Dan Carter hoping to end with winning smile
His happiness is understandable even despite the fact he is about to have the first of many media interviews in his role as an ambassador for a credit card company. The All Blacks, after a 27-19 humbling at the hands of the Wallabies in Sydney the week before, have just gained a measure of revenge and in the process protected a winning streak against their neighbours at their fortress which stretches back to 1986.
Carter played well — running the ball and directing operations with intent and skill and providing the final passes for Dane Coles and Ma’a Nonu to score tries on a cool evening in Auckland. But it’s not until after the All Blacks World Cup squad is announced in Wellington’s parliament building, the Beehive, nearly three weeks later, that it becomes apparent how important his performance was.
If Carter hadn’t responded to the challenge posed by fly-half rival Lima Sopoaga, it would have been the 24-year-old Highlanders player travelling to England rather than the world record test points scorer considered one of the best No 10s to have played the game.
For Carter, who has seen his three previous World Cups end in tears — the first two in 2003 and 2007 after defeat in the knockout stages and the last due to a groin injury in Wellington in 2011 — it would have been a miserable end to a magnificent career, one which his impending lucrative deal to join Racing in Paris would have done little to assuage.
It is another reminder of how cruel professional sport at the top level can be. There is no guarantee that in a few weeks, Carter will get the swansong he cherishes but at least he is here and looking to atone for the gut-wrenching disappointment of 2011 when he ruptured a groin tendon with his final practice kick on the eve of the Canada pool match in Wellington.
Then, he was about to captain the All Blacks for the first time. Instead, he had to look forward to a press conference in Auckland a couple of days later which contained all the levity of a funeral. On that day four years ago in a hotel conference room in Takapuna, Carter had a glassy look in his eyes as he said: “Obviously it’s pretty gut-wrenching... just the randomness of the injury and for it to come out of the blue... I’m constantly asking, ‘Why did this happen?’ And I just don’t have the answer.”
Later, as if he felt the concern building in a nation hoping to win the William Webb Ellis Cup 24 years after it last held it, Carter said: “I encourage everyone to move on. I have, and I’m obviously pretty disappointed, but I’m now here to help the team and I think that’s what everyone should [do], move on too.”
Now, the 33-year-old’s body is behaving itself which has helped him play with a confidence he has found a little elusive this year. He is seen by the selectors as having the game to win back the World Cup, and certainly his experience (106 tests and 1,516 test points before the tournament) and mental strength are likely to be big factors if they achieve that goal.
he All Blacks’ mantra for the last World Cup at home — a potentially suffocating environment after their failures to win it since 1987 — was to walk towards the pressure, to embrace it.
As rain lashed down outside the Eden Rugby Club during our recent interview, Carter, sitting near a framed All Blacks jersey, is asked if his team’s approach would be similar to last time.
He says: “That’s more a mindset of playing test rugby. Every week there’s pressure and expectation, and you have to embrace the pressure or walk towards it. It’s something we talk about every year, not just World Cup year.
“I’m not sure what the mindset or theme is going to be for this World Cup. Obviously we’ll wait until the team is named and I’m sure the coaches will give their views on something to really drive the team. But it’s already been talked about, this team wanting to win back-to-back World Cups, so that’s going to be a real driving force.
“It’s something that’s never been done before so it’s clearly hard to do, you can’t just turn up and expect it to happen. It will take a lot of hard work... and we know with World Cups anything can happen on the day. When you come to the playoff stage, don’t take anything for granted.”
After the disaster of Cardiff in 2007, when the All Blacks were dumped out in the quarter-final stage by France, one of the most notable messages from coach Steve Hansen heading into this tournament is the fact they can take nothing for granted, even after their opening weekend victory over the ravenous Pumas.
Beyond the quarter-final that a victory tonight against Georgia guarantees, they are taking nothing for granted — one of their main lessons from the 2007 tournament.
t takes mental strength, as well as physical durability, to win a World Cup and come back from the injuries Carter has had, including a serious Achilles problem suffered during his short stint at Perpignan in 2008. The disappointments have instilled a maturity into Carter, just as his new family has — he is a father of boys Marco and Fox, to his wife Honor, a former New Zealand hockey representative.
He believes he is a more relaxed character now and that can be seen in his response now to his injury of four years ago, one in which he collapsed in agony, one which was captured by an agency photographer and which nearly became the defining image of New Zealand’s tournament. That’s all in the past, he says.
“It was a bit of a freak accident; I’ve had my groin operated on and I’m back to full strength now without any problems so that’s reassuring.”
Reassuring too, is the amount of work he’s done on his goal-kicking; he feels he doesn’t need to kick a set number of balls like he used to. “There are times when I might have a few niggles and I’ve just got to back that I’ve been kicking goals pretty much all my life, so if I miss a session or only have a smaller number of kicks in a session, then it doesn’t faze me like it used to.
“I used to have to kick so many balls a week, whereas now I could have a goal-kicking session and only have five kicks — just get into a bit of a rhythm and I’m happy with that, backing the 30-odd years of work I’ve done beforehand.”
A fit, relaxed, in-form Carter on the brink of a fourth World Cup quarter-final. Will he still be smiling at the end of this one?
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