Short term of endearment

Colin Farrell featured in just two tests for the All Blacks, but he's not bitter about a career that might have been a lot more. Picture / Martin Sykes

Colin Farrell could be excused a little mental diversion down memory lane this time tomorrow.

It was 28 years ago, on July 9, that the Auckland fullback played his second test for the All Blacks, against the Lions.

He was 21, and set for a bright future. But somehow it all went wrong. Those first two tests of 1977 were his lot, but Farrell is not bitter.

If he has heard his name mentioned in less-than-flattering terms by others, as you do occasionally when those with the microphone are after a soft target, it doesn't worry him. Indeed, he has the perfect riposte to the cheap-shot artists: he played two more tests than any of them.

Picture Farrell in the mind's eye. Longish, wispy blond hair, a bit of a free-running type. Probably would have loved his rugby these days where the emphasis is on ball in hand, retaining possession and using enterprise in attack. But that was not the case when the Lions came visiting in 1977.

Farrell looked a highly promising player when he made his Auckland debut in 1974 at 18. So much so, that he recalls thinking he had a chance of making the 1976 tour of South Africa.

"I played my 50th game for Auckland in 1977. I'd had a colts tour with Jack Gleeson and I felt I was playing reasonably well," he says.

"I was aiming for France [at the end of 1977] because I believed if I could get into the All Blacks on tour it'd get a bit of familiarity.

"So I was as shocked as anybody when I saw on the TV that I'd been picked for the first test. I was lying on the floor and the old man said, 'Congratulations'. I said, 'What for?'

"You know, you come home from work and the next minute you're put up there. It was a huge thrill."

Athletic Park was grubby that day - raining, windy, miserable. You could suggest Farrell might have been better off in front of the TV.

He hardly touched the ball as the All Blacks won 16-12 - Grant Batty's intercept try being the only piece of action worth remembering.

"I'd played against all the All Blacks, but it was different to know them at that level. I was trying to look in, not fit in. It was new to me.

"They were tremendously focused. No one goes out there to be nervous, but sometimes things don't fall your way."

Farrell recalls the All Black pack doing "a tremendous job".

"We were basically on top of whatever the Lions threw at us.

"Theoretically if you score points against the wind they seemed to have more merit. This time there was not an easing off, but a sense of having done the hard work. Now we just had to stay in control."

So at the end of this daunting, frustrating debut, how did he feel?

"Personally, I was disappointed because I didn't get many opportunities. Satisfied with the win, yes, but that's not the selfish thing you look at. I was probably in the game about 10 minutes out of 80."

At Christchurch three weeks later, the weather was better, the result worse - 13-9 to the Lions in a rugged battle.

"I was more involved but I will say it took until 20 minutes before the final whistle that we took the ball through the backline.

"I always remember afterwards thinking I'd thought I was a running fullback, and that was the only time I got the ball through the line.

"I was quite involved in the game and didn't think I did too badly. I think I grew in confidence a wee bit and I was quite satisfied."

Farrell remembers it wasn't policy to open the game up. You kept it tight. Certainly it was no place for a running No 15 to be able to show what he'd been picked for.

Still, the third test was looming. But ...

"When I was dropped after the Auckland [provincial] game, Jack came down to the supporters club and said, 'Here's the reasons why'.

"I wasn't expecting to be dropped but I always had great respect for Jack, as I did for all my coaches. They decided to drop some of the old guard. I went out at the same time as Sid Going."

What Farrell didn't like was that "once you're out, you're completely out".

Still, at 21 there was plenty of time to get back in. But that was it. Otago's Bevan Wilson came in, then Brian McKechnie, Richard Wilson and Allan Hewson, and then the penny dropped.

"I gave it another couple of years before I decided to head overseas."

Farrell had three years at Parma in Italy, making him one of the early New Zealand trailblazers in Europe, did some coaching at Rovigo and Parma and settled into his excavation and retaining walls business.

Nowadays he helps out the Avondale College first XV, but soccer took pride of place in line with his three sons' preferred sport. He's been coaching soccer for a dozen years at age-group level, helps out with rugby when asked, and is always willing to put something back.

And as for the rubbish thrown at him sometimes, Farrell prefers to think of the good moments.

He still gets a few letters each year asking for an autograph - polite letters. As for the rest, "You tend to sideswipe them," he says. "Bigheads who'd never do anything themselves. "It is hard. I had 80-odd games for Auckland and I'm pretty sure all of them weren't bad.

"A player doesn't lose, a team does, so I don't think I deserved it."

Farrell is proud of his test career, however brief.

"I never regretted it. I don't believe you can have a bad All Black. There's no such thing.

"You've got to be good to get there. That's how I look at it."

Fair enough, too. And if he was playing today? "I don't think I'd have been ill-at-ease now. I think I'd have enjoyed it."

Put a ring round that.