All Blacks: Why Ma'a Nonu can't be stopped

Ma'a Nonu of the All Blacks makes a break during The Rugby Championship, Bledisloe Cup match between the All Blacks and the Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images.

The magic of Ma'a Nonu is that it doesn't matter how much opponents analyse him or know what he's going to do.

They still have to stop him and as the Wallabies were reminded, it doesn't matter that the defence is in place and knows what's coming. It doesn't make it any easier to put him down or stop him causing endless damage.

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His business is not trickery or subtlety - it's good old-fashioned direct running and there is no one in world rugby who does it better.

His power and agility at Eden Park was critical in the All Black transformation. The mantra of their build-up was be more direct, go-forward and in Nonu they had their champion.

And at the World Cup they will have their champion. His brand of football win World Cups.

Matt Toomua is one of the better defenders on the circuit and he couldn't - and he defended well - stop the irresistible force. That's the magic of Nonu: at 1.81m and 108kg, his centre of gravity is low and his balance is superb.

There's no easy place to 'get a shot' on him as a defender and it is a bit like having a small truck with good acceleration in the midfield. What sets him further apart is his ability to spin, fight to stay on his feet and seek out weak shoulders to exploit.

His second try was destructive rugby at it's best. Dan Carter held the defence, popped the pass for Nonu to come back on the cut and while the execution was neat, there was no way a try was on.

But Nonu came at such pace and because it was late in the game, the Wallaby defence actually looked like they'd had enough. No one, certainly not Nic White, had any appetite left to get in his way and it was victory Nonu.

He'd smashed the last vestige of hope out of the Wallabies and with it, he confirmed that if there was any doubt about the right make-up of the best All Black midfield, there is no longer.

It has to be Carter-Nonu and Conrad Smith - the old guard still very much have it. And yet, despite his heroics, Nonu wasn't satisfied.

"I missed a tackle in the second half and gave Snakey [Conrad Smith] a hospital pass when there was opportunity to put him through. So maybe I was a six...six, seven [out of 10]," he said.

"Last week we tried to go wide early. Australia have got a really good defence in terms of their umbrella. We tried to identify where we could get the ball to quickly but their linespeed was really fast so we wanted to be direct and carry strong. We had to go back to the basics and run hard."

No one harder than Nonu. No one was more direct and come the World Cup, those qualities are going to be even more important. There won't be any space.

Defensive lines will most likely live in offside positions and they will come up fast and determined. But in Nonu they will encounter a player who appears to have been built differently and a player who has the ability to find a way to go forward against anyone.