By DAVID LEGGAT
Wing
Age: 25
Height: 1.87m
Weight: 93kg
NPC team: Canterbury
Super 12: Crusaders
Super 12 games: 72
Test debut: 1998
Test caps: 9
For someone who strikes you as being uncertain, Caleb Ralph has to carry a huge burden.
Without question he is the most-ridiculed All Black in the World Cup
squad. No matter what he achieves on the field, mentioning his name draws widespread scornful reaction. Most of it is ingrained and automatic and it will not cease.
But those who consistently decry the 26-year-old should have noted his class in a rare NPC appearance for Canterbury in their Ranfurly Shield defence against Waikato.
Ralph may not be the world's best wing - indeed, he is probably not a wing - but he was a grade above his opponents that day in most facets of the match.
Ralph consistently shows the qualities that made him a champion middle-distance athlete and a national sevens rep while still at high school in Rotorua. He has endurance, he works hard, his cover defence is potent, he keeps the ball alive for his team-mates, he is consistently reliable and he does score loads of tries.
His only failing may be a lack of top sprinting speed, where he suffers by comparison with Doug Howlett and Joe Rokocoko.
That showed when he got a glimmer of the corner flag against England this year but declined the invitation.
But through circumstance and by default because the country's flanks are festooned with Pacific Island wings, Ralph has been picked as a wing for the Crusaders and All Blacks.
Even he prefers playing centre but it is not to be - not his fault that he is chosen elsewhere.
Who else should have been picked ahead of him as a third wing? Mils Muliaina perhaps, but he covers other positions in the squad. Rico Gear, maybe; Brent Ward, not just yet; Ben Blair, no way.
