Having made it through training soundly, the stage was set. He was nicely composed during his limited opportunities this morning. There were two pinpoint chip-passes for Charles Piutau and Ben Smith and his goalkicking was perfect, with two conversions and a penalty, including one from the right sideline.
There was a feeling he was playing within himself in preparation of expressing himself fully as the game wore on, but it was not to be.
His replacement Cruden initially found it difficult to impose his will on the game but there were some nice touches. A charged down here, a shimmy and sidestep there.
Cruden packs a surprising amount of power into his a relatively small frame. His work on defence was also important as the All Blacks were forced to scramble time and again.
Scramble they did, though, for the All Blacks' 13th victory of the year.
In the gloom of late afternoon in south west London, Carter smiled on the pitch afterwards as he received his cap from skipper Richie McCaw. The victory and recognition will have gone a long way to ease the personal pain of yet another injury.
"Most people see him come out on a Saturday and be a champion... but the work that goes in makes him a true champion,'' McCaw said in his presentation. "You'll go down as one of the greats of world rugby.''
