Top six players on a mission to push case for World Cup berth

World Cup year always ramps up the pressure on New Zealand’s top rugby players, and the way the All Blacks staggered home in 2018 suggests that intensity could rise even higher over the next six months or so.

With Steve Hansen able to pick just 31 players for the tilt at a historic hat-trick of global titles, the Super Rugby season will be his guiding light. He needs his big guns firing, and backup options established.

Given that they could easily have lost four of their last six meaningful tests for 2018, Hansen has a bit to think about.

Does his group need a personnel refresh? Or a tactical one? To stay inert would be irresponsible, and Hansen is too good an operator to fall into that trap.

Injuries, too, will almost certainly play a part. Plans A, B, C and D will all have to be pencilled in.

On top of that there’s a competition to win. The Crusaders would love to do the threepeat. The Hurricanes want what they have. The Blues have all sorts to prove. There are new head coaches in Auckland and Wellington and a raft of departing stars desperate to finish on a high note.

So, here is the top six New Zealand players with the most to prove in Super Rugby this year:

Sonny Bill Williams (Blues)

A faded, injury-prone star now well past his best? Or a dynamic, experienced operator with the X-factor to decide a World Cup knockout match? The jury is out on that one after a disappointing 2018 campaign from the All Blacks midfielder.

SBW has the chance to be part of a select group to feature in three straight World Cup triumphs, but first he is going to have to show he can stay on the park and still change games with the Blues.

For a long time the offloading one has been an automatic All Blacks selection. But now he assuredly comes under pressure from the rising force that is Ngani Laumape, and maybe even his Blues team-mate, and comeback kid, Ma’a Nonu.

This might be Williams’ most important Super Rugby campaign. And he knows it.

Liam Squire (Highlanders)

The big bruiser is coming off a decidedly ordinary season undone by injury and loss of momentum. At his best an intrinsic part of the All Blacks loose trio, he needs to re-establish his power game with his franchise to tick off a spot in Japan.

Squire has packed on 4kg of muscle to help him handle the attrition of the game he plays, and may need it even to earn time with the Highlanders, with Shannon Frizell, Luke Whitelock, Elliot Dixon and Jackson Hemopo all lurking in that utility forward category.

Loose forward spots for Japan could be at a premium in a tight squad. Squire is on notice. Asafo Aumua (Hurricanes) One day the talented young hooker might look back on 2018 and wonder if it even existed. As far as his career went, it was certainly a forgettable season as injury, form and other issues saw the dynamic ball-player take a major step backwards.

Aumua was considered a precocious young talent of the highest order when he was given an end-of-year All Blacks tour in 2017 on the back of a sensational provincial campaign with Wellington.

But from there it has been tough going. He made just four appearances for the Hurricanes in 2018 and was not the same force for the Lions in his sophomore campaign.

Now with Danes Coles back, and the capable Ricky Riccitelli also in the Canes squad, he is going to have to battle for every chance he gets in Super Rugby.

But, at 21, he still has time on his side. What he needs now are opportunities to shine again.

Akira Ioane (Blues)

Maybe the most enigmatic figure in New Zealand rugby, Ioane is certainly one of the most frustrating from a national selection view.

The older of the Blues’ Ioane brothers has a ton of talent which he has shown repeatedly for Auckland and not quite so consistently for his franchise.

The power-packed No 8 with the nose for the tryline has been challenged repeatedly to lift workrate, consistency, core tasks and defensive fortitude by the All Blacks selectors. But so far they haven’t seen enough to give him more than a peripheral taste.

The hope is that Ioane figures things out and marries that undoubted talent and physicality with an understanding for what is required. His Blues will be the better for it, and so could he with a Kieran Read-sized hole soon to fill in the All Blacks.

Vaea Fifita (Hurricanes) Remember the athletic phenomenon who scored that sensational try for the All Blacks against Argentina in New Plymouth? Or the long-striding loosie who once hurdled a defender down the provincial touchline?

Yup, that was Fifita. He is big, strong and fast, can cover second row and the loose, and at his best can change games in a flash.

But he’s been in and out of the All Blacks over the last two years, ticking off nine test appearances, but not quite becoming the presence his moments of brilliance hinted at. Hansen wants consistency. The Canes would certainly be the better for it as well.

Aaron Smith (Highlanders)

The little Highlanders halfback makes it on to this list not by virtue of any dramatic decline, but because his franchise and country could both sorely do with him refinding his best stuff in 2019.

No-one clears the ball as crisply and efficiently as this chirpy No 9, and on song he can make things hum with his speed around the park and bullet passes.

But he has slipped a little lately, is now being challenged by TJ Perenara in the All Blacks, and possibly needs to broaden his game beyond his distribution skills. A little run here and there might help.

With Lima Sopoaga gone, his decisionmaking is going to be vital at the Highlanders; and Hansen would dearly love him back at his best.