KEY POINTS:
Chiefs Coach Ian Foster says Sione Lauaki must be picked for the All Blacks - what's the bet Richie McCaw doesn't argue?
The Crusaders and All Blacks skipper had tried reasoning with the built-like-brick-outhouse No 8 on Friday night, but found himself in the unaccustomed position of being
sprawled out on the Jade Stadium turf he normally occupies so gracefully.
In a Chiefs performance that was full of star turns - Liam Messam, Tane Tu'ipulotu and Dwayne Sweeney to name a few - Lauaki took the lead.
From minute one to 80 he bounced Crusaders over the park and it's something Foster thinks should be employed at a higher level.
"If we look at the performance of Sione, I think he showed it against the Sharks a few weeks ago and he showed it again against the Crusaders, he is just awesome at the collision area," Foster told the Herald on Sunday. "Not only that - his work at the back of the scrum is becoming really solid, his defence is solid and to me he is in a class of his own when he is in that sort of form and his fitness and injuries are right."
In a not-so-subtle message to Graham Henry and co, he added: "It's form that can't be ignored."
Henry is due to name his 30-man squad for the tests against France on May 20. In many ways it is the year's pivotal squad with indications he will keep it as close as possible to the 30 for the World Cup. The make-up of the loose forwards is the most intriguing of the selection dilemmas.
You can pencil in reconditioners Rodney So'oialo, Jerry Collins, McCaw and Chris Masoe, leaving three spots open for the likes of Reuben Thorne, Mose Tuiali'i, Lauaki, Messam, Marty Holah and Troy Flavell if he is considered a tight-loose forward rather than an out-and-out lock.
"He [Lauaki] is very hard to look past," Foster reiterated, "if you look at the number of times he gets involved in a game and his influence on games."
It was no coincidence Lauaki's injury (he missed the first four weeks with a broken wrist) coincided with the Chiefs' slow start. "His influence since he's been back has been huge with his physical presence and the skill-set that goes with it," Foster said.
On Friday he demonstrated the touch of a first-five with a delicately weighted chip that sent Sitiveni Sivivatu in for his second try (asked if he could see himself in a No 10 jersey Lauaki came out with the nice line that "people say I spend all my time hanging out in the backs anyway").
But it would be wrong to put him in the all-kicking, all-passing, all-action Zinzan Brooke mould just yet. The essence of Lauaki's game is strength, brute strength. Ask McCaw and the rest of his Crusaders cohorts who were on the retreat to nearly every breakdown at Jade Stadium.
Yet Lauaki is not without critics. Taking his off-field travails out of the equation, Lauaki has previously been painted as a player who can cough up possession a little too easily and it takes him more games than most before his wheels start spinning smoothly.
"I guess people can look for little holes in his game like any player," Foster said, "but his influence is undeniable. Yes, it does take him a little while to come back from an injury but that's the same with every player and we've seen that with the conditioning window players.
"I don't think you can tag that especially to Sione. Maybe it's a comment from the past but I don't think it applies now."
