Rugby: SBW v Nonu: Making the toughest call

Sonny Bill Williams' string of injuries means Ma'a Nonu is beginning to look the stronger of the two rivals. Photo / Getty Images

Ma'a Nonu might stick his hand up in class at the wrong time, wear hoodies and come to the attention of match officials too readily, but he has one important thing going for him as opposed to his rival for the All Blacks No 12 jersey - he's robust.

The All Black selectors must be looking on with increasing concern as Sonny Bill Williams' first Super rugby campaign limps to a conclusion.

Williams' unparalleled skill set makes him an ideal World Cup wildcard, but the last half of his season with the Crusaders has been blighted by a mix of minor knocks and scrapes.

Against the Blues in Timaru he took a blow on his hip that saw him invalided out of the match before halftime. The initial prognosis says the damage is minor and he should be available for selection against the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday.

Against the Reds in round 15, Williams was bloodbinned with a cut hand that seemed to disturb him enough to play his poorest match in a Crusaders jersey.

A knee injury kept him out of the 25-19 win against the Chiefs in Napier, the same injury that forced him from the field at halftime of their 20-33 loss to the Cheetahs.

In fact, the last time Williams made it through a match unscathed was May 8 in the test-match intensity of the Stormers clash at Cape Town.

It is pointless laying blame for injuries: some people are just more prone to picking up knocks than others and, as in the case of Williams and Richard Kahui, it can be the fittest, most assiduous trainers who suffer most.

Some people can fall off a wall and walk away laughing; others break their leg.

Having said that, it will be a minor tragedy if rugby fans are again denied the opportunity to see a Nonu-Williams match-up in Wellington.

It's not an All Black trial as such because both, if fit, will surely be in Graham Henry's Tri-Nations squad. This is more like a pistols-at-dawn chance for one to assert primacy over the other.

Their scheduled head-to-head, round-two clash was eagerly awaited until Ma'a Nonu was suspended, though the match was never played because of the February 22 earthquake in Canterbury.

Since that day, controversy has stuck to Nonu like mud to a blanket.

Ironic then, as the season reaches it final scenes, that he is beginning to look stronger by half than the man tipped to usurp him.