All Blacks who had brief moment of glory

Former North Auckland loose forward Bevan Holmes achieved a rare feat when he played twice for the All Blacks in one day.

The squad was on the way to South Africa in 1970 when they were split into teams for two matches in Perth. Holmes played in the first against the Presidents XV and then appeared as a replacement in the second match against Western Australia.

Several other All Blacks emulated that twin achievement that day but Holmes has the undesirable record of most games for the All Blacks without playing in a test.

Holmes toured South Africa with the All Blacks, made two internal tours of New Zealand and was selected for the 1972-73 trip to Britain and France.

The resourceful loose forward appeared 31 times in the famous black jersey but never played an international.

By contrast, every one of outstanding All Black loose forward Richie McCaw's 33 games for the All Blacks has been a test match. When he was first picked for the All Blacks in 2001, there was a danger he might have been chosen for the midweek matches in Ireland and Scotland. Instead coach John Mitchell picked McCaw for the three tests on tour.

Since then the All Blacks have played only one match outside their tour programme, the match against the Barbarians at Twickenham late last year.

The changing landscape around the All Blacks is reflected in the careers of others such as Leon MacDonald and Norm Maxwell who have played only test matches.

Christian Cullen played 58 tests in his 60 games for the All Blacks, Justin Marshall played 81 tests in his 88-match All Black career, and present captain Tana Umaga has played only five tour matches since his 71-test career began in 1997.

There is little sign of any tour games on the All Blacks' horizon unless the NZRFU can come up with some opponents and stitch up a financial deal.

When the national selection panel sits down in late October to finalise their Grand Slam-seeking squad they will choose 35 players for the expedition.

Coach Graham Henry has already given notice that he does not favour his men playing more than two successive tests and that some picked for the trip may not take the field.

With the absence of midweek matches, the best way for the All Black staff to assess, coach and analyse some of the younger talent was to take them away for a month of extensive tuition.

It was a tactic Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith used last year on their visit to Italy, Wales, France and Britain.

Four players on that trip made test appearances in what has been their solitary outings, so far, in the All Black jersey. Jimmy Cowan, Steven Bates, Saimone Taumoepeau and Casey Laulala may come again, they could become regular picks or substitutes or they could join the list of those who have played a single All Black test.

That tally stands at 14 while others such as Jerome Kaino, Roger Randle, Nathan Mauger, David Hill and Paul Miller have been picked for non-test games on tour.

Another group including Corey Flynn, Danny Lee, Andrew Hore, Filo Tiatia, Bruce Reihana, Sam Broomhall and Craig Newby has collected a couple of caps each through selection or replacement duties.

ONE-TEST WONDERS SINCE 2000

2000: Jason O'Halloran sub v Italy

2001: Mark Ranby sub v Samoa, Dion Waller bloodbin v Argentina

2002: Sam Harding flanker v Fiji, Keith Lowen 2nd 5/8 v England, Regan King centre v Wales, Paul Steinmetz repl v Wales

2003: Ben Atiga sub v Tonga

2004: Jimmy Cowan sub v Italy, Steven Bates sub v Italy, Saimone Taumoepeau loosehead v Italy, Casey Laulala centre v Wales

2005: Soseni Anesi sub v Fiji, Kevin Senio sub v Australia