Late cuts: Famous fullbacks - and how they made their mark

Fullbacks are in our rugby thoughts just at the moment.

While Leon MacDonald and Jeff Wilson work through their personal battle to wear the No 15 during the enforced absence of Christian Cullen, one of the greats of the position, Don Clarke, arrives back in New Zealand from South Africa tonight.

Fullback is one spot in which the All Blacks have been blessed down the years with some of the game's great performers.

But alongside the legends of the Nepias, Scotts, Clarkes and McCormicks are the tales of the curious and unusual which have gone with the black No 15 jersey ...

* Lloyd Ashby, an uncle of current halfback Justin Marshall, was All Black fullback against Australia in the second test of 1958.

* Kit Fawcett, the one-tour fullback of the All Blacks to South Africa in 1976, was from Auckland - but never played for the province.

* Considering all the All Blacks test captains down the years, it is slightly surprising that only one, Joe O'Leary in 1913, was a fullback.

* Don Clarke collected a full house of points in the two-test series against England in 1963. He scored in four ways - a try, three conversions, a penalty and a dropped goal in the first test. Clarke then added added a goal from a mark (the last goal from a mark kicked in test rugby).

* Speaking of marks, in the first test played by the All Blacks (against Australia in 1903), fullback Billy Wallace kicked two goals from a mark. No other player in test history has kicked two goals from a mark in the same same test. Although it was not until 1977 that it became impossible to kick a goal from a mark, there were only 20 in test history. Wallace and Clarke both kicked two.

* Christian Cullen, with 39 tests, is the most-capped All Blacks fullback.

* Clive Currie was the first All Black fullback to be replaced in a test match. The cricket-rugby dual international Brian McKechnie walked into history with his famous match-winning penalty in the final minute of the test against Wales in 1978.

* The only All Black from Nelson Bays (although Nelson provided some earlier ones) was Trevor Morris, the fullback of 1972.

* The most common surname for All Blacks No 15s is Wilson. There have been three of them - Otago's Bevan of the late 1970s and Jeff of the current side, and Canterbury's Richard from the 1970s.

* Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury have each produced 10 All Black fullbacks, but they are shaded by Otago with 13.

* The brothers Cooper, Greg and Matthew, are the only siblings to be All Black fullbacks. Matt replaced Greg for the second test match against Ireland in 1992.

* Pat Walsh has a claim to fullback fame. South Auckland Counties (now Counties Manukau) had played just three games before producing their first All Black, Walsh, in 1955.

His first test was at second five-eighths and his second at fullback - although he had not played there before.

* In 1929, Jack Tuck played his first two test matches at halfback and his third at fullback.