If you were impressed with Sonny Bill Williams first 60-minute outing, expect his talents to be more prominent when he starts in the No.12 red and black jersey this week.
One solid performance does not necessarily show an All Black make, but Williams did enough in his Canterbury debut to suggest that he has what it takes to live his dream of becoming an All Black. Many believe he is already a certainty for the end-of-year-tour.
He is almost certain to have his first start for Canterbury against Northland in their seventh round ITM Cup clash in Whangarei on Saturday afternoon, with incumbent second five-eighths Ryan Crotty suffering a foot injury in his team's 28-9 win over Bay of Plenty last Friday.
Williams was called upon much earlier than expected last week, as Crotty's injury meant a call-up from the bench.
Nation-wide interest has centred on the former rugby league superstar ever since he left Toulon and signed with Canterbury and the Crusaders, but his much anticipated debut for the Red-and-Blacks had been on ice after minor knee surgery pre-season, then a tight hamstring suffered in his first club appearance for Belfast, and an unapproved ski trip was also frowned upon.
The appearance of SBW brought a roar of approval from the crowd of 11,000, and Williams acquitted himself with distinction. He never took the defence head on, or tried to do too much, but threw several deep cut-out passes to put his outside backs in space, placed a pin-point grubber kick behind the rushing defence, and made a fine try-saving covering tackle on wing Lelia Masaga.
Head coach Rob Penney was impressed. "I think we all agree that he's a pretty useful addition to New Zealand rugby and if that's a good benchmark to start with then he'll go on really well from here."
Williams said he expected a second-half summons so the early call surprised him initially.
"It took me a while to find my feet out there but after a while I felt confident and started shot calling, telling the boys where to be – I felt like I'd grown into that role a lot easier than expected."
Williams, who had his leg in an ice towel after the game, said the tight hamstring still prevented him from running at full pace.
"It's all right, but I still can't get up to top speed. It's a bit tight but I'd rather be out there than not – it's getting better week by week. I really enjoyed it when we strung some phases together because that's why I came back here to test myself. Hopefully it's a taste of things to come and we can improve on our performance because we definitely need to."
Williams said he noticed the defence rushing up on him when he first received the ball so he relayed that information to Stephen Brett inside him. After that, he was content to act as a decoy runner or quickly get the ball wide.
Commenting on his try-saving tackle on Masaga, Williams said that he thought he had forced him into touch before the ball was put-down although the call went to the TMO.
"I thought it looked all right, but when it goes upstairs you never know – it [decision] was probably a bit better than in the NRL," he laughed.