Why SBW is in the form of his rugby life
Sonny Bill Williams’ offloading game has seemingly dried up. Those telescopic arms have rarely been freed this season to pop the miracle passes on which he has built his name.
He has managed to grab the headlines though, not for his creative distribution, but for two costly cards: red against the British and Irish Lions and yellow against France. Both had a significant consequence and both were the result of ingrained habits from league.
And the curious thing is that he’s never played better than he has in the past eight weeks and never has he looked more at home in international rugby.
Not everyone will agree. There’s never consensus when it comes to Williams. His history gets in the way of clear judgment but he’s advanced this year as a straight running, hard tackling second-five, there will be plenty who will only recall the reckless high tackle on Anthony Watson and a poorly researched decision to palm the ball into touch in Paris as his defining contribution to the All Blacks’ cause.
A fairer assessment would be to say Williams has come of age this year. He has played — two wild moments aside — with a new found maturity and selflessness.
He has been considered with his offloading, maybe overly so, but the coaches would rather he’s governed by conservatism than adventure.
There were a few instances in Paris when he brought his ball-carrying arm up over the tackler, looked to see if he could flip it to someone and then thought better of it.
He held on, increased his leg drive and made good yards with a quick recycle. Ma’a Nonu made his career on the back of doing just that — praised to the heavens for smashing his way over the gainline and getting the All Blacks on the front foot.
That’s what Williams has been doing all year and particularly well in the past two tests. He was man of the match in Brisbane for the way he brought a ferocious muscularity to his chores and managed the odd creative pass here and there.
It was a bruising, physical effort from Williams that was precisely what he was asked to do by the coaches. He did much the same in Paris — ran hard off Beauden Barrett’s shoulder and forced the French to commit defenders to him.
The offloads didn’t come but momentum did; space was opened for others and essentially that’s all that mattered. Then there was his grubber kick which led to Ryan Crotty’s try; an act of supreme skill — a sign of his confidence and composure. If he hadn’t slapped the ball into touch 20 minutes later, that kick would have been the defining moment of an impressive test. His defence has been world class all year. He’s hammered everything that has come near him; belted people off their feet, knocked the wind out of them and allowed the All Blacks to compete on favourable terms in the middle of the field.
Williams hasn’t played quite how everyone expected and when a player builds a reputation for being terrific at one thing and then no longer does it so much, they are often harshly judged.
But Williams has modified his game to suit the team and that’s why he’s never looked more at home at this level. The irony is, that league-related brain fade aside, for the first time in his rugby career he has a true knowledge of his position.