High-flying Howlett ready for history

Wing Doug Howlett is easy to spot when the All Blacks run on to the field for a final pre-Test warm-up.

The 26 year-old Aucklander is notable not just for the tangled mop of curly black hair bouncing up and down as he strides out on some short sprints, but also because he is the only player wearing a full tracksuit.

"I suppose it's got to do with my athletics training," said Howlett with a smile this week. "It's just to keep the muscles warm.

"But I don't think I was wearing one in Brisbane," he added, recalling the temperatures of 25°C which assailed the team when they beat Tonga 91-7 in their third match of the 2003 rugby World Cup competition.

A former schoolboy sprint champion, who once clocked 10.67 seconds for the 100 metres, Howlett burst on to the international scene in 2000, clocking five tries in his four Test matches that year.

One of those was the game-breaker in the All Blacks' 39-26 victory over France in Paris, the first match the two sides had played since a rampant French side had knocked New Zealand out of the 1999 World Cup semi-finals.

Since then, Howlett has accumulated an impressive strike rate, notching 24 tries in 31 international matches before the World Cup began.

He has now added to that tally with six tries in five games at the World Cup and is the tournament's joint highest try-scorer with provincial team-mate Malili 'Mils' Muliaina.

Despite his try-scoring success, the former classical history student at Auckland University is aware that opposition defences may now target him and fellow winger Joe Rokocoko.

"It has been happening already, whether it is a plan of opposition teams or not. But if we are dragging opposition teams our way, then gaps will open and Carlos [Spencer] and Aaron [Mauger] are making some good breaks.

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"It's just a matter of being patient and late in the game, more often than not, things do appear and we have to take those opportunities."

Not that Howlett is just standing out on the flanks waiting for the ball to come to him.

He is often called inside to attack as second receiver, when flyhalf Carlos Spencer has drawn the play across field, allowing Howlett to use his blinding pace to sear through the gap when Spencer produces one of his trademark flamboyant pop passes back across the defenders.

One such pass during the quarter-final against the Springboks put Howlett through, and while it was called back for being slightly forward, the wing said he had come to expect such an extravagant call.

"Carlos is very much a unique player," Howlett said. "I've been playing with him six or seven years and I still don't know all his bag of tricks.

"At times we make them up on the spot, but you have to be awake and ready for the ball because it could turn up anywhere and that's a fantastic way to play."

While Howlett and his partners, Muliaina and Rokocoko, have been widely praised as the best back three at the tournament, the Wallabies' Mat Rogers, Wendell Sailor, and Lote Tuqiri have been criticised, something the New Zealander said was a little unfair.

"I feel for Lote and Wendell and they do maybe get picked on.

"They are high-profile players and everybody is watching them and it is tough because you are looked upon to score tries, but it is hard to do it when you have four defenders on you.

"But they are class players and defend hard, so it'll be tough on Saturday."

Photograph: Getty Images