Rugby: History's lessons should worry Muliaina

Christian Cullen. Photo / Getty Images

Mils Muliaina should be afraid, very afraid.

Fullback + All Black selectors tends to be a toxic equation in World Cup year. Weird things tend to happen.

In fact, on only two occasions, 1987 and 1995, can the position be paired accurately with the term "logical choice" and 1987 comes with the qualification that it was only because they won the damned thing.

John Gallagher actually made his test debut in the World Cup opener, with Kieran Crowley and Greg Cooper having filled the position throughout 1986, though Gallagher did play two midweek games on the end-of-year tour to France.

At South Africa in 1995, Glen Osborne was a popular choice once John Timu had defected to league the previous year and Shane Howarth had been found wanting. Aside from those occasions, the manoeuvring at the back would be considered comical had the results not been so profoundly disturbing.

In 1991, Alex Wyllie and John Hart didn't so much come from left field, but left wing, entrusting Terry Wright to the job. When he went down injured in the final pool match against Italy, Shayne Philpott replaced him on the field. In the quarterfinal, another wing John Timu took his place at the back, before an SOS was sent to a Kapuni milking shed and an under-prepared Kieran Crowley was flown over to play No 15 in the ill-fated semifinal against Australia.

The next time the World Cup was held in the Northern Hemisphere, John Hart tried to make four fit into three by switching Christian Cullen, the world's most dangerous attacking fullback, to centre, at the same time putting one of New Zealand's great wings, Jeff Wilson, at fullback. This allowed Tana Umaga and Jonah Lomu to roam the flanks. It looked great on paper; wasn't so flash on grass.

Cullen would feel further fullback pain before the next World Cup.

The adoration of the public was not matched by coaches John Mitchell and Robbie Deans and they went gunning for Cullen in 2002, replacing him with the likes of Leon MacDonald and Ben Blair, before jettisoning him in World Cup year.

Mils Muliaina was the chief beneficiary of that.

Which was fine, 94 tests are testament to his brilliance, but what was not so flash was the selection of another fullback, MacDonald, at centre for the semifinal against Australia.

Do you think those compounding lessons were learned in France '07? Ah, no. Graham Henry warped logic even more than his predecessors by playing Muliaina at centre for their quarterfinal clash with France, using MacDonald at fullback instead.

That didn't go so well either.