All Blacks look for solution at No. 10
New Zealand appear to have no real successor at this point to Dan Carter after a poor performance by Luke McAlister against Italy in Christchurch on Saturday. Duncan Johnstone, writing on Rugby Heaven, believes that McAlister's spell at Sale Sharks in the Premiership did him no favours at all in preparing him for a return to international rugby.
"Luke McAlister is living proof of how poor the English club rugby scene is.
Three appearances for the All Blacks have shown how slow he's been to get back up to the pace of test rugby off a stodgy English diet.It should be a concern that he still looks a long way off Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup standard and that of course is what now beckons after another average All Blacks performance, this time against Six Nations wooden spooners Italy.
Two years in the chill of Manchester with Sale seem to have stunned his instincts.
They say it's hard to compare the rugby of the two hemispheres but there have been a few people backing the north in recent weeks."
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