Dan Carter – Player Profile
Daniel William Carter is a rugby player for the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU). He plays at the position of fly-half and is known as the best first string player in rugby, surpassing the likes of Andrew Mehrtens.
Dan Carter was born in March of 1982 in Southbridge, New Zealand. He attended the Christchurch Boys High School and then graduated from the Ellesmere College. He joined the NZRU in 2002 at the position of the inside centre and played his first match with
the Crusaders in the Super Rugby tournament of 2003 in which they lost. He was drafted to play at the international level with the All Blacks in the same year against Wales, winning by a score of 55-3. The same year he also played in the Rugby World Cup (RWC)
2003, garnering international interest even though New Zealand did not make it to the final match.
In 2004, he made it to the position of fly-half, after the Tri-Nations 2004 tournament. However, the Crusaders lost the tournament despite excellent plays by Carter. The Crusaders went on to play for the Tri-Nations tournament in 2005. The team won the tournament
and Carter was honoured with two Player of the Year awards, one from the International Rugby Board (IRB) and the other from Kelvin Tremain Memorial. The latter award was also achieved during his performances in the 2004 season. He also won the New Zealand's
Player of the Year award in 2005 season.
The Crusaders once again won the Tri-Nations title in 2006. The 2006 season saw Carter garnering the most points for a single player, which amounted to a total of 221. Furthermore, during one of the test matches against England, he took his team the All
Blacks to a win and earned a record of having the most tries in a game, added to his name.
The All Blacks achieved their third win at Tri-Nations 2007, with the help of Carter. This gave them the right to move on to face the RWC 2007. However, Carter and the team lost to France in the quarter finals of the RWC. The loss was the worst amongst all
their RWC performances.
The 2008 season resulted in another win for the All Blacks in the Tri-Nations. The tour that took place after the Nations tournament was an all over win for the team, as they beat each of the participating nations, that is, an overall Grand Slam was achieved.
The 2008 season was rife with speculations of Carter leaving the NZRU. However, NZRU granted the player a leave along with a contract renewal. The player used this opportunity to sign a 7 month contract with the Perpignan team of French rugby union, in order
to play in the Top 14 tournament. An injury prevented him completing his season, though Perpignan themselves went on to win the tournament.
After his injury recovery, Carter joined the Crusaders again in 2009. He went to play for Canterbury in their provincial Air New Zealand Cup 2009. He was also drafted for the 2009 Tri-Nations but the Crusaders failed to win the cup. He did manage to lead
the All Blacks to a 19-18 win against Australia the same year.
2010 was a record making series of events for Carter. He surpassed the leading point scorer record in the history of Super Rugby tournament. This world record was previously held by Stirling Mortlock. In Super Rugby 2010 he also passed his own record to
score more than 1000 points. In the same year he also managed to achieve a record in test series. In the Tri-Nations 2010, he made another record by obtaining 19 points, a record comparable to Jonny Wilkinson of England.
Now, for the RWC 2011, Carter is once again opting to play for NZRU. The contract has been signed for a further four years and like the last time also offers him some time off during the term of the deal.
Tags: