All Black Muliaina deserves better than to be stranded on 99 at the Rugby World Cup

Mils Muliaina of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

Of all the calls All Black coach Graham Henry should make in the week leading up to the Rugby World Cup final, this one shouldn't require much thought.

Provided the All Blacks are in the final - because if they aren't nobody is going to care what Henry thinks anyway - Henry should ring NZRU boss Steve Tew for this simple chat.

"Steve, Ted here. I've been thinking and I don't want Mils stranded on 99 tests.

"So how about we let him pop home for one more test next year. I'm sure nobody will mind. Great, see you Sunday."

If Henry finds himself on the verge of returning rugby's Holy Grail home, he will be able to get the NZRU to agree to just about anything in the days leading up to the final.

Like the US President handing out pardons in his last days in office, he will have powers without question. And the stay of execution he should request is the heart-breakingly premature end of Mils Muliaina's test career. Just by one test.

Even if Mils plays like Superman against Canada tomorrow, he shouldn't displace Israel Dagg for the knockout stages of this tournament because Dagg has become a human skeleton key, able to unlock any defence. Which, barring a Dagg injury or a contrived squad for the quarter-final, leaves Muliaina on 99 tests before jetting off to pocket the yen. And that will leave a bad taste in plenty of All Black mouths.

Henry clearly doesn't want to strand the one All Black he has publicly kissed on the cruellest of all test marks.

So why make him do it?

All Black rugby doesn't finish on October 23, just this World Cup. There will be new tests next season, most planned to fill the NZRU coffers but fade quickly from the mind.

So bend the rules if we must and bring Mils back home for his 100th test.

Let him become our first 100 test back, a title he would already own if he had not been restricted to just three games at the last World Cup.

The first test of the season is often a dress rehearsal, especially now it comes so hard on the back of the Super 15 final, the participants in which are often left exhausted.

The NZRU loves money. So make Muliaina's 100th test a promotional tool. Hell, if Richie McCaw needs a break after the Super 15, make Mils captain for the night.

Yes, it's bending the rules. But who loses out?

The public? Most will love it, even applaud the NZRU because we know this is what a great All Black deserves.

Muliaina's Japanese club?

Surely they won't mind letting him pop home for a week in return for having a 100-test All Black in the midst.

You could argue it is setting a dangerous precedent regarding overseas-based players, but this has been a once-in-a-century event so we may not have to worry about precedent for a while.

The message it sends - from an All Black panel who constantly stress that better men make better All Blacks - is that we don't leave members of our family stranded.