Sonny Bill Williams: The All Blacks' not-so secret weapon

Sonny Bill Williams had a standout game off the bench. Photo / Brett Phibbs

One of the many things that Sonny Bill Williams showed at Wembley Stadium this morning is that he needs to be included in the squad for the quarter-final in Cardiff on the weekend of October 17-18, which, after the All Blacks saw off an inspired Argentina, they almost certainly will be.

The question is, health and fitness permitting, whether the midfielder starts or comes off the reserves bench, because it wasn't as if Ma'a Nonu was poor in the No12 jersey - far from it. It was just that Williams added an energy and inventiveness that was missing before his 45th-minute arrival.

Either way, Steve Hansen has options, and when one of those is a 1.91m and 108kg block of sinew and muscle with an eye for an offload, that has to be good.

Whereas his teammates were either a bit lateral or reluctant to engage the blue-and-white wall, Williams was directness itself. He also used his undoubted rugby brain - his strength and ability to almost power through the defence and provide the offload which Nehe Milner-Skudder made a mess of was a stunning piece of athleticism, and his kick to the corner when nothing else was on an indication of just how far this former NRL player has come.

"Sonny just brought that real directness to what we're doing and he probably had his first decent kick for the All Blacks which he's very proud about," backs coach Ian Foster said.

"He'll be pleased and the key is our bench need to learn what they need to do by watching and he was able to do that."

Williams, 30, is in the squad because he is able to do things other players can't and his stock is on the rise. Defence will rule attack in the knockout stages of this tournament and in Williams, who admitted to coming on earlier than expected, the All Blacks have a not-so secret weapon.

"I just went as hard as I could and I just tried to do my job as best as I could," he said.

As for the cultured kick, he said: "I've been working on it since coming into the squad and it was just good to pull one off. I looked around and no one wanted to run it because that last five or 10 minutes was pretty hectic. I just tried to put it into the corner and thank God it came off."

Williams felt for Milner-Skudder, a 24-year-old playing in his third test and a man who happens to be his roommate this week.

After telling the assembled media of his eagerness to rib the little Hurricanes player about his haircut, Williams said: "A few times we could have got across the line but it was just that last pass or last effort [that failed]. But overall I thought Nehe played outstandingly tonight - he was a credit to himself and his family how well he has gone in the All Black jersey. It was a tough day at the office for us but we'll take that win and move on.

"We're just a work in progress. As we saw last night with Japan and South Africa, the gap between the lower tier teams and I guess the higher ranked teams is not as big any more."

Japan's stunning 34-32 defeat of South Africa in Brighton has clearly struck a chord with Williams, who plays with captain Michael Leitch at the Chiefs and who had a stint at Japan's Panasonic club. He tweeted his pleasure at the performance of the Brave Blossoms on the final whistle and said after his own team avoided another upset: "I thought Leitchy stood up. He was amazing. He stood up to the big South African forwards and he's been doing that all year at the Chiefs ... it was no surprise how Japan went. It was a great achievement and awesome for rugby as a whole to show that anything is possible now. It is really a World Cup."