Still no solution at No 10

BY DUNCAN JOHNSTONE

OPINION: 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.

In response I ask the $64m question and ponder whether McAlister would have been better prepared for a return to test football if he'd sat out two years and simply played the Super 14 and Air New Zealand Cup? You bet, because it's played at twice the pace of the plodding Poms.

When you see how the English have stalled McAlister's game it's no surprise that their national team find themselves in the midst of a sorry slump that has mirrored his time in the Mother Land.

Test football is rugby's fastest form and it doesn't happen much quicker than at first five-eighths where McAlister played.

That showed from the kickoff for McAlister. Even though it was only Italy, he took a quarter of the game to get anywhere near the speed of the match.

He deserves as much attention as Stephen Donald got over the last two weeks in the quest to fill the playmaker's role.

McAlister's first 20 minutes were a run of errors - twice he was awfully hesitant under high ball, he failed to find touch with a penalty, he kicked into touch on the full, he dropped a pass in front of his own posts, and he spilled a ball while offloading.

Then he put in a rock solid touchfinder and things started to turn his way. His next cross kick went into Joe Rokocoko's breadbasket for a try that helped the struggling winger start to find his game too.

But it was a brief respite as "ordinary" returned to haunt much of New Zealand's play, Isaac Ross and Mils Muliaina apart.

As the team's navigator - a reluctant one it should be noted - McAlister had to carry a fair bit of the responsibility for their lack of direction at times. The All Blacks were guilty of going across the field rather than up the guts.

McAlister had a mountain of ball to work with but struggled to get the All Blacks out of their own half for most of the test.

Of course he wasn't the only guilty party.

The pack failed to make many inroads. It's been a concern that in all three tests during the Iveco Series there has been little pick and go from the big men and a reluctance to try to develop their maul, a weapon that the Springboks won't be shy to use.

The back row didn't take the step up from their solid effort in Wellington and it was disappointing to see Tanerau Latimer being subbed for George Whitelock with plenty of the match left.

Richie McCaw can't get back fast enough, not just for his supreme openside play but also for the direction he gives the pack and team in general with his follow-me style of play in the thick of the action up front.

Amongst the backs there are too many 50-50 passes being thrown that predators like Bryan Habana and Stirling Mortlock will dine on.

The All Blacks coaches face some interesting decisions in the three weeks ahead of the Tri-Nations opener against Australia at Eden Park, perhaps none bigger than at No 10 where this search to find Dan Carter's stand-in hasn't exactly given much confidence.

But right now I'd back the Super 14 skills of Donald ahead of the English Premiership play of McAlister.

- © Fairfax NZ News