All Blacks: In black out of the blue

Mike Delany at Mt Maunganui after being named in the All Blacks squad. Photo / Alan Gibson

Mike Delany spent Saturday night in Hamilton at a friend's birthday party.

The All Black squad to tour the Northern Hemisphere was being named at 10am yesterday, but Delany was having a lie-in. Then his phone rang.

It was his brother calling to tell him he was an All Black. Yeah, right.

But it was no prank. Delany, Bay of Plenty's outstanding first five-eighth, was one of four newcomers in the 33-strong squad for six matches, starting against Australia on October 31 in Tokyo and ending on December 5 against the Barbarians at Twickenham.

"I was speechless, couldn't believe it. It took a while to sink in. Still hasn't," Delany said yesterday.

The 27-year-old from Mt Maunganui has been in the best form of his career. He's the leading points scorer in the Air New Zealand Cup and has been the driving force behind a strong campaign.

Delany, who has played Super 14 for the Chiefs, didn't make any national age-group teams and admitted his aspirations for the year were somewhere below pulling on the black jersey.

"I just tried to play well, make the Super 14 and go from there, but I never expected to make the All Black side."

His goal is simply to learn as much as he can. There's also a message for other players from the provinces in Delany's selection, and that of fellow Bay of Plenty player Tanerau Latimer.

"It shows you can get there from the smaller unions," Delany said.

He'll have plenty of time for reminiscing on the plane to Tokyo, being reunited with Rotorua Boys High School first XV mates, Otago lock Tom Donnelly and Waikato loose forward Liam Messam. "That's pretty cool," Delany said.

Other new faces are Hawkes Bay wing Zac Guildford and Otago fullback-cum-wing Ben Smith, while Wellington's Tamati Ellison has been in the wider All Black training squad but not in a tour party.

One notable exception from the squad is 60-test veteran winger Joe Rokocoko.