Oliver appreciates very public promotion

4.00pm

Anton Oliver says his dropping from the All Blacks rugby team last year was a mortifying public ordeal which had been reversed in the most surprising way.

Former captain Oliver said he had all but decided to end his New Zealand rugby career when a call from coach Graham Henry turned his plans on their head.

"I had decided not to come back, I was very much on the exit plank," Oliver told NZPA ahead of tomorrow's tour-opening test against Italy here.

"I hadn't really followed the form of the All Black boys but they weren't injured and they were obviously selections for the future

"It sounds a cliche but that phone call was a bolt straight out of the blue."

After leading his country in 2001 and playing 41 tests, Oliver was stunned and embarrassed by the manner of his omission from the squad coached by John Mitchell leading up to the Tri-Nations 18 months ago.

Mitchell explained his actions by listing a range of areas where Oliver's game came up short.

"I used the metaphor that getting dropped last year was like getting fired on a nationwide platform," Oliver said.

"How many rugby enthusiasts are there in New Zealand, probably a million, were critiquing you getting fired.

"So getting asked to come here is kind of like getting promoted. With the bad comes the good, it's given my spirits a tremendous lift."

Oliver, 29, expected to play at some stage on tour. Getting the first game had put him on a high all week.

"The way the campaign finished for Otago was pretty poor and I haven't really been enjoying footy for the last two and a bit years and I just thought 'who am I doing this for?'," he said.

"I've been doing it for 11 years, I was pretty keen to move on and try something else.

"But to get the coaches to say, we want you on the tour, we think you're good enough, come away and be an All Black again, well that's just fantastic."

He hasn't forgotten some of the other life options he had given himself, such as studying in England.

He has signed a contract with the New Zealand Rugby Union to play in the Super 12 and then against touring British and Irish Lions.

If he is not selected to face the Lions, he can leave.

"Or I can stay. If this has taught me anything, it's not to make hasty decisions," he said.

"You've got to keep your field of vision open. I was gone and now I'm back, it's a 180 I had never planned for.

"The way my contract is set up is about flexibility. If I'm getting picked, and I'm enjoying it I'm here, if I don't get picked I'm gone."

- NZPA

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