All Black XV: The best of the one-Test wonders

The greatest All Black XV to have only played one Test match was a tough side to name and is a good bar debate.

15. Gerald Kember – Test Cap v South Africa, 1970; Lost: 17-20
Gerald Kember played for Wellington in their victory against the British Lions in 1966 and became a regular for the province for the next five years.

He earned All Black trials in 1966, 1967 and 1969. In 1970 Kember toured South Africa and earned a call up for the final Test against the Springboks.

He scored 14 of the All Blacks 17 points in a narrow loss. Strangely Kember, who played 19 games for the All Blacks and scored 158 points, never played again. A gifted all-round sportsman, Kember played cricket for the New Zealand Universities.

14. Terry Mitchell – Test Cap v South Africa, 1976; Lost: 14-15
Terry Mitchell was a prolific try scorer in New Zealand first class rugby. He scored 106 tries in 155 games.

He played for the Junior All Blacks, who defeated the All Blacks, 16-10 in 1973 and was capped by the New Zealand Maori. In 1976 the Nelson and Canterbury winger toured South Africa with the All Blacks.

He scored two tries, including the winner, in a famous 32-31 victory over the Quagga Barbarians; the All Blacks were down 31-9. Mitchell played the final Test of the Springboks series, but despite trailing for the All Blacks in 1977 never played again.

Owen Stephens who played a Test for the All Blacks, five Tests for the Wallabies and professional rugby league is worthy of an honourable mention – as is Bunny Abbott who scored 38 first class tries in 44 matches and was selected for the famous “All Golds” tour in 1907 and 1908.

13. Norm Berryman – Test Cap v South Africa, 1998; Lost: 23-24
‘Stormin’ Norman Berryman was somewhat of a cult hero in New Zealand rugby. With a large mob of hair, wide-grin and powerful running style, Berryman was a prolific try scorer, crossing for 114 tries in 190 first class matches.

Berryman played for the New Zealand Juniors, Maori, Divisional XV and Sevens sides, but struggled to gain a regular place in Super Rugby until he headed South to Crusaders in 1998.

Playing on the wing, Berryman was the Crusaders top try-scorer as they won their first Super Rugby title.

Berryman played his only Test off the bench against South Africa that same year. The All Blacks blew a 23-5 lead to succumb to the Springboks by a point. Berryman was a fine player whose competition included the likes of Frank Bunce and Jeff Wilson.

12. Jason O’Halloran – Test Cap v Italy, 1998, Won; 56-19
Jason O’Halloran was a mainstay for Wellington and the Hurricanes in the nineties, amassing 96 games for his province and 54 for the Hurricanes.

A smart player with deceptive pace and a sharp intellect, O’Halloran played his only Test against Italy in 2000. For three years O’Halloran has coached Manawatu with much success.

11. Opai Asher – Test Cap v Australia, 1903, Won; 22-3
Opai Asher made his Auckland debut in 1898 as an 18-year-old and quickly established a formidable reputation.

In 1903 he scored 17 tries on the Australian tour, a record that has only been equaled once since (by Russell Watt in 1957).

Asher scored the All Blacks first ever Test try. He played no rugby in 1905-06 after a knee injury from an accident as a fire brigadesman.

He later went to rugby league and played for the Kiwis. Gus Heart, who played the Irish Test on the Invincibles tour in 1924, was also a fine winger. He scored 33 tries in 29 first class matches.

10. Rawi Cundy – Test Cap v Australia, 1929, Lost; 9-17
Rawi Cundy was the first player to score over 100 points in a domestic first class season (110 in 1927).

That year he kicked four penalties to end Hawke’s Bay’s five-year reign with the Ranfurly Shield – then a sign of domestic superiority in New Zealand rugby.

Cundy was a brilliant attacking player, accurate goal-kicker, but only played one Test on the ill-fated 1929 tour of Australia; the All Blacks lost the Test series 3-0. Interestingly Mac Geddes played one Test as a First-five against Australia in 1913. He won a Military Cross in WWI.

9. Eric Tindall – Test Cap v England, 1935, Lost; 0-13
Eric Tindall’s only Test for the All Blacks wasn’t a great one. Prince Alexander Obolensky scored two tries and the All Blacks were hammered.

