‘Mature’ Cruden ready to fill Carter’s boots

There has been no shortage of photo ops for the few dozen fans lingering around the lobby of the All Blacks’ hotel in West Dublin this week but none left happy unless they came away with a snapshot or signature from Dan Carter.

Injured and absent from tomorrow’s line-up he may be but the man they call DC, though humble and personable, is never less than a magnet for attention and has been through nine years and 100 international caps.

Walking in his wake can’t be easy matter, but New Zealand are better stocked than most when it comes to their depth chart as we saw when they won a World Cup with a fourth-choice out-half plucked from a fishing expedition on the Waikato River. Stephen Donald has long since dropped even further down the list of prospective replacements for the man who wore the golden boots last week in Twickenham so the baton will pass on to Aaron Cruden and Beauden Barrett tomorrow.