Editorial: A shake is all it takes

So Sonny Bill Williams is off to Japan because of a handshake deal.

Curious that he honours such casual contractual obligations, but had no qualms about breaking the contract he had with the Canterbury Bulldogs league side before heading to France to play rugby.

Williams is New Zealand's first professional rugby player who actually understands the value - and limited investment term - of his main commodity, his body.

It won't last forever - Williams is simply accumulating the maximum amount of money he can before his body devalues.

His CV now reads "All Black - 2011 World Cup winner", his price has been ramped up considerably and he's off.

Williams was ponderously slow for an All Black back, with a game built around extraordinary strength and the ability to offload. Like most other league forwards.

The adoration and fervour for SBW is nothing new, of course. Northlanders had their own SBW back in the 1960s and 70s. SMG, his name was. Sidney Milton Going. We didn't love him for his ability to box, or his slicked back hair-do.

We admired him for his freakish ability as a rugby player and his commitment to whatever team he had been selected for at the time.

Mid Northern, North Auckland, NZ Maori, North Island, All Blacks - he displayed his skills with the same level of commitment regardless.

He was paid nothing, bar a pitiful allowance on overseas tours, and had to leave the farm in the care of his family while overseas. He got to keep his jersey, mind you. And for most All Blacks pre professional era, that was enough.

No matter which way you look at it, the All Blacks are a notch on Sonny Bill Williams' belt.

In departing, he has expressed a desire to come back to the "boys" at the Chiefs in the Waikato. Reckons he'll even play for free. Let's hope for the Chiefs' sake, that he shook on it before he left.