Rugby: Time for unlucky Waisake Naholo to fire for All Blacks

Waisake Naholo. Photo / Photosport

By Gregor Paul in Brisbane

There's a whiff of unfulfilled promise lingering around Waisake Naholo. In the lead up to the last World Cup he was threatening to re-write what was possible on the wing; playing with such genius and so totally lacking inhibition that it seemed inevitable he would take command of one of the wing berths in the national side.

But two years on and Naholo has only amassed 14 test caps and no one is exactly sure where he sits in the pecking order when everyone is fit.

Injury has been his nemesis - the single, dominating reason why he's been in and out of the All Blacks these last two years and why it feels a little like the optimism that brewed in 2015 about what he might be able to achieve was perhaps misplaced.

Naholo has simply had no luck. Actually that is not true, he's had plenty of bad luck - breaking his leg for a second time in early 2016, ripping his hamstring and suffering concussions.

He hasn't been able to string a run of games together and if ever there was a player who needed regular football to get the best out of himself it is Naholo.

If fate has any kind of heart then it will be kind to Naholo in the next five weeks and allow him to stay in one piece and deliver on that promise he showed in 2015 and not leave everyone wondering whether they were mad to be so excited by him.

With no Ben Smith, Israel Dagg or Nehe Milner-Skudder in the frame, the path looks relatively clear for Naholo to hold on to the No 14 jersey he will wear in Brisbane and keep it for the three tests in Europe.

He has a chance to make up for lost time and prove that he is an extraordinary talent. Rieko Ioane on the other wing may be quicker, but Naholo can match him as a finisher, albeit with slightly different weaponry.

Naholo has an uncanny ability to seemingly amble past defenders. He shakes his hips, looks about him and that's all it seems to take for him to be gliding past flailing tacklers who have virtually no idea why they are grasping at thin air and not feeling the solidity of human flesh.

In that respect, Naholo isn't so dissimilar to his fellow Fijian Rupeni Caucaunibuca who was quite miraculously deceptive.

He also possesses a similar physicality to Rupeni. Get the timing wrong, or come in to high and defenders are easily brushed by Naholo, who can sustain his speed and running line even after he's been clipped.

That combination of speed, power and innate rugby intelligence of where the space is, allows Naholo to be every bit as an effective finisher as the best in world rugby.

What he needs to do over the next few weeks is produce the statistics to prove that. And by statistics read...score tries.

That's ultimately what he's been picked to do in Brisbane - get his hands on the ball and inject himself into the contest.

That's what everyone wants to see from him - a hunger to be involved, an urgency to take on the Wallabies defence and see what happens.

Naholo makes rugby fun to watch. He makes it a genuinely exhilarating prospect because almost anything can happen when he has the ball.

It's time to be reminded of that and for him to make 2015 seem like the beginning of his test odyssey and not a random year that created only false hope.

All Blacks team:

Kane Hames, Dane Coles, Nepo Laulala, Sam Whitelock, Scott Barrett, Liam Squire, Sam Cane, Kieran Read (c), Aaron Smith, Lima Sopoaga, Rieko Ioane, Sonny Bill Williams, Ryan Crotty, Waisake Naholo, Damian McKenzie

Reserves: Codie Taylor, Wyatt Crockett, Ofa Tu'ungafasi, Patrick Tuipulotu, Matt Todd, TJ Perenara, Anton Lienert-Brown, David Havili