All Blacks: The bigger they are the harder they fall

Whoever is marking Ma'a Nonu tomorrow in Melbourne will be sorely tested. Photo / Getty Images

Perhaps the best yardstick by which to compare rugby players is to ask yourself who you'd rather not mark in a one-on-one contest.

Kieran Read or Richard Brown? Brown is tough, a trier with a big heart, but yep, you're right, I'd sooner face him than Read any day of the week.

Ma'a Nonu or Berrick Barnes? Barnes is tough, a trier with a big heart, but yep, you're right, I'd sooner face him than Nonu any day of the week.

If you happen to be Australian, this has been a somewhat discouraging exercise and I see little value in going through the two sides one by one.

Thankfully, it's a team game, and Brown and Barnes are team players.

The Barnes-Nonu comparison though does underline one less than ideal facet of this Wallabies squad. They lack real size anywhere in the backline. Sure, I'm aware of the old "bigger they are the harder they fall" philosophy. Trouble is, I don't believe it. Nippy guys are all well and good, but they need the odd monster to chuck a bit of intimidation the opposition's way.

I'd imagine Matt Giteau and Barnes will do a deal of chopping and changing between first and second five-eighths tomorrow night and to combat the lack of size factor, we may see a bit of Rocky Elsom hanging around a few of these channels just to keep the All Blacks' eyes wide open.

The plan could be to run Giteau at second five in attack and give Barnes the challenging defensive assignment against Nonu. There's no doubt he loves to tackle and even less doubt Nonu will test him out.

The loss of Quade Cooper is a blow for the Wallabies, but defensively it may be something of a blessing that Barnes is the one between Nonu and open spaces.