KEY POINTS:
Leon MacDonald ended three months of wondering with a World Cup comeback for the All Blacks which will turn up the heat on the selectors.
The 29-year-old came off the bench at late notice with a quality performance at fullback against Italy to further complicate the top XV choices the staff will debate going into the tournament playoffs.
It was a great return from MacDonald, whose last serious game of rugby was in June in Durban before he suffered a groin injury in the lead-in to the Bledisloe Cup test in Melbourne.
This time, in Marseille, it was MacDonald's turn for some fortune when he was promoted from the bench to fullback, with Mils Muliaina shifting to centre when Conrad Smith had more hamstring complications.
"It was obviously bad luck for Conrad but it turned into a great opportunity for me.
"I was really excited, I was up for the game and I suppose everyone was in the same boat."
MacDonald said his injury was still not totally repaired, "but I feel like I am well in control of it".
The injury did not threaten his last shot at World Cup glory but he had been given plenty of time to recuperate by the sympathetic selectors. At the Stade Velodrome, MacDonald repaid that trust.
He was steady on the basics but also sparked several thrilling counterattacks while Muliaina did a freeze for much of the 76-14 thrashing of the Italians.
With MacDonald so sharp in game one and Muliaina an automatic pick in the side, the struggle will be for the chosen centres, Smith and Isaia Toeava, to nudge back into prominence.
"I suppose that is the fullback-wing thing where myself and Doug [Howlett] got a lot of work and not so much went Siti's way," MacDonald said.
"When you are an outside back you have to take it when it comes and at other times it just does not flow. But I was in the thick of it and it was hot out there and I enjoyed it."
After his hard day's work, MacDonald and Rodney So'oialo were picked at random for drug-testing, a procedure which kept them at the stadium until several hours after the crowds had left.
Eventually a weary MacDonald emerged, with a swim, a beer and a lie-down on his priority sheet.
"It was great to get going. It is all about taking your chances and now the team against Portugal gets their go. Then we will see what happens."
He had no bad memories of the controversial decision at the 2003 World Cup where he was asked to deputise for the injured Tana Umaga at centre.
"It is never on my mind, not at all. It was four years ago and is probably more on other people's minds. I just want to play."
