World Cup the making of Sonny

Glenn - Sonny is exceptionally talented at creating space for those around him. He possesses a very good football brain and will generally target those he perceives as the weak link in a defensive line. One player I have overlooked is Thurston, who quite often is used as a speedhump. Lets see if Sheens has a strategy in place to keep Inglis on Sonny's case as he ventures wide to target our 5/8.

GI was a passenger in round 26 and the finals series ??? : )

True, but we have GI, who I think is better player than both, but a bung knee meant he really was a passenger . We lost the premiership not because we did not have an SBW , we do . If the shoe had been on the other foot and SBW was playing busted and GI was fit and firing. It think we would beaten Manly or would beaten the roosters if Sonny was not fully fit. But as they say if, but, candy and puff.

No doubt he is probably the greatest ever rugby league player and yet he wasn't anything special in rugby union. He couldn't even make the All Black run on team. Says it all really.

Johnno Yes, beyond any doubt. Ellery Hanley is the only one who comes close. Simply put, the great players you just mentioned could not do what he does and I am sure they would tell you that.

Fifita!!

Rabs has been hammering it on his triple m radio shows. For about 6wks any chance he gets

Glen- I agree,it is a team game.Roosters beat the Sharks 40-0 without SBW....

Dean - This is the game that will tell us if SBW is Wally Lewis vintage or just another very good player - can he drag an inferior Kiwi team to a World Cup as Lewis did so often for QLD in origin or is he just a very good club player who has benifited from being in strong well coached teams. I am inclined to dissagree with you but your position is not indefensible - I will be watching him on Saturday night with great interest - as he can't play origin for obvious reasons this is his big exams.

Muzz - I t was never any different - remember the 73 Grand Final - a brutal game but the premeirship came down to Bob Fulton running around the Cronulla defense twice like that kid you see in the Under Eights who gets the ball runs around the whole opposing team then straightens up and scores. Bob was still doing it in Sydney A Grade Grand Finals that is the the difference champion players can make with the one qualification that the rest of the team need to be fairly evenly matched.I mean if SBW was playing for France he wouldn't be able to drag them into a world cup final you need to be in a fair team.

Cameron Smith has been the best forward in Rugby League for near on 10 years. Nothing has changed. I wouldn't swap him for any other player on the face of the earth if he was leading my team. SBW was knocked from his perch several times in 2013. The most showing in recent times was at the hands of a well oiled Sharks pack in round 24. He busted his gut trying - however there were no weak links that day. Roll forward a few months and you will find history repeating itself. The Australian team are defensive weapons (inclusive of the bench). There are no weak links for Sonny to exploit. He will be kept very quiet. Sayonara Kiwis. Australia by 20.

I know I sung the praises of Sam Burgess the other niight on another thread but SBW has more strings to his bow.Indeed I remember on a pre World Cup thread discussing the Kiwis chances I commented on the fact that Lewis was playing in the backrow in Brisbane club football the Queensland selectors took a punt and picked him at five eighth for Queensland and the rest is history. I mentioned in that thread if I was Kearney I would play SBW at five eighth - I noted that the Kiwis had no shortage of powerful back rowers but to win the thimg they need their best player in what Scott calls a spine position.Kearney has not been brave enough to go down that path but I would have.

At least you would know Sam would stay with you.

I haven't seen it. Are Ch 9 debasing the RLWC?

I might add SBW is the best player I have seen since Lewis - lots of NSW people will disagree and Scott Woodward will no doubt chuck up some stats (although I doubt he had a database with twenty five variables on every player back when Lewis was playing - unless he was leasing an IBM mainframe and an airconditioned warehouse to put it in) Warren Ryan when David Morrow asked him who the best player he had ever seen was replied "State of Origin has been the pinnacle of the game in the modern era and Lewis was the difference between the two states for the best part of a decade - that is one hell of a player".Ryan has a fair cv so I am prepared to run with him.

Simoc - The same applied with the great Wally Lewis - he drifted in and out of games but when Queensland badly needed a try he usually produced - great players seem to have a sense of timing as to when their team really need them.

This is not a good argument. You need both types of players. If you watched soccer, Maradona from Argentina rarely got involved for more than ten minutes per game, mostly less. Also Rossi from Italy. But they often had big impact on the final scoreline, and that is what the fans mostly remember.

I see what you mean now. I'm assuming that you also consider SBW a real warrior and effort player as well. If not that's cool but we'll differ on that point. It's ironic that SBW efforts in that Semi Final match were overshadowed by SB (who deservedly won the MOM). In the Rnd 26 game SB had a whale of a game but all the spotlight went on SBW. In the last set of six before NZ got the penalty that set up Johnson's try SBW took the ball up twice. The Kiwi forwards were out on their feet buggered and looking around at who would hit the ball up. SBW took charge and hit it up twice which pretty much summed up his game. JWH was very disappointing that game and it was left up to SBW and Bromwich to be the main metre eaters. You correctly point out that SBW's role isn't really to do the donkey work, which is what Burgess, Fifita & Gallen are so good at. Put it this way. I think SB put the England team in such a great position to win with his efforts and without SBW's effort the Kiwi's would have lost convincingly..

Rod, Balance alone doesn't win premierships in the modern game,you need those special players that when the stakes are high will step up and earn their big $$$....Don't get me wrong i think Sam is a good player with the potential to become one of the games great forwards....Many will say Sam's discipline is all thats missing but in big games Roosters V Bunnies Round 26 for the minor premiership and Bunnies V Sea Eagles Preliminary final Sam after starting well and laying a solid platform went MIA in the second half....In those BIG games you can see SBW buzzing out on the edge waiting for the right opportunity to inject himself into the game.

Don't let your Bunny bias forget about the efforts of James Graham who also had a huge game taking on the Kiwi forward pack..