Jane did almost nothing in his ~44min. SBW comes on and replaces him and scores 2 trys, sets up at least one other and does some good work on defence and is heavely involved in the game overall and are slaming the idea?

I wouldn't have been sure about a move like that last week but it worked in my eyes and is an option for the next game. The only thing really to be unsure about SBW is under the high ball at the back but he's got great ball skills and he's very tall and with Mills supporting him I think he'd be fine.

I think this situation has been forces but the horid fact that neither Jane, Toeava or Guildford have done the job as wingers in recent times. Toeava maybe the best of them but he's lacked a bit in finishing some chances that should have been finished. Thank Odin Kahui has nailed one wing spot, he's been pretty much flawless on either side of the park. I was looking forward to Jane having a big game but he didn't deliver which makes things complicated.

People need to take it easy on Slade, he's a good player and backing up Carter is the hardest job in NZ rugby. Your chances are limited and every mistake you make gets 4million people on your back and if you're not as good as the best 10 in the world that's not good enough. If the NZ public had got behind donald When things were tough NZ would be better off right now. People still giving donald ****, how many people said he peaked at ITM cup level in this thread alone? Donald is the only 10 outside Carter to be an established first choice 10 at super level in NZ over the last 4 years and he's the only 10 other than Carter to take a team to the super rugby final in at least the last 4-5 years and though his haters hate to admit it he has had match winning performances for the All Blacks to and at the very least his goal kicking for the all blacks was 73-74% which was the same as Carter's %age over the same period.

Time to get behind slade IMO nuf said. Slade's goal kicking started out a bit rough in blustery conditions (one of his kicks looked like it moved right then left then right again...) and he made a couple handelling errors (knock on and intercept pass). The important thing is that he learns from it, I think he did get a bit better as the game went on which is a good sign.

If anything what worried me about that game is the lineout, I didn't like the AB's losing some of their own throws to Japan. And the kickoff where Japan caused problems kicking off to Conrad Smith close to the 10m line.

But overall the game gets a pass mark from me because I think in some ways it was an improvement from the Tonga game and many players played well and combinations worked well together after a lot of changes. Plus chances that were created almost always resulted in trys.

For the AB's this game is really going to come down to winning three games in a row which we all knew anyway. But unlike 2007 at least out last two pool games will be good hit outs and at least the Refs aren't being as negative or as yellow card happy as they were in 2007. yes Carter is critical but we know that anyway.