Rugby: So'oialo better as deputy than boss

Mils Muliaina. Photo / Brett Phibbs

There is plenty to admire about Rodney So'oialo. He's an aerobic beast.
He'll train to the limit and then bike home.

He'll hit more than 50 rucks a game, tackle until he's raw and still, in the final minute, he'll be giving what he has left. Rodders is committed.

What he isn't, is an All Black captain. All that energy, all that determination to run and run and give everything he has shouldn't be seen as leadership.

Last year when Richie McCaw was injured So'oialo assumed the captaincy. The responsibility sat heavily on his shoulders.

The most enduring image that emerged from the crushing defeat inflicted by the Wallabies in Sydney last year, was that of a clearly distressed So'oialo staring at his feet as the final whistle blew.

Why, he seemed to wonder, couldn't the ground just open up and swallow him whole?

So'oialo, being So'oialo, took on the responsibility but everything about his body language said he didn't really want it.

Everything about his captaincy said he shouldn't really have had it.

He's a general by deed, not word or thought. His engine inspires more than his force of personality.

So'oialo is happiest as a deputy; supporting a more forceful leader. To burden him again with the captaincy would be cruel. So'oialo's focus should be on making the All Black starting XV not captaining it.

His form dipped in the second half of Super 14. He's unlikely to find it if he's asked to take responsibility for others in the upcoming tests.

But if not So'oialo, then who? Andrew Hore has something about him. But while he's likely to start tests, he's not guaranteed to finish that many.

Keven Mealamu was skipper against Scotland last year but Hore blocks his path to the No 2 jersey.

Keep going through the team and candidates are thin on the ground until fullback. Mils Muliaina, captain of the high-flying Chiefs, veteran of 68 tests and now, unquestionably the world's best fullback - what about him?

Reasons why he shouldn't be appointed are hard to find. Very hard to find, as in there aren't any.

He's taken the Chiefs to their first final and his role has been significant both as player and captain. There has been a previously unseen composure within the Chiefs. They have stayed calm where before they would have seen the bright lights and frozen.

They have stayed true to their game plan. They had to tough out their last three wins before the final; victories that only came through passion, belief and quality decision-making.

Muliaina, when he first became an All Black in 2003, made a conscious decision to keep his head down. Back then, leadership was not his bag.

It is now. He's matured, grown to enjoy the responsibility and relish the effect he can have on shaping the performance of others.

McCaw said last year he felt the key to good leadership is good form. When someone is playing well, the confidence rises, the decisions start to come easily and naturally.

That's where Muliaina is right now. So'oialo isn't. Muliaina will relish the responsibility. So'oialo won't. The captaincy will build Muliaina; it'll break So'oialo. The All Blacks can't afford that - they need the energy and dynamism of So'oialo.