KEY POINTS:
Disloyal, impetuous, immature, selfish, self-centred, mercenary - Sonny Bill Williams may appear to be all these things. But who cares? Get him in a black shirt and rejoice.
Never has a greater talent looked so wasted as Williams playing in the NRL. Rugby is absolutely the right code for this guy. The NRL is for bashers, perennial plodders who satisfy the crowd's blood lust. Players don't have to be good so much as resilient.
The whole 26-weeks-solid thing is worn like a badge of honour. League remains a sport stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to attitude - they cling to their machismo, bragging of injuries they played through.
If Williams had stayed in that world, he'd have been a broken man at 25. At 23 he's already suffered a broken arm and a serious knee injury as well as a litany of minor niggles.
In the NRL he's a piece of meat. In rugby he'll be treasured, his welfare taken seriously and the space he needs to prepare will be granted.
Rugby will get the best out of Williams, not just because as a code it is light years ahead in understanding elite performance, but also because Williams' skills are better suited to the 15-man game.
Williams will need to learn how to tackle with his arms. He'll need to learn the nuances of rugby and, preferably, he'll need to develop a longer kicking game to compliment the short range kicking game all league players seem to possess.
And when - it isn't a case of if - he does all that, he'll have the opportunity to become one of the great All Black centres.
That's his goal. "You know, I'm with an icon, Tana Umaga, who I really think I can learn a lot from, and I want to play for the All Blacks one day, so that keeps me motivated.
"One day I want to be the best centre, because that's the position I want to play. I want to be the best centre in the world."
Having Umaga as his mentor is a smart move. There was no better defensive operator than Umaga. He wasn't too shabby in attack either and could swap between jerseys 12 and 13 - something which Williams should think about emulating longer-term.
At 1.91m and 105kg Williams has the perfect physique to fill the number 13 shirt. His ability to off-load out of the tackle will be deadly at centre where he will have support runners on either side.
He could be just as effective at second-five where his defensive power closer to the scrum could rattle the bones of a few loose forwards.
His union debut for Toulon yesterday morning was inauspicious aside from the shoulder charge that saw him yellow-carded. All he needs is time, though, and by 2011 Williams could be running off Dan Carter's shoulder, giving the All Blacks an irresistible potency.
Williams doesn't need to be Mother Teresa. He doesn't need to be a man of honour and integrity. He just needs to be out on the field, using that incredible range of skills he has.
