Rugby: Monster midfielders are the way of the future

There's a real sense of anticipation over the Sonny Bill Williams - Robbie Fruean partnership. Photo / Getty Images

If the premise that a good big man will always beat a good little man rings as true in rugby as it does in boxing, then as long as they are good, the Crusaders midfield duo of Sonny Bill Williams and Robbie Fruean should beat all-comers.

That's 212kg of flesh and gristle wearing jerseys 12 and 13, a statistic that would not look out of place in Nos 6 and 8. With Williams at 1.91m and his buddy just a centimetre smaller, they could join a short lineout and not look out of place.

To cut a short story long, they're big - frighteningly big. Tonight, Tom Carter and Rob Horne are charged with trying to stop the potential juggernaut. Combined they give away a whopping 24kg and a less significant 6cm. Should the Crusaders be able to offer Williams (108kg) and Fruean (104kg) good front-foot ball, the laws of sports science suggest they ought to have little trouble both breaking the advantage line and getting their arms free for the sort of offloads that the former has made his piece de resistance. At the same time, it should be noted that the laws of sports science have never actually won anything - but it's nice to have theory on your side.

But can big be beautiful? In the wrong hands, no. When the All Blacks faced England in the opening test of their Grand Slam campaign last year, Martin Johnson selected a midfield combination of Shontayne Hape (1.91m and 104kg) and Mike Tindall (1.87m and 102kg) to counter the twin threat of Williams and Ma'a Nonu. Creativity was not high on their agenda, but apart from the first 15 minutes when Williams and wing Hosea Gear threatened to run rampant, the English pair played the stopper role effectively.

Whatever way you slice it up, the dynamic is changing, maybe for good.

The classic New Zealand position of second five-eighths, as opposed to inside centre, where your No12 plays like a second pivot to ease the pressure on the first five-eighths - think Aaron Mauger and Walter Little - is virtually extinct. "The game has changed radically," said rugby analyst Peter Thorburn, pointing to the breakdown as the area that now dictates games. "Cleaning out, recycling the ball, playing one-off the breakdown. Every player has to be able to do all those things now. The key is players making the right decision about their role at the next breakdown while they're on their way to it." It stands to reason that the bigger the body, the more effective they're going to be at the breakdown.

However, with all due respect to rugby's centrepiece, the mechanism that when working properly gives rugby the fluidity and continuity that can make it a great spectacle, the bulk of the crowd does not go to the ground to watch the breakdown.

They want to see the ball given width and for breaks to be made. Again, this is where big bodies in the midfield come in handy.

"When you have a bloke as powerful as Robbie outside you, he creates a lot of space for people," said Williams of his outside.

That space is created, Thorburn said, by manipulation.

"Guys like Williams and Nonu, they can get great mismatches, not just up against props and hookers, but against smaller backs as well," he said. "It's that old adage that a good big man ..." You know the rest.

For the near future, or until the IRB tinkers with the rules again, that means the smaller, kicking second five-eighths is a thing of the past.

"To me they're just a safety valve," Thorburn said. "The moment you kick away the ball, you have virtually no say in what happens until the other team makes a mistake."

That's the theory. The practical examination of the Williams-Fruean partnership's credentials at Super 15 begins tonight. It might be unfair to expect fireworks from go to whoa, but at the very least there is a sense of anticipation.

"He has that x-factor doesn't he?" coach todd Blackadder said of his highest-profile recruit. "It's great to have him on board and I know he's raring to go."

A big game fit for a big man.