rugby genius, and it would be remiss of them not to at least gauge his interest in playing rugby in New Zealand.

But his rugby so far with Toulon in France is nowhere near compelling enough to have him on anyone's "must-have" list, let alone the All Blacks'.

Put it this way, the name Carl Hayman is still pretty lonely on that piece of NZRU letterhead.

In between all the injuries that have made his Toulon career a stop-start affair, Williams has progressed solidly, but not spectacularly, as a midfielder. There has even been talk of him switching to the loose forwards, such has been the frustration over his lack of backline impact.

He's still very much thought of in terms of potential, even though he's now had the best part of two years in the game.

Undoubtedly the man is a fine physical specimen, but it was evident when he made his appearance for the Barbarians against the Wallabies last June that he remains a raw rugby product.

Whether he's got the patience or wherewithal to transform his skills and instincts to those required to be effective in his new code must still be open to debate.

Given his physical prowess, there is a school of thought that says you can always shape the brute to become a player if you get him into the right structures.

And I have no doubt that there are some Super 14 coaches around the country who would lick their lips in anticipation over the thought of having a season to mould SBW into, say, a Robert Fruean.

But the reality is he's still a long way from becoming an international-class rugby player. If indeed he's ever going to get there.

And that's where it becomes interesting with Williams.

Is he prepared to make the sacrifices he will need to truly elevate his game?

That would require him making some financial decisions which, it has to be said, would be drastically out of character.

In other words, to come to New Zealand and really develop his rugby game, not to mention become eligible for the All Blacks, Williams would have to take a massive pay-cut.

The sort of hit that he's shown no indication thus far he would be prepared to suffer.

The reality is the New Zealand Rugby Union has neither the resources nor the inclination to break the bank to bring him home.

They may be prepared to throw a farm into the mix to lure Hayman back, but SBW would be lucky to merit a sub-division in the back of beyond.

In fact, their approach - which is as it should be - will go very much along the lines of if Sonny Bill wants to play rugby in New Zealand, then let's talk. But he's going to have to be prepared to sign on at the going rate.

Of course there are private concerns, and contributions from provinces and franchises that could sweeten the deal. But again, given as he's on a supposed $1.5 million-a-year deal at Toulon now, it's still going to be a far cry from what he's used to.

So, essentially it comes down to one major supposition: is Sonny Bill Williams prepared to make a serious sacrifice to chase his All Blacks "dream"?

The easy option will be to accept Toulon's offer of a renewed contract, and stay on in the south of France where he has a pretty good lifestyle and faces fairly reasonable expectations given what he's produced for the club thus far.

The tough one would be to take less money - far less - to come back to New Zealand where he would face intense scrutiny, hot competition and a fairly brutal examination of his rugby credentials. All in a sort of fishbowl environment where he would have little or no anonymity.

And even then the odds on him making the sort of progress he'd need to make the 2011 cut are somewhere between enormous and astronomical.

I hope I'm wrong and I hope the former Kiwis star does give New Zealand rugby a shot. Then we'd at least know how good he really is.

Expect a decision soon. But either way don't expect to see him in black at next year's World Cup.

- © Fairfax NZ News