WAISAKE NAHOLO

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Watching Waisake Naholo play, it is hard not to make comparisons with former All Black Sitiveni Sivivatu.

Naholo has that same effortless running style as his fellow Fijian and shares with Sitiveni that wonderful ability to pull o the almost unthinkable.

Naholo’s gift is that he can score tries that no one else can. In 2015 he was Super Rugby’s top try scorer and that was because he could finish from almost nothing. He could use his pace to ghost past opponents, his elusiveness to beat them and his power to blast over them. But he also has the most delicate skills, too.

He can chip and chase. He can pull high balls out of the air. He can dance down the touchline and somehow stay infield. He can do just about anything and that’s why the All Blacks were desperate to have him at the 2015 World Cup.

He hadn’t fully recovered from a broken leg, but they picked him anyway because they felt he was worth the risk. If he recovered and came good, they fancied he’d be electric and capable of doing things no other wing at the tournament could do.

He never really gained full match fitness, though, and wasn’t able to give of his best. The same was true last year when he missed much of Super Rugby with another broken leg and the Rugby Championship with a damaged hamstring.

What the All Blacks like about him, as well as his pace and power, is his mental strength. He had a di cult first half against Wales last year, only to explode into life in the second.

“We talked out on the field, and he said – well, I won’t say what he said, you can’t write it – about his first half,” Hansen revealed after that game. “I made the comment, ‘son, the pleasing thing is you came through the other side of that’. That takes a lot of e ort – mental e ort, particularly. We know he’s really talented. He hurt them even in the first half, he scored a lovely try.

“When you try too hard sometimes, you make mistakes and I think he’s been desperate to show us all just how good he is as a player. The more time he spends in the jersey, the more we’ll see he’s a real quality player.”

STRIKE RATE Naholo hasn’t had a decent run in the jersey to be judged quite yet. He’s been in and out of the team due to injury and the form of others.

That he has scored six tries in 12 tests alludes to some of his potential as a finisher, but if he were to play a full season without injury, it’s probable he’d up his strike rate considerably.

‘The more time he spends in the jersey, the more we’ll see he’s a real quality player.’ STEVE HANSEN