Sonny Bill Williams signs a $10m deal with Toronto Wolfpack rugby league team, The Black Caps look to take out the T20 series against England in Napier and Shaun Johnson is back for the Kiwis this weekend against the Great Britain Lions.
COMMENT:
Seeing as New Zealand Rugby are quite happy to hold jobs open for high profile sorts while they line their pockets elsewhere, they should be trying to lock Sonny Bill Williams into a role of some kind when he finishes up in Canada.
Exactly what sort of role canbe left a little vague at the moment, but NZR would be mad if they couldn't see that Williams could become an instrumental figure in helping them sort the perennial problem that is Auckland.
One man couldn't fix everything. That would be ridiculous to think that. Auckland has numerous problems that range from general participation numbers at junior level, to disproportionately high drop out rates amongst teens, to poor talent identification in elite programmes and a low conversion rate in taking the best school talent and developing them into good professionals.
It's the last stage of the process where Williams could be deployed and potentially make a difference. A significant difference.
There's a gaping hole in the system at the moment that results in the majority of Auckland's best players reaching the professional ranks with serious shortcomings.
Standards that are reached elsewhere in terms of general conditioning, skill development, game understanding and attention to detail, aren't met in Auckland.
And what no one apparently wants to say is that the reason for that is the development system spits out athletes who lack personal responsibility.
That's the nub of it right there: many of the youngsters who graduate through the Auckland schools system and academy programme never quite get a handle on what it takes to crack the big time. They don't get that they have to drive their own performance and not hope someone else will do it for them.
Not really. Not properly. They don't see the full extent of the sacrifice that is required to be better than the next guy.
Eventually that lack of understanding or intrinsic desire to push the margins on preparation comes to the surface and becomes a problem.
In eight years as head coach of the All Blacks, Steve Hansen was rarely publicly critical of his players or aired dirty laundry as it were.
But he did on three memorable occasions. He cited both Steven Luatua and Charlie Faumuina as lacking the fitness required to play test football.
He called them both out – said they had been dropped for the simple reason neither had the conditioning they needed.
These two were senior figures at the Blues – hugely talented and full of potential but they were both failing to reach a basic professional expectation.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern talks to Sonny Bill Williams of the All Blacks following a New Zealand All Blacks Rugby World Cup Captain's Run. Photo / Getty Images.
It was the same with Akira Ioane this year. The All Blacks had tracked him incessantly since 2015 and could see the value he'd bring to their game if he could get himself fitter, more dynamic and more aware of what his role actually was.
Hansen tried and tried, but failed to connect with Ioane. The Blues No 8 just couldn't make the improvements required and Hansen's exasperation showed when he named the first All Blacks squad of this year and gave a withering assessment of Ioane.
And this is where Williams comes on. He's now on track to still be playing top flight football at 36 and yet he has a degenerative knee condition which has plagued him since his late teens.
He's survived at this level on the back of his work ethic and continual drive to find the minuscule gains.
He's set the highest standards in terms of preparation. He's forged new territory in what he's been prepared to do and how hard he's been willing to work to get his body right.
Williams gets what it takes to be a professional athlete. He has an incredible sense of his responsibility to himself and it's this that needs to be instilled in others.
Auckland and the Blues can't keep seeing supremely talented athletes fall into these black holes where they don't achieve because they don't know what it takes to achieve.
Super Rugby is too late in the piece to try to fix people. The Blues need athletes coming into their system with personal responsibility.
They can't learn it there and so there is an obvious job for Williams mentoring, inspiring, teaching and guiding Auckland's best players when they are still at school or just out of it.
The man knows what is required to conquer the sporting world and he knows how to do it from a tough starting place.
He grew up in Auckland with not much behind him and he battled the hard way, much as many of the aspiring players in the city do today.
NZR has banged its head against the wall in relation to Auckland. Nothing has really worked so far and while Williams can't be seen as the panacea, he is at least worth tying into a contract now so that there is certainty he'll be returning to Auckland once his time in Canada is finished.
He's all about giving back and Auckland rugby has its hand out.
