Hundreds of All Blacks will never get a tasselled cap

Players should not have to appeal "howzat" for tries. This is not cricket.

A call this week from Roger Boon had me wondering about the status of a truckload of almostforgotten All Blacks.

When the New Zealand Rugby Union began retrospectively handing out test caps, Boon remembers being asked by his grand-daughter: ‘‘Are you a real All Black?’’

There are 314 such players who proudly wore the black jersey in tour matches without playing a test. Now aged 82 and living in Whanganui, it doesn’t bother Boon, but it is a point of interest.

He was a replacement hooker on the 1960 tour of South Africa and played six matches, none of them tests. However, one was against Rhodesia which in hindsight, should have been an international because it was a British colony then and not part of South Africa.

New Zealand was a British colony until 1907 and tests were played from 1903.

For many years, replacements were not allowed in tests and later, players had to be on death’s door and cleared by a doctor before being replaced.

Now test caps are doled out like confetti, many of them for a few minutes’ cameos, cheapening the jersey with scant deference to the game’s traditions.

They receive a silvery cap with tassel when the likes of North Auckland loosie Bevan Holmes, who played 31 games in black, seem more deserving.

Against Samoa in 2015, Charlie Ngatai’s only test appearance was for 14 minutes, and Brad Weber’s 17. In Japan in 2013, Jeffery Toomaga-allen played 12 minutes and Luke Whitelock 21, and yet they enjoy higher recognition than 314 other All Blacks.

By the way, it was Boon who named Colin Meads ‘‘Pinetree’’. Boon recalls it was on the 1955 NZ Colts tour to Ceylon, but Meads said it was with the NZ under-23s in Japan in 1958.

Midfielder Marty Berry, who played for Manawatu in 1996, holds the record for the shortest test appearance of 18 seconds. He did go on to play nine tour matches.

Prop Kevin Barry played 23 games but no tests, halfback Lin Colling, 21, Manawatu lock Keith Bagley and Taranaki’s Handley Brown, 20, Taranaki lock Ian Eliason, Bay of Plenty hooker Graeme Crossman, 19 and a certain Warren Gatland, 17.

There are 14 other Manawatu men in the same bracket, among them wing Stu Freebairn, 14, and locks Ron Horsely, 13, and John Loveday, 7.

Compare them with these guys who played fragments of one test, from Nick Rutherford’s treasure trove of statistics: Paul Steinmetz, 3 minutes v Wales in 2002, Kevin Senior, 4min v Aust 2005, Ben Atiga, 6min v Tonga 2003, David Hill, 6min v Ireland 2006, Ben Afeaki, 6 min v France 2013 and one who played for Manawatu, lock Dion Waller, 7 min v Argentina 2001.

Manawatu hooker Bruce Hemara was selected to start the Baby Blacks’ test against France in 1986, ahead of one Sean Fitzpatrick.

Hemara tore rib cartilages in practice and was back home in time to read a feature article on him in the Manawatu Standard.

He had played three tour matches in Argentina in 1985, but never did get that test cap.

Manawatu wing Ken Granger also got his black jersey in South America in 1975.

Of his six games, one was against Uruguay, an independent country which should have been rated a test match.

Caps have since been awarded when Uruguay played at three World Cups.

Hemopo scored that try

Rugby fans should be aware that in NPC games, the video ref is not permitted to alert the referee to errors or transgressions as he can in Super and test matches.

So expect the Manawatu Turbos to kick up bobsy-die in future should a try go unnoticed by the referee.

It happened against Tasman on Saturday in minute 59 when lock Jackson Hemopo reached out and dotted the ball down.

Referee Richard Kelly was only 3 metres away, but was blind to it and play went on for another 12 phases or 2min 10sec until the next stoppage in play. Referees may only refer back two phases of play.

Skipper Heiden Bedwell-curtis questioned the referee, even if he then said he hadn’t seen what four other Turbos nearby had seen. Kelly said ‘‘no try’’ .

The touch judge should have been in a position to see it.

The incident could have been a match-changer. Instead of Manawatu being 29-13 ahead, six minutes later it closed to 22-20 after Tasman scored a runaway try.

Players should not have to appeal ‘‘howzat’’ for tries. This is not cricket.

Hemopo is a quiet lad. Had it been some of the other Turbos, the whole ground would have heard.

Out of the mouths of babes

An elderly woman came across a toddler riding his bike with training wheels on a busy Palmerston North street last week.

Fearing for his safety, she asked him politely if he should be on the road. He pedalled off, his little legs going and replied, ‘‘ya b .... !’’

Boganism is alive and well in Kiwiland.