KEY POINTS:
Simon Culhane went to bed a relieved man yesterday - he still held the record for the most points scored by an All Black in a rugby test match.
The previous night the All Blacks were playing Portugal, and pundits confidently expected the All Blacks to score more than 100 points. Culhane himself feared current first-five Nick Evans might knock him out of his place in New Zealand rugby history.
"Definitely, especially with his ability to score tries. I never had that much pace."
As it turned out, Evans' speed secured him only the one try. Combined with 14 conversions it saw the North Harbour first-five score 33 of the points the All Blacks scored in their 108-13 win.
Culhane scored a record 45 points in his All Blacks debut, against Japan in the 1995 World Cup. His try and 20 conversions set all sorts of benchmarks, including most points in a match, most on debut, and most conversions in a match.
The final score in that match, 145-17, remains far and away the highest total scored by the All Blacks in any game. The six tries scored by Marc Ellis is still the most in a game by an All Black.
"My memory of the game is that my bloody feet started getting really sore," Culhane said.
"The game was all over the park, Marc Ellis was running amok out wide and there was a hell of a lot of running involved."
Like the side which faced Portugal, the All Blacks team which lined up against Japan had many key players watching from the grandstand. Although they were expected to win comfortably, there was no difficulty motivating the team, Culhane said.
"It was the first time a second string team really took the field for the All Blacks in a test match, and there was no way we wanted to let the jersey or the test side down. We were highly motivated, and Laurie [Mains, 1995 coach] had us raring to go."
The halfback that day, Ant Strachan, had no doubts the All Blacks who played on Saturday were trying their hardest.
"You put the black jersey; it doesn't matter who you play. Obviously, on the World Cup stage there's a lot more hype about performing. Even though in the back of your mind you know you are going to beat this side, you never really know until you get out there and you get that first 10-15 minutes under your belt and you can relax a little."
Norm Hewitt, who played hooker against Japan, didn't stay up to see whether the points record was broken.
"I watched about the first 10 minutes and then went to sleep because I knew what was going to come ... They were just getting themselves set up, and then they were going to take it away."
Hewitt said Portugal's players would have felt like they won the World Cup just playing against the All Blacks. He also suspected the current team would have been bitterly disappointed at letting the minnows score a try against them, knowing how disgusted he was that Japan twice breached All Black defences in 1995.
"We wanted to rate ourselves on our defence as much as we do on our attack. I know I was really disappointed standing under the goalposts knowing they had scored a try."
Alama Ieremia, who played centre against Japan, said the massive win had given the whole 1995 team a confidence boost, especially the reserve players who starred that day.
"One key thing that drove us was knowing we were all competing for places. We had to focus on our performance and what we needed to do. Some guys really put their hands up and we were confident after that game. We knew if the call came, we were confident we could fill the spot."
