All Blacks: Messam around with No 8

There is a bit of Zinzan Brooke about Liam Messam's play. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Talent? Ability? Potential? It has got to be a raucous affirmative to all three questions about Liam Messam.

Then come the subsidiary inquiries. Is this test series against France and Italy the best time to test his skills, is he most suited to No8 in the loosies, and what makes him any more likely to succeed than Xavier Rush, Mose Tuiali'i, Rodney So'oialo, Steven Bates, Sione Lauaki, Chris Masoe, Jerry Collins and Jerome Kaino, who have all worn that jersey during Graham Henry's tenure?

All of them were fair players but most it seemed were suited more to blindside flanker. Out of that group Lauaki had the most grunt but lacked consistency, Collins had the clout but not the finesse, Kaino the skills but not quite the vision, So'oialo the best compromise package.

So'oialo, so we have been told again this week by All Black coach Graham Henry, will return for the Tri-Nations once he has overcome his persistent neck problems. He has logged more than 50 tests for the All Blacks, he has become far more consistent, he has played a fair chunk of them at No8 and has one of the biggest engines in the team.

But you feel So'oialo is more Mike Brewer or Taine Randell in the boot of the scrum, than Wayne Shelford or Zinzan Brooke?

Where will Messam rate? Will he flash across our senses like Ron Cribb or Scott Robertson and then be gone. Will he be turfed aside if or when So'oialo recovers from his damage?

It took Brooke years to emerge from Shelford's shadow and then more time before he made the play Zinny-style, when he commanded that pivotal area at the base of the scrum, led his teammates and coerced them into excellence.

There is a bit of Brooke about Messam's play. He has the size (1.9m and 108kg) to fill the role, he has the pace and skills which would not disgrace some backlines and that confidence needed to succeed. Around those qualities, Messam needs to show the balance between the graft and the flashy moments and that will only come with experience.

Brooke was 27 before he started to produce his class at test level while Messam is just 24 and has just the one test appearance last year against Scotland where he teamed up with tomorrow's loose forward cohorts Adam Thomson and Kieran Read.

Messam's kilometres on the clock have been in provincial and Super rugby where his tally ticked over to 50 in this year's final against the Bulls. And the bulk of that tally has been at blindside flanker.

Now he is shifted to No8 while Thomson moves from his Highlanders blindside role to openside flanker and Isaia Toeava fits in where there is a vacancy, this week at centre.

It is those shifts in thinking and position which provide the doubts. Players who swap roles are generally, not as effective as those who swap one jersey for another on their way up the rugby chain.

"I have just been concentrating on my scrumwork rather than too much else," Messam said. "I have been focusing hard with Mike Cron [scrum coach] on that area.

"I played No8 a couple of years ago for Waikato and it is just getting back to doing what I did then."

The messages from the coaches had been about concentrating on the basics and then, if things were going well, to broaden the repertoire.

"I am not going to go out there and go into my shell, I am certainly going to go out there and express myself and be me. I guess just the 50-50s I used to throw I will hold back on those.

"That is something I have really worked on in the last few seasons, my error rate and just trying to cut those down. I have been working hard on that since the start of the Super 14."