MEIKLE SAYS
Did you not know the S in SBW stands for Special?
Some will tell you the All Blacks are built on a foundation of egalitarianism, that all men are created equal, that it is more about the jersey than the man wearing it.
They are all myths.
Your Charlie Faumuinas, your Beauden Barretts and your Dominic Birds are indeed on an equal footing.
Let's call them the plebs.
But the New Zealand Rugby Union has long given the cream of the crop, the likes of Richie McCaw, Ma'a Nonu and Dan Carter (remember him?), special treatment.
Big contracts, special endorsement deals, sabbaticals, you name it.
With all due respect to two fellow midfielders, journeyman Ryan Crotty and rookie Malakai Fekitoa, Sonny Bill Williams deserves special treatment.
He is a hard-runnin', off-loadin', game-breakin', crowd-pleasin' superstar who wins rugby games and gets people through the gate.
He's the total package.
Ask the kids if they want to see SBW rushed straight back into the All Blacks.
Ask the Poms, the Boks and the Wallabies if they would rather he stayed in league.
What this boils down to is that the All Blacks are making decisions they feel will help the team.
And credit where it's due.
They are the defending world champions, they are unbeaten since Nicky Hager started writing his book, and they just HUMILIATED our so-called rivals from across the ditch.
If the All Blacks win the 2015 World Cup and Olympic gold a year later, no-one will look back and say it was the wrong decision to give SBW special treatment.
And if they don't win, we can just blame the referee, am I right?
HEPBURN SAYS
The All Blacks harp on about it.
Coach Steve Hansen brings it up all the time when he talks about team records.
Legacy.
Defined in the Collins dictionary as ''something handed down or received from an ancestor or predecessor''.
In other words, what has gone before makes the All Blacks what they are today.
But a wee bit of that legacy just got chipped off by allowing Sonny Bill Williams to walk straight back into the team.
The All Black jersey has to be earned.
It comes through sweat, blood and tears.
It is what made Colin Meads run up those King Country hills, and what drove Red Conway to chop his finger off to go to Africa.
To allow Williams back into the side, sight unseen in the 15-man code, just cheapens the All Blacks.
One wonders if he will even come back to New Zealand before the third Bledisloe Cup match in Brisbane in October.
He may just zip up from Sydney and meet the All Blacks at the airport.
If he signed a two-year deal with the Roosters, he should not be available for the All Blacks' end-of-year tour.
What happens if a top young player has an impressive provincial season?
Could he be a bolter for the tour?
No, sorry mate, your dream of a black jersey will have to go on hold because of the Rooster across the ditch.
Williams should have been made to skip this tour, have a decent pre-season and come out firing for the Chiefs in 2015.
That is how it is supposed to work. You play well, you get selected.
Simple, isn't it?
Oh, that's right.
Nothing is ever simple in the Sonny Bill Williams world.
