All Blacks: So'oialo needs to rediscover mojo

Rodney So'oialo. Photo / Getty Images

It was five years ago in Cardiff that Rodney So'oialo became an All Black.

He made his debut in 2002, curiously on the same ground, but it was on November 20, 2004 that So'oialo showed he was equipped for trench warfare.

It was in Cardiff, on a pitch stripped bare of grass, that So'oialo convinced this All Black coaching panel that he was the warrior they were after to work alongside the indisputable talents of Richie McCaw and Jerry Collins.

In his first two years of test football, So'oialo was an athlete with a big engine.

He was all over the place but sadly that was both literal and metaphorical.

A former sevens player and a former openside, So'oialo was a gazelle.

But when the big hunters came calling, he was easy prey.

No one could ever forget the way Lawrence Dallaglio, the world's best No 8 at the time, destroyed So'oialo in 2003. Dallaglio was the killer whale, tossing So'oialo, the seal pup, for fun.

Certainly Graham Henry, who was then technical adviser with the Blues, couldn't forget it. When he took over from John Mitchell, he promptly dropped So'oialo and told him why.

The Wellingtonian wasn't making his presence felt at the collision. He wasn't grafting, hammering bodies in the close contact stuff. So'oialo was packed off to the provincial championship in 2004 and asked to show he was more than an athlete.

He went some way towards proving his toughness, his appetite for destruction, in captaining Wellington to the final. But it was on the November tour where the panel were left in no doubt - So'oialo had the engine, desire and ability to be an All Black No 8.

Five years on and So'oialo needs to prove himself all over again. He has won 50 test caps since his breakthrough in 2004 and yet, here we are, not quite sure whether he's got what it takes to continue adding to that tally.

There are some who have never been convinced, even when So'oialo was part of the furniture. For a nation that considers the benchmark for No 8s to be one Zinzan Brooke, blokes like So'oialo are always going to leave a little taste of disappointment.

It hasn't helped that So'oialo has been the antithesis of Brooke. He's no bag of tricks and his place in the side has been secured on the less romantic offering of an enormous aerobic capacity.

It's also difficult, despite the obvious passion, commitment and soul that So'oialo has put in, to wonder whether he's been a little fortunate to have played at a time when New Zealand has been bereft of quality alternatives.

He turned 30 last month and history shows that New Zealand is not kind to those who enter their fourth decade.

It's viewed, maybe not consciously, as a landmark age; the point where a previously valued and secure selection suddenly has to deliver that little bit extra to prevent whispers of him having begun the descent.

In So'oialo's case, there were more than whispers earlier this year that he was a spent force. Sione Lauaki of all people managed to run past him twice in three weeks during the Super 14.

The old dog had been asked to front for close to 1000 minutes of rugby for the Hurricanes. That's 70 minutes each week for 14 weeks and it looked as if the biggest engine in the game had packed up.

The All Black selectors didn't want to believe it was for ever, so rested So'oialo for the Iveco tests and brought him back for the Tri Nations.

The explosive return never materialised and not many amateur experts had So'oialo in their end of year squad.

But he was named - the selectors reluctant to travel to hostile venues such as Twickenham and Marseilles without the presence of a man they know will empty his tank and launch himself into the fray.

What we don't know, what the selectors probably don't know either, is whether So'oialo is effectively contracting for this tour - fulfilling a specific job while the likes of Kieran Read and Adam Thomson edge that little bit further along and can be relied on to deliver in the way So'oialo has.

It's up to him now and only him. The coaches have told him that. The door is open but So'oialo, who is committed to stay until 2011, has to push it; he has to show he still has what it takes; is still the best option for the No 8 shirt.

Read is a young man making a compelling case to start each test at No 8. If So'oialo is to see off this challenge, do enough even to keep himself on the bench ahead of the likes of Liam Messam, then he needs to find a lost dimension.

There's surely a big part of every rugby fan that hopes he will. For all his limitations, So'oialo has been a good All Black.

That's not easy for the purists to accept but their dismay should sit with the modern game and its dopey rules rather than So'oialo. His is a skill set that works in a game obsessed with the collision.

To keep it working, he will have to give serious thought to taking the extended off-season his new contract allows. That would mean skipping some of the Super 14.

These conditioning windows or mini-sabbaticals or whatever they should be called, are not popular with the public. The players aren't so reluctant, however.

So'oialo has maybe reached the point where the accumulated rugby, the lack of rest and recuperation has caught up with him.

He can maybe rediscover his mojo but only if he's given until mid-March or early April before heading into action with the Hurricanes.

Hurricanes coach Colin Cooper, who admitted pushing So'oialo too hard this year, has enough loose forwards to cover for a few weeks. He may even be allowed to select an extra player on a temporary basis if So'oialo takes an extended leave of absence.

November 2004 was, in essence, the beginning of the So'oialo story. November 2009 could be the end.