Practice makes perfect

Dan Carter doesn’t usually do chuffed.

Perfectionists tend to be hard to please, so the All Blacks first fiveeighth’s body language as he discussed the fifth drop goal of his 87-test career was revealing.

There’s not much the 30-year-old hasn’t done on a rugby field but winning a match with a pot was surprisingly a new experience.

‘‘I was trying to work it out with our backs coach Fozzie [Ian Foster] whether I’d ever got a [drop] kick in the last few minutes to get a victory,’’ Carter said. ‘‘I don’t think I have in my career, so it’s pretty rewarding.’’

And while ‘‘relief’’ was Carter’s overwhelming emotion, it was followed up with a decent dose of satisfaction that cool heads had helped split a 19-19 deadlock.

‘‘Before we put the ball into that scrum we knew exactly what we were doing,’’ he said.

‘‘We practise these scenarios and it was good to get an opportunity in a game to seal a win because of it.’’

Current selector Grant Fox is the only player to have kicked more drop goals for the All Blacks in tests, with seven. Carter joined Don Clarke, Doug Bruce and Mac Herewini on five.

This was an almost cathartic experience for a player who sat injured in the stands at the end of the 2007 World Cup quarterfinal during which the All Blacks showed an innate inability to set up the winning pot.

Carter is in sublime kicking form. His timing has rarely been better and none of his four penalties and a conversion looked like missing.