Dan Carter

This article is about the New Zealand rugby player. For the Connecticut politician, see Dan Carter (politician).

Dan Carter

Full name	Daniel William Carter
Date of birth	5 March 1982 (1982-03-05)
Place of birth	Southbridge, Canterbury, New Zealand
Height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	94 kg (14 st 11 lb)
School	Ellesmere College Christchurch Boys' High
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Fly-Half, Inside centre
Professional / senior clubs
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2008-2009	Perpignan
Provincial/State sides
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1999–present	Canterbury	34	(45)
correct as of 28 September 2009.
Super Rugby
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2001–present	Crusaders	95	(1,272)28t
correct as of 9 July 2011.
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
2003–present	New Zealand	85	(1,250)29t
correct as of 25 September 2011.

Daniel William "Dan" Carter (born 5 March 1982(1982-03-05)) is a New Zealand rugby union player.

He is currently the highest points scorer in test match rugby and is regarded as one of rugby's greatest ever fly-halves.

Early life

Carter was born on 5 March 1982 in Southbridge, a small town in the South Island of New Zealand, to Neville and Bev Carter, and has one older sister, Sarah. From the age of 5, he played with Southbridge Rugby Club as a scrum half. He attended Ellesmere College and Christchurch Boys High School, and has said he was a shy and quiet young man who kept grand aspirations to himself. His great uncle was Canterbury and New Zealand half back Bill Dalley, a member of the 1924–25 Invincibles and later a Canterbury rugby administrator.

Provincial

Carter kicking at goal for the Crusaders

Carter made his provincial debut for Canterbury in 2002, and in 2003 was selected to play in the Super 12 (now Super Rugby) franchise the Crusaders. Initially playing mainly at second five-eighth Carter reached the final of the competition with the Crusaders in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Although they lost the 2003 and 2004 finals, in 2005 Carter had moved to first five-eighth. He regularly played with Andrew Mehrtens before Mehrtens left the team following their 2004 season. In 2005 and 2006 the Crusaders won the competition, and in the 2006 season Carter scored the most individual points for a player in one season with 221. In April 2008, Carter was linked with a possible move to the Welsh Magners League region the Cardiff Blues along with Guinness Premiership returnees Northampton Saints until being linked to play next season with French teams RC Toulonnais as well as Stade Toulousain who in April 2008 offered Carter "the biggest rugby contract in world rugby", at £750,000 per year. In June 2008, Carter made the decision to sign a six-month contract with French club side Perpignan, who then paid Carter the equivalent of £30,000 per game, during his sabbatical season. On 31 January 2009 Carter ruptured his achilles tendon playing for Perpignan against Stade Francais but they still managed to win the Top 14. He ended up recovