Carter in bid to sign off with a victory
DAN Carter is inspired by another shot at history as he lines up for French club Racing 92 in this weekend’s European Champions Cup semi-finals.
The Paris club take on Irish heavyweights Munster in Bordeaux on Sunday.
Racing have never won the major European title. Neither has Carter and he knows this is his last chance as he prepares to head to the Japan at the end of the season to finish his illustrious career.
“It’s huge – not only for me, but for the team,” Carter, 36, said of the semi-final.
“I love having history and doing things that no teams have done before.
“If you look back at Racing 92’s history and how rare it is to make a final in Europe, we were lucky enough to do it a couple of years ago, so we’d love to go one step further.
“[But] we realise that we can’t look too far ahead. We’ve got quality opposition in front of us, so we’ll enjoy this moment and make sure that we continue to work hard to give ourselves the best chance to make the final.”
Carter, still Test rugby’s top scorer who won everything with the All Blacks and achieved plenty with Canterbury and the Crusaders, has won a French title with Racing, but was part of their team that lost the 2015-16 European final to Saracens in his first season with the club.
Munster, meanwhile, are hopeful Keith Earls will be fit to take on the French aristocrats.
“Earlsie will be back on the field this week and we’re looking forward to seeing how he has recovered since his injury,” said head coach Johann van Graan.
“Jack O’Donoghue will also be back. We’ll just take it day-by-day and give guys as much time as we can to make the right decisions to select the team that’s all ready to go on Sunday.”
Munster go into the game on the back of a successful trip to South Africa where they beat both Southern Kings and the Cheetahs.
“We trained smartly and tried to rectify one of the things we weren’t happy with against Toulon. We gave the Kings and the Cheetahs the respect that they deserved while also doing one or two small things in preparation for Racing 92,” added van Graan.