Though they are both hard players, I think they are very different. For a start, Kaino has had a very good World Cup and a good 2 years in which we are now saying he's at the best of his game. Collins was pretty much the best blindside from 2004-2007. Different players. Kaino is very good at making metres just from pure power and has a very good work rate. Collins was a brilliant ball carrier and the hardest tackler I've ever seen. Kaino's not really an enforcer. They're just different players.
I think it was Larksea who said that he'd be better than Jerry Collins a year or so back, and I thought he was a poor man's Jerry Collins. I don't think he's better, or quite as devistating as Jerry Collins was (who I rate as the best blindside of the professional era, though many say Richard Hill who was also very good), but there is not doubt he's stood up this World Cup and playing better than I'd have imagined.
I'd probably say that Collins was a monster at what he did, which was run hard and hit harder, but Kaino is a better all round athlete. I think it's easy to dismiss the old for the new when the new is in great form and we haven't seen the old at it's best in four years, but I certainly think there is a case for both of them. Just different players with different games and skillsets.
