The All Blacks played poorly against the Lions in the second test of 1993, so Stensness was called in for his All Black debut in the final which was the deciding test. He performed well and set up Frank Bunce with a deft kick-through of the ball, and his subsequent test appearances against Samoa and Ireland were impressive. He had a disappointing end of season tour to England and Scotland after suffering an early injury on the tour and he played in only six matches but played well in the end of tour match against the Barbarians. He never seemed to have the full confidence of then All Black coach Laurie Mains. By now Carlos Spencer was well established in Auckland, and Stensness had become a specialist second five, though he occasionally returned to first five. He was at number 10 in the Super 12 semifinal of 1996 when Spencer was injured and for the first part of the 1996 representative programme when Spencer was with the All Blacks in South Africa. John Hart, who had taken over as All Black coach, showed a renewed interest by taking him on the NZ Barbarians' short tour of England at the end of the 1996 season, where they played the English. In 1997 Stensness was recalled to the All Blacks for the first five tests of the season but after the tri-nations against the Springboks in South Africa he was dropped for Alama Ieremia. Stensness never played for the All Blacks again, missing out even on the 36-man side to tour Britain and France.