Mils the man at centre or fullback

Mils Muliaina

SUN CITY - The outstanding attacking skills of Mils Muliaina and the tough transition to test rugby for youngster Isaia Toeava means some head scratchers for the All Blacks rugby selectors this week.

Muliaina relished the wide open spaces at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria yesterday as he and his fellow backs carved up some slack South African defence on the way to a 45-26 Tri-Nations win.

With Leon MacDonald (hip) flying home today with fellow injured teammates Greg Somerville (achilles tendon), Chris Masoe (ankle) and Reuben Thorne (broken thumb), the question is where to put Muliaina in the return match in Rustenberg.

Muliaina started at centre then relished the shift to fullback when MacDonald departed in the 12th minute.

His break led to Neemia Tialata's opening try, another burst from the back sent Luke McAlister away in the 46th minute then Muliaina scored one himself after good work by Ali Williams and McAlister.

Toeava meanwhile had a tough time when he came on at centre, dropping two tryscoring chances in the first half and appearing in two minds as Springboks No 13 Jaque Fourie cut through for the second of his two tries.

If Toeava, 20, isn't persevered with next weekend, it means a makeshift fullback in the form of perhaps McAlister or Doug Howlett if Muliaina remains at centre.

If Muliaina plays fullback there are few other options for the No 13 jersey.

In either spot, Muliaina was buzzing after burning up the Loftus turf.

"I enjoyed it, a bit of sun on the back is always pretty good and they box kicked a lot. I really wanted to attack this week, that was my main focus," he said.

"I got the opportunity at fullback and I really enjoyed it out there and it went really well, looking forward to next week."

Muliaina spoke of the All Blacks' skyrocketing self-belief in the past year as they compiled a 15-match winning streak.

They started poorly yesterday with their two best players making errors -- captain Richie McCaw dropping two kickoffs and Daniel Carter kicking out on the full then punting a ball dead as he was hit high by Victor Matfield.

But there was no panic in the ranks as they trailed 3-11.

"We've come a long way. Two or three years ago we might have dropped off but now, all of our starts this year we've been down and we just say 'next job, next job'.

"The good thing about this team is that we always think about that instead of going behind the posts and dwelling on what's happened.

"We've learned a lot, and I don't think there was any time where I felt we were in the crap after Richie dropped those balls."

And despite the temptation to take it easy this week as they enter the second test as warm favourites, there is still the coveted 2-0 series win in South Africa, the target the All Blacks have set to match the team of 1996 who won New Zealand's first series here.

- NZPA