All Blacks: Muliaina regains his mojo

Mils Muliaina has rediscovered his confidence, and hopes to balance running and kicking for the match against England. Photo / Getty Images

It's going to be a landmark day for Mils Muliaina at Twickenham. He'll draw level with Justin Marshall on the list of most capped All Blacks.

Only Sean Fitzpatrick has played more, but the significance will resonate little with the All Black fullback.

He's had a few moments this week peering at the list of names of most-capped players pinned to the All Black team room wall. There is an element of pride lingering, but for a period this season Muliaina was focused on landmarks to his detriment. He knows the dangers of getting too far ahead of himself.

"I was thinking too hard about the long-term plan and trying to get myself right for 2011," he says. "That was probably my biggest problem and now I am taking it one game at a time like I have always done and I'm feeling really good.

"I think this year I have had the best season all round from Super 14 through to now. I had three or four disappointing games, particularly the games in South Africa."

His form dipped alarmingly during that period and the irony was the more he thought about his route to the World Cup, the more likely it became there would be no route at all. He looked tired, lacking in thrust and there was inevitable talk of this loyal servant having begun the descent.

For once, the chatter wasn't too far from the mark. "I was flat on the South African leg," says Muliaina.

"I wasn't there mentally. I was a little bit stale and I look back now and there were a few things I could have changed. I had probably had enough of travel. I'd had a big season for the Chiefs, something I had never experienced before, and I had taken on the captaincy.

"I came away from that and I had to take on the All Black captaincy as well. That was massive for me and it drained me a little bit. That's something you have got to learn about. I mentioned that to the coaches before the Tri Nations. I said that I hoped it [feeling flat] was only going to hang around for a while and then go away, but it didn't."

His ills were eventually cured when he got back to New Zealand and took stock. His inspiration was Richie McCaw - the man who has had to deal with big travel demands in Super Rugby, the All Black captaincy and the off-field pressures that come with being the skipper and an international superstar.

"Having talked to the coaches and looked at Richie, because he's done it year in and year out, I got really excited by that. I was really excited that he can do it year in year out. He can cope with the demands not only on the field but off it. It was a big learning curve for me and if it comes up again hopefully I'll be able to deal with it."

Muliaina is certainly not lacking in drive now. His motivation is back, his form is back and his confidence is back. England will need to be wary, especially as the All Black back three are ready to shift up a gear.

In South Africa the All Blacks ran everything. On this tour they have kicked too much. At some stage they will find the right balance and Muliaina is hopeful that will be this weekend.

"If you look at their last few games they have kicked a lot of pill away," says Muliaina. "There is a big chance to counter attack, but we don't want to get caught up in that same old thing of putting the forwards under pressure.

"That's where you have got to get the balance right. We haven't quite got that balance right between running it back and kicking it.

"The last thing we want to be doing in a game that is going to be so physical is give the forwards more work so we have to make a lot of right decisions."

There is a growing confidence that those right decisions will be made tomorrow morning and that the All Blacks will finally open up with some free-flowing enterprise.

That was the case last year when they won 32-6, having to wait until the final quarter before they wriggled free.

It was Muliaina who was the star of the show, scoring two tries in a typically error-free performance.

He'd be happy to repeat the performance and might not even notice his name climbing the list in the team room.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY