Buzz still strong as ever for Howlett

Doug Howlett training with the All Blacks in Christchurch this week. Picture / Fotopress

To paraphrase the old Led Zeppelin line, the buzz remains the same for All Blacks wing Doug Howlett.

Hearing his name read out for his 47th test this week produced the same tingle as it did for his debut against Tonga in June, 2000.

Unlike recent campaigns, it was no done deal that the Auckland flier would be required by the All Black selectors for the most eagerly anticipated series in years.

His form for the Blues this year was ordinary until he began to hit his stride late in the competition.

Howlett reckons two factors impacted on his situation.

"We are so influenced by the players inside us," he said. "It's hard to do something on your own. My team's form improved towards the end of the Super 12, and thus my own.

"Also there were some fantastic wingers playing in the competition. It's pretty cut-throat. We are all aware of that, we see each other play.

"I'm happy to be here, and I think the competition around it makes us all better players."

A quick perusal of New Zealand's Super 12 wingers shows it was a four-way choice for the All Black selectors: Howlett, his Blues and All Blacks mate Joe Rokocoko, Rico Gear, a stellar act since his move south to the champion Crusaders, and the Chiefs' one-man wrecking crew, Sitiveni Sivivatu.

Rokocoko has scored 27 tries in 23 tests, but something happened to his form this year. It went AWOL, and, like grasping fog, he couldn't get it back.

He was despatched to the sevens circuit to find some form but other leading nations must be scratching their heads wondering how a player with his pace and his record is nowhere in this All Black squad for tomorrow.

Gear enhanced his game at the Crusaders, scored a truckload of tries, and pushed desperately close.

Howlett probably owed his selection to his experience, and Sivivatu's compelling form after returning from shoulder surgery to propel the Chiefs up the table in the final month could not be ignored.

He bagged a record four tries on his All Black debut against a hopeless Fiji. It's a tough school to break into, and to stay in.

But if performing against the Lions is not incentive enough for 26-year-old Howlett, a glance at the statistics book should give him an extra nudge.

He has scored 36 tries and only three All Blacks have scored more in tests: Christian Cullen, who got 46 in 58 tests, Jeff Wilson 44 in 60 appearances; and Jonah Lomu with 37 tries in 63 tests.

He has some way to catch the most capped All Black test wings, Lomu and John Kirwan with 63 matches, but at least he's still in business, which was in serious doubt as he and the Blues floundered early on in the Super 12.

But these are exciting times, a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, as Howlett pointed out.

"It's such a huge event. The public have come to expect of their All Blacks that they win at home.

"But that's external pressure we're coping with," he said.

Howlett isn't reading too much into the Lions' ordinary pre-first test form. He rates Gareth Thomas and Josh Lewsey as high class international wingers, not to mention fullback Jason Robinson.

"We've played them before, it's another challenge," he said.

A challenge Howlett wants to prove he's up for, and put the doubters in their place.