My World Cup XV - Second five

In which the blogger picks the team he wants to represent the All Blacks when they choke compete in the Rugby World Cup in September-October.

12 - Sonny Bill Williams

I'm what you call a casual rugby league fan.

I count the Penrith Panthers (for 20 years now) and Queensland as my teams, and I like to see the Kiwis beat those evil Kangaroos as much as anyone.

But I don't watch much NRL every week and I don't have a great depth of knowledge about the game other than the basics: you get six tackles, you don't push in scrums, Darren Lockyer is a god, Wayne Bennett is a super coach, the Storm rorted the cap etc.

So when a young New Zealander called Sonny Bill Williams emerged with the Bulldogs a few years ago, it took me a while to realise he was something special.

My enlightenment came one Saturday night when I happened to catch a few minutes of the Doggies playing . . . I want to say Canberra, but it might have been somebody else.

Holy shit. This tall, ripped figure was totally dominant. He was putting in massive hits on defence, ranging with the ball in hand, and making offload after offload. Sonny was obviously very special indeed.

Fast forward and what an extraordinary few years it's been for the man christened Sonny William Williams.

He controversially walked out on the Bulldogs, switched to rugby for a French club, got into boxing, became best friends with Anthony Mundine and converted to Islam.

Then, most shockingly, he decided his dream was to become an All Black. He moved to New Zealand, played for Canterbury and was immediately called up by Graham Henry for the end-of-year tour.

I tried to keep an open mind about SBW when he came home but I wondered if his murky track record and his style would make him an ideal fit with the All Blacks and the Crusaders, both of whom try to maintain the highest standards.

Shows what the fuck I know. He's still fluffing around with boxing, in which he has no future. But he's just dynamite on the rugby field, the most exciting thing we've got.

Too many fancy offloads? Oh please. Offload on, Sonny boy, offload on.

He's clearly in a head-to-head contest with incumbent Ma'a Nonu for the World Cup No 12 jersey. Nonu still has plenty to offer, despite his crap form with the Hurricanes, but it's SBW for me.