1056 Campbell Johnstone

As he had never ever been a regular starter in the two seasons he had spent in the Crusaders Super 12 squad, Campbell Johnstone was a surprise selection when he made the All Blacks for the early season tests in 2005.

Justifying his selection, one of the All Blacks coaching staff, Steve Hansen, memorably described him as having one of the best right shoulders in the game.

As it happened, Johnstone had only a brief stint in the All Blacks, his three test appearances, against Fiji and in the final two matches against the Lions, all being as a second spell replacement, his total time in an All Black jersey being 73 minutes.

A specialist on the tight-head side, Johnstone faced considerable competition from the likes of Carl Hayman, Greg Somerville and John Afoa. With Hayman and Tony Woodcock becoming the preferred propping pair, and with Somerville the reserve because of his ability to scrum on either side, Johnstone was not used during the 2005 tri-nations competition.

He was then overlooked for Afoa and another capable of playing on either head, Neemia Tialata, for the end-of-season Grand Slam tour of Britain and Ireland. That was to be the end of Johnstone’s All Blacks’ career, though he continued to play usefully for Canterbury and the Crusaders and remained a sturdy scrummager. By the 2008 season Johnstone had achieved exactly 100 games in the red and black sides, 62 for Canterbury and 38 for the Crusaders.

Originally from Hawke’s Bay, he played for the New Zealand secondary schools side in 1997 from Lindisfarne College in Hastings and for the national under 19s in 1998. The other prop in those sides was his later All Black rival, Hayman.

Johnstone moved to Canterbury to study at Lincoln University and such was the quality of props available in that province at the time it took him a number of seasons to break into representative rugby. Also available to Canterbury then were Somerville and three others who had been or were to be All Blacks, Dave Hewett, Greg Feek and Con Barrell.

Johnstone, in fact, was lent back to his home province, Hawke’s Bay, for two 2000 appearances in the national championship second division. He made the 2001 New Zealand under 21 side and finally cracked the Canterbury NPC side in 2002 and the Crusaders only in 2004.

He was a member of the Canterbury side which won the Ranfurly Shield in 2004 and the NPC first division, and was also in the Crusaders squad for the 2005-2006 Super 12/14 successes. But it was a summary of his career that for the three finals in those three seasons, and the shield win over Bay of Plenty, he came on as a replacement.

With Somerville, Hewett and later Wyatt Crockett and Ben Franks in the same squads, Johnstone was constantly a bench-warmer, which perhaps did not help his chances of an All Black recall. But he remained in national calculations and was in the Junior All Blacks, or as it was formerly known, New Zealand A, in each of the 2006-07 seasons.

A hand injury frustrated his 2008 Super 14 campaign, limiting him to just two appearances. Just as the 2008 Air New Zealand Cup competition was about to start, Johnstone confirmed a move to French club, Biarritz.