All Blacks down the years

By DAVID LEGGAT

The All Blacks will step out for their 347th test match at North Harbour Stadium tonight, hoping for their 249th victory. They will be led by their 57th captain.

Anton Oliver inherits the mantle, first picked up by William Varnham Millton on the tour of Australia in 1884, for his first test in charge, against Samoa.

And one of three players, Mark Ranby, Chris Jack or Carl Hayman, will tonight become the 1000th New Zealand representative - assuming one of them gets off the bench.

It is fair to assume the first New Zealand player to walk on to a ground was Millton.

He led a group of 19 players, drawn from Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago, and played fullback in the opening game. He then played in the forward pack for the rest of the tour. Just three years after the historic trip, Millton died of typhoid, at 29. And so launched the legend of what became All Black rugby.

Among a list of the odd, curious and unusual in the 117 years since that trip:

* The oldest test All Black was Ned Hughes, who played against South Africa in 1921 when he was 40 years 123 days.

* The youngest test All Black was Jonah Lomu when he made his debut against France in 1994 aged 19 years 45 days.

* Only one All Black has ever worn No 31 on the field, hooker Roger Boon, who joined the South African tour of 1960 as a replacement for Ron Hemi.

* The only All Black to play two matches for New Zealand in one day is winger Bruce Hunter. He played in both the All Blacks' games on the same day in Western Australia in 1970, en route to South Africa.

* The first time the All Blacks wore white was in 1930, against Great Britain, who wore dark blue.

* The only All Black who never wore black was lock Hud Rickit. His two appearances were against Scotland in 1981, when the All Blacks wore white.

* Colin Meads has played the most games (133) for the All Blacks, and Sean Fitzpatrick (92) has played the most tests.

* Grant Fox (1067 points) is the leading scorer in all matches for New Zealand, John Kirwan (67) scored the most tries.

In tests, Andrew Mehrtens (720) has the most points and Christian Cullen (42) has scored the most tries.

* Fitzpatrick (51) led the All Blacks in the most tests.

* Three NZ representatives had second names with a political bent - Charles Napoleon Kingstone (1921), Joseph Tito Stanley (1986-91) and James Muldoon Blake (1925-26).

* Three Australian-based players have played for the All Blacks: Eddie Stapleton and Jim Graham appeared in games for the 1960 tourists on their way to South Africa, while James Hendrie filled in for Sid Going in the same fashion 10 years later.

* In 1932, Wellington beat the All Blacks, with wing Nelson Ball scoring four tries for the province, becoming the first player to achieve that feat against the All Blacks. As luck would have it, one of the All Black wings, Ray Williams, was subsequently injured and Ball got the vacancy for the forthcoming tour of Australia. The father of Footrot Flats cartoonist Murray Ball went on to play five tests in a 29-game career.

* 15 sets of fathers and sons have represented New Zealand in rugby but the Olivers, Frank and Anton, will be the only pair to have captained the All Blacks in tests.