'I hate this one cap wonder tag'

But what a cap! Neville Furlong (he won a second) and Philip Rainey may not have worn the green jersey too often, but they have one thing in common - the experience of facing the All Blacks.

NAME THE last man to score a four-point try for Ireland. The answer's easy: he's also the only man to score a try against the All Blacks with a broken ankle. Neville Furlong remembers his proudest moment on a rugby field clearly. It was 1992 and Ireland were touring New Zealand when, Furlong injured his ankle against Auckland, though he managed to hobble over the line for a try all the same. Eventually his leg became so sore he could barely stand - there was so much strapping on his ankle it went outside and over the boot - but Ireland had used up their substitutes.

"Eventually the two coaches came to a 'gentleman's agreement' and I was replaced," recalls Furlong, "But I was in serious difficulties for the first Test."

Ireland coach Ciaran Fitzgerald needed to know if Furlong could play against the All Blacks. 'Here and now - can you play?' he asked me, and I said it'd be fine."

It wasn't fine. Furlong's "serious difficulties" were becoming more serious by the day, but Ireland were facing the black jersey with the silver fern. He'd manage.

"Every night I brought a bucket of ice up to my hotel room and kept icing the ankle, I wanted to play so badly. We had a plan for the game, we felt we had nothing to lose, so we said we'd throw caution to the wind and play an unsettled game, if you like - quick throw-ins, quick kick-offs and so on. With the individual talent and the strength in depth of the All Black team, playing a set pattern was the last thing you'd want to do with them. In terms of man for man ability, very few of us would have made it onto the All Black team, so we decided to play to our strengths.

"We had a cut and as it happened we caught them on the hop."

That they did. Ireland led all through the game, but with minutes left New Zealand won a penalty on the touchline. They had Grant Fox, he had his kicking boots on, and the All Blacks edged home 24-21.

Furlong recalls his ankle was "well strapped, and pretty heavily sedated" for that first test, and training for the second test was an ordeal. Still, it paid off five minutes in.

"Vinnie Cunningham kicked a ball through and I gave chase," says Furlong. "I just got the touchdown before the ball went out. It was Ireland's last four-point try, something that often comes up as a question in rugby quizzes.

"It was a great start, but we hardly saw the ball after that. We tried to play a similar game to the first test, but New Zealand had been cute in the meantime. They'd criticised the referee in the media, and the game was handled completely differently in the second test. We couldn't take any quick throw-ins or anything, and you couldn't get away with the same approach a second time."

Ireland lost 59-6, and Furlong had some tough times ahead. On the way back he had three terrible days in Singapore, and when he got back to Galway he knew he had real trouble. An x-ray confirmed the break.

"I missed out on the World Student Games, but it got worse," says Furlong. "I had three ankle operations, and it was about a year and a half before I could run properly.

"As an army officer, (he's now a commandant) I'm training all the time, and certainly I don't have the same spring or strength in my left ankle that I have in my right. I've been told I'll have difficulties later as a result of the injury, but I wouldn't change a thing."

Furlong feels an unsettled game is Ireland's best chance today as well, though he advises the men in green to take in the occasion.

"It's a highlight of any player's career, it'll fly by for them. I was fortunate that my two caps came against New Zealand."

He won't have the chance to see the action first hand, though. Furlong's nephew is being christened at about the time the game kicks off - which means little Ronán Furlong is succeeding where a broken ankle and the New Zealand defence failed. He's keeping his uncle from turning up.

- Michael Moynihan

PHILIP RAINEY'S first cap was memorable for a number of reasons, not least because it changed his status from a bench-warmer to an international player.

Rainey's first - and only cap - came against Wayne "Buck" Shelford's All Blacks at Lansdowne Road in 1989, a game that stands in the memory for reasons other than the result.

He was 29 and a slightly peeved at having been named as a substitute for Ireland on 21 previous occasions. Captain Willie Anderson took him aside before the match and warned him to look straight in the eye of his opposite number during the Haka.

Rainey's direct opponent was John Gallagher, the Englishman who emigrated to New Zealand and became a policeman in Wellington before shooting to fame with the first World Cup winners two years before.

Rainey recalls: "There I was, trying to follow Willie's advice until he decided to move forward to challenge Shelford. Gallagher was to Willie's right, I was to Willie's left, but I couldn't make eye contact at all. So much for planning!"

In any event, despite a feisty Irish display, New Zealand won and Gallagher scored a try late on.

It was a disappointing day for Rainey, but one he will never forget. "OK, I had suffered disappointment after disappointment at not getting into the team; but it was a privilege to be involved with the 21 strong squad for so long.

"I was fighting for my place against guys with Hugo MacNeill, Philip Danaher and Fergus Dunlea, so there was always somebody ahead of me.

"At the time of the All Blacks game, I won a place on merit and it was, the result apart, an amazing occasion. The game lasted 80 minutes but it seemed to go in minutes."

His regret is that he didn't get a second cap. "I hate this one cap wonder tag," he said.

And in that regard, he was horribly unlucky. Picked to play against England in the Five Nations Championship the following January, he was forced to withdraw just two days before the game. "I'm down in the programme, but I didn't play. Instead, my place was taken by Kenny Murphy from Cork, and he was kept on afterwards."

It's a story of a career littered with disappointments, but Rainey wouldn't change anything. "Look, I got a cap, I played in Lansdowne Road, and I played against the world champions. There were other good days, but that was the highlight and I will never forget it," he said.

- Barry Coughlan.