Wynne Gray: Tests not development arena

The All Black selectors did not need an excuse to pick Isaia Toeava at centre for Sunday's final test against the Springboks - but they flinched.

With Leon MacDonald's injury exit from fullback, there was some logic in staying with Mils Muliaina which left a vacancy at centre.

That position, we had been told, was where the All Black selectors saw Toeava making his international stamp on the sport and it offered the chance of the Aaron Mauger-Toeava midfield partnership which was broken by injury before it was tried at Eden Park.

If Toeava needed more matches at the top level to build towards the selectors' ideas about the World Cup, then Rustenburg on Sunday beckoned.

Only the day before, assistant coach Steve Hansen continued the insistent line from the panel that Toeava was a future "superstar" and had played the best test of his career at Pretoria.

Instead the selectors went for Muliaina at centre and shifted usual wing Doug Howlett to fullback in what is the final game of their rotation policy.

Howlett may yet look sharp against the Springboks but he is not the answer at the highest level where MacDonald, Muliaina and a number of others would rate higher.

The reluctance to give Toeava another chance at centre, when the option was gift-wrapped, is as mysterious as the youngster's promotion from obscurity.

Obviously he has potential and it is tough that he has been placed in the spotlight.

However, the expectations have been introduced by the All Black selectors. They see a young man of massive promise and have made him a special project.

But Toeava had done no more than many other talented young backs in New Zealand rugby, yet he has been fast-tracked to the All Blacks.

He has leapfrogged the natural order of progress, a rotation selection based on promise rather than substance - certainly to these eyes anyway, which can judge only what Toeava delivers on the field, not to the motivational therapists, nutritionists, trainers, stats men or coaching staff inside the All Black regime.

Toeava was overawed at Eden Park against the Wallabies. He muffed several crucial attacking plays during the test at Pretoria and had a defensive stumble or two as well.

Harsh? Maybe but test rugby is sport at the elite level, or should be. It should not be a development arena.

All may become rosy with Project Toeava at the 2007 World Cup but the judgment now can only be on what he produces in public.

When the All Blacks keep winning, declaring doubts or offering criticism is not popular. Certainly not with an unbroken 14-match streak and with selectors who bridle when topics like the lineout defects are broached.