The Greatest: Right wing
It was close, it was really close in fact! But in a two-horse race towards the finish line, Doug Howlett beat off countryman Jeff Wilson by a mere 50 votes in our latest readers poll.
It was close, it was really close in fact! But in a two-horse race towards the finish line, Doug Howlett beat off fellow countryman Jeff Wilson by a mere 50 votes.
At one stage, there were only six votes seperating the two classy wingers but a late surge saw the All Blacks' top try-scorer take the spoils with Wilson second and England's Jason Robinson third.
Howlett made a habit of scoring on debut – in 1997, he run in a hat-trick of tries for the Highlanders in the Super 12 (he would later move on to the Blues), and then made his mark on the international scene in 2000 by crossing the whitewash twice against Tonga.
Since then, he has scored on average four points per game (155 from his first 38 Tests), but had to face some stiff competition from the likes of Jonah Lomu and Jeff Wilson in the early stage of his All Blacks career. But by 2002, Howlett was quickly emerging as the first choice, where he would remain – despite the rise of Joe Rokocoko and Sivi Sivivatu.
Known as a winger with a high work rate and strong defensive tackling ability, Howlett's try-scoring stats make for impressive reading: 50 tries in 56 games for Auckland, 59 tries for the Blues in 108 games and 49 tries for the All Blacks in 62 appearances – a team record.
His hat-trick against Italy at the 2007 Rugby World Cup brought him level with the record of Christian Cullen, the All Blacks' previous leading try-scorer and then his try against Scotland gave him the record.
His good form at the 2007 World Cup in France continued but was dropped for the quarter-final against France and couldn't even find a place on the bench. The official explanation was that he was rested so that a judgement could be made on whether Rokocoko or Sivivatu should partner him in the later semi-final and final… and we all know how that panned out.
In 2007, Howlett followed in the footsteps of fellow legend Cullen, and signed for Munster where he won the Heineken Cup with the Irish club only five and a half months into his career in the Northern Hemisphere.
And now check out the polling section below the features box on the front page to vote for the left wing of the professional era… hurry, you only have 48 hours from the time this article was published!