DAN STILL THE MAN
Legend Carter is rising to new challenges after quitting the All Blacks with ‘no regrets’
DAN CARTER slept for most of the 16-hour flight from Doha to Auckland on Friday. The man once considered the best rugby player in the world woke a little before the plane touched down and watched a documentary about Usain Bolt. When the aircraft got to the gate, he was quickest out of the blocks, the first on to home soil.
Carter posed happily for pictures with groups of British and Irish Lions fans in the baggage claim area, laughing easily with men and women who were in awe of him and what he stood for. Everything about Carter speaks of the might of the All Blacks and a love of the game that is unrivalled anywhere else in the world.
He was not here for work. He was not here to gaze into a television lens and dissect yesterday’s first Test for a network. He was here as a fan, he said. He was here for the excitement of seeing the All Blacks and the Lions and the joy of meeting up with former team-mates and reliving their shared war stories.
They got the band back together last week. Down in Christchurch, the old skipper, Richie McCaw, was piloting a helicopter above the city, showing journalists how it was being rebuilt after the devastating earthquake of 2011, before he headed north for the first Test and a reunion with Carter and many of the World Cup-winning side.
Carter (below) retired from the international game after capping a stellar career with a match-winning performance in the World Cup final against Australia at Twickenham in 2015. For many, he still represents the spirit of excellence that the Lions face here.
Carter has his own history against the Lions, scoring 33 points in the second Test at Wellington in 2005 in a 48-18 All Blacks triumph. It was part of an international career which ended with a record 1,598 points, 99 match victories, two World Cups, nine Tri- Nations series wins and undisputed status as the greatest fly-half in the history of the game.
Carter, 35, who won 112 caps, now plays his club rugby for Racing 92 in Paris, but he has no regrets about no longer being involved with the All Blacks. He exudes the contentment of a man professionally fulfilled, a man who epitomised the qualities that make New Zealand such formidable opponents.
Some felt t he All Blacks might suffer when they lost Carter, McCaw, Keven Mealamu, Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith after the World Cup but aside from defeat by Ireland at Soldier Field in Chicago last November, they have shown precious little vulnerability.
Carter does not have a shred of envy about that. He has let his All Blacks career go. ‘I have no regrets about not playing in this series against the Lions,’ Carter says. ‘It’s not difficult for me. I have been lucky enough to be a part of it through my career and I achieved so much. ‘ Ever since I decided to move away and explore the challenge of playing overseas, there has never been a moment when I wished I was an All Black still. I’ve closed that chapter of my life. ‘I was able to move on on my own terms at a special time by winning the 2015 World Cup. I have no regrets whatsoever. I had a fantastic 13 years in the black jersey and I feel very privileged about that. ‘The big goal as an All Black is to leave the jersey in a better place than when you got it and I felt I did. Now I am just like everyone else: a huge fan.’ Carter did make one public appearance before yesterday’s game when he went to a fans’ event at the Queens Wharf in Auckland to discuss his performance in that 2005 humbling of the Lions. ‘Really, I’m just here to catch up with friends,’ he says, ‘and to watch some fantastic rugby. I would regret not coming here because it’s such a unique series, more so for Kiwis because it’s only every 12 years here.
‘I was involved 12 years ago and it was a special series for me. I would have been silly not to come here, watch the games live, catch up with old team-mates and relive a few f ond memories. And watch a fantastic Test series as well.
‘Playing against the Lions is right up with the best. The World Cup is the pinnacle and if you get the opportunity to play in a Lions series it is a pretty close second.
‘It is very different to the rivalries with Australia and South Africa and teams you play so often and know so well. There’s a bi t of uncertainty [against the Lions] because you don’t know how it’s going to go.
‘We play northern hemisphere teams regularly but when four proud top rugby nations come together, you don’t know how well they are going to gel or what they are going to produce. As a player, it is something you want to be involved in.’
His French adventure has not been without its problems. Carter was arrested for drink-driving in Paris in February and booed off the pitch by his own fans after Racing suffered a heavy defeat by La Rochelle in March. Carter later admitted to a ‘ massive error of judgment’ regarding the driving incident but insists that his move to French rugby, where he became the best paid player in the world, was the challenge he needed after calling time on his All Blacks life.
‘It’s been everything I thought and more,’ Carter says. ‘I had a little taste of it for six months when I played down in Perpignan some years ago. That was a brief stint.
‘Now I’m living every part of the culture. And having my wife and children there as well, that’s been great. It’s just the challenge I needed. It’s hard for my family to be away from New Zealand but I have been spending a lot more time with my children, so I am seeing them grow up a lot more, which you don’t get to do when you are travelling around the world with the All Blacks. ‘New Zealand will always be home but I get more freedom in Europe in terms of being able to go about my life. That was one of the smaller reasons for deciding to play for a Parisian club.
‘There are parts in the south of France where they are just as mad about rugby as Kiwis are. We are on the outskirts of Paris and it’s a big international city and we are only getting 12,000 people to our games. That’s nice in some ways.’
But for now, Carter is back home — as a supporter this time, not a player. His last act as an international was to kick a right-footed penalty for the first time in his career in the World Cup final.
It was something he had always wanted to do. It was one l ast challenge.
Its fulfilment was the last tick of the last box in his All Blacks journey. And as the Lions head south to Wellington for the second Test and the scene of Carter’s great triumph 12 years ago, he emphasises again that they are up against more than just a rugby team.
‘In New Zealand,’ Carter says, ‘it is every boy’s dream to play for the All Blacks, so when that dream becomes a reality it’s a special thing. It’s something most boys grow up wanting to do and when it happens you carry a heavy responsibility to the nation.
‘There are a couple of reasons why there is so much pride in being an All Black. The first is it’s the number one sport in the country. It’s so far ahead of any other sport here. There are such a wide variety of sports to play in other countries, but not here.
‘And then there’s the history of the All Blacks. It’s what everyone talks about and gets excited about. It’s ingrained in our culture. For a small nation to be so successful for well over a century is astonishing really. It’s become a religion here in New Zealand.’
The Lions are not up against Carter and McCaw any more. Instead, they are facing the happy legacy of unrivalled glories the greatest of All Blacks bequeathed to their successors.