When it was announced that Ma'a Nonu would be joining the Highlanders, hopes were high the midfielder could bring his stellar All Black form to the southern franchise. Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case. ODT Online rugby contributor Jeff Cheshire examines the reasons for Nonu's less-than-super Super season.
Nonu, Nonu, Nonu, what has happened? The man who was supposed to be the Highlanders' star player this season has been anything but the superstar that has donned the black jersey for the past few years.
We saw similar situations at the Hurricanes in 2011 and the Blues in 2012. Yet both seasons he managed find his form for the All Blacks.
How we hoped that this would not be the case yet again when it was announced last year that he would join the Highlanders for 2013. Surely with Jamie Joseph as coach, sub-par performances would not cut it, we thought.
We thought wrong. There is no easy answer as to why Nonu's form has deserted him once again at Super 15 level. In fact there are numerous explanations. For much of the season he carried an injury, he was coming to a new environment, he is playing for a struggling team and he, along with the other All Blacks, did not take part in most of the pre-season.
They were all reasons that undoubtedly contributed to his lack of form. Other players would have chosen to save themselves when carrying an injury, few others have performed well for the Highlanders in 2013 and he certainly has not been the only All Black that was slow out of the starting blocks.
The trouble is, that this is becoming a recurring theme for Nonu and the last three teams he has been involved with have had horror seasons too.
So why is this the case?
Nonu benefits from having good players around him. In the All Blacks he has Daniel Carter and Aaron Cruden inside him, both of whom know how to use him effectively, more or less putting him through a gap before he has even caught the ball.
This makes it far easier for Nonu to make breaks and as he begins getting more confident you will start to see him making his own breaks, looking to step and create his own gap.
At the Highlanders he is not getting this, neither was he at the Blues last year. The attack has been largely uncreative and often the ball has been shovelled on to him and he has had to try to do something with little momentum.
Consequently he has been used to crash it up and run decoy lines more often than not, although he has at times thrown some very good passes that have put his outside men into gaps.
He is playing behind a forward pack that has struggled to provide its backs with front foot ball and outside a nine-ten combination which has been dysfunctional for large parts of the season. He should be cut some slack for this.
He has been trying to make things work, at least some of the time. His performance against the Crusaders will be remembered for his red card, but it was clear he was trying hard to be involved.
He was prominent on defence and threw a few nice passes which led to breaks on attack. It was not the first time we have seen this either. But sometimes you can try too hard, resulting in brain explosion-type plays.
Defensively he has generally worked hard, but there have been times when he has slipped off tackles or not been in the right position. For the All Blacks he is generally very safe in this area of the game, so this is perhaps surprising, but it could also be put down to playing with new players and in new defensive systems.
What is unforgivable though, is the dumb, ill-disciplined plays. In these instances there are no excuses for jeopardising the team's chances by risking being carded and leaving them under-manned.
Instances such as the shoulder charge on Piri Weepu and the tip-tackle on Tom Marshall are just plain dumb, essentially saying that you do not want to be on the field for the next ten minutes, as that is the likely outcome.
You have to control these urges and keep your composure in these situations, which Nonu clearly did not do.
Playing winning rugby in a struggling team is hard enough at the best of times, to try to do it with 14 men is near on impossible. And it is that that has been Nonu's biggest negative this year.
As frustrating as it may be for Highlanders fans, perhaps the black jersey does hold more significance to some of the players who have been around as long as Nonu.
Playing Super 15 may seem such a comedown and it may be hard to mentally for certain players to get up for these games. It does not help that they seem to be all but assured of their All Black places as well. If they knew they had to earn back their places each year in Super Rugby, perhaps this would not be such an obstacle to finding form.
Either way, it is more than likely going to be a factor. It is natural; playing for the All Blacks is going to mean more than playing for the Highlanders and anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.
And that begs the question; what is Ma'a Nonu's future? It is hard to imagine the Hurricanes or Blues wanting him back and he has hardly left a good impression on the Highlanders. Will the Chiefs or Crusaders want to take a gamble on him? Maybe he would fit better with these teams. In fact, he probably would be, on the field. But it would still be a gamble.
It is hard to see him losing his All Black spot though. His performances in the June tests should see him retain his place and if he continues on in the same manner there is no reason to expect him to be dropped. Is it possible that he could become an All Black who is unable to pick up a Super Rugby contract? Perhaps, only time will tell.
For now, Nonu just needs to put the past three Super Rugby campaigns behind him. There is no use dwelling on past bad performances and he should now set his sights on the 2014 season and look to rediscover his form at this level. Wherever he ends up, I hope he does and I am sure everyone else will be willing him to succeed too.