However that doesn’t tarnish the legacy of Tindall who was one of New Zealand’s greatest sportsmen and was bound to have played more Tests with more opportunity.

In addition to being an All Black, Tindall played Test cricket and umpired both codes. Rhys Duggan, who played his only Test for the All Blacks in a hundred point victory over Italy at the 1999 World Cup, was unlucky not to play more Tests.

8. Jack Finlay – Test Cap v Australia, 1946, Won; 31-8
Jack Finlay was a goal-kicker who started his rugby in the backs, before switching to the forwards.

He won the Military Cross in WWII and was vice-captain of the famous NZEF ‘Kiwis’ in 1945/46, playing 23 of the 38 games on tour.

In 1946 he played his only Test in Dunedin against Australia. Findlay scored 316 points in 104 first class games and later became a coach.

7. Paddy Long – Test Cap v Auckland, 1903, Won; 22-3
“Paddy” Long was a loose forward who played in the All Blacks first ever Test in 1903, just a year after making his first-class debut for Auckland, who won every game in 1902.

In 1903 he was selected for the New Zealand team that toured Australia in July and August and enjoyed a top tour playing in ten of the eleven matches and scoring the most tries by a forward with four.

What happened to bring this seemingly brilliant career to a grinding halt? The answer was that in July 1904, before the first representative games of the season, ‘Paddy’ was found guilty by the Auckland rugby union of being mixed up in an incident which saw a City player offered a bribe by a bookmaker to arrange the result of a vital club match.

At a special meeting of the Union on 8 July 1904 he was suspended for ten years. He sought to have his suspension lifted in 1906 without result and it wasn’t until 1911 that it was finally lifted. Had Long not been involved in that scandal he would have almost certainly toured with the 1905 Originals.

6. Kiwi Blake – Test Cap v Australia, 1949, Lost; 6-11
A tough freezing worker or farmer, Blake played 178 first class matches between 1941 and 1960, of which 108 were for Wairarapa, becoming one of the first players to reach a century of matches for the one union.

He captained Wairarapa against the Lions in 1950 and 1959. Blake played 24 matches, including all five unofficial internationals against Europe’s Five Nations on the NZEF ‘Kiwis’ tour in 1945/46. Blake was selected for the second Test of the 1949 Australian tour, but withdrew because of the death of his infant son. He was unlucky not to play many more Tests.

5. Buck Anderson – Test Cap v Australia, 1986, Lost; 12-13
Buck Anderson played his only Test in a narrow defeat to Australia in 1986. For a number of years he was a fine player for Waikato. In 1992 Waikato won the National Provincial Championship and in 1993 ended Auckland’s eight-year reign with the Ranfurly Shield.

Despite consistent displays for his province, Anderson never regained his Test spot.

4. Dion Waller – Test Cap v Argentina, 2001, Won; 24-20
Dion Waller played for New Zealand A, New Zealand Colts and the Maori. He won a National Provincial Championship with Wellington in 2000, but Ian Jones and Robin Brooke kept Waller out of the side for many years.

Waller played his only Test off the bench, but was a tough and respected lock racking up 181 first class appearances.

3. Jules Le Lievre – Test Cap v Australia, 1962, Won; 3-0
Jules Le Lievre played 103 games for Canterbury and was a legend in the great Red and Black sides of the late fifties.

He was a regular mid-week selection for the All Blacks, racking up 25 games, but his only Test was in a dour win over Australia in 1962.

2. Graham Dowd – Test Cap v Ireland, 1992, Won; 24-21
Graham Dowd played 107 matches for North Harbour, mostly at hooker in an era where Sean Fitzpatrick dominated New Zealand Rugby. Dowd played his only Test at prop in 1992, but was a consistent and durable performer who was named in the 1991 World Cup squad, but never got a game.

1.Francis McAtamney (Prop) – Test Cap v South Africa, 1956, Lost; 3-8
Francis McAtameny was famously replaced by Kevin Skinner for the third Test of the 1956 Springboks series.

That doesn’t deny his excellence as a prop though, a prop that was versatile and tall enough to cover lock. McAtameny had two All Black trails and was a strong performer for powerful Otago sides in the fifties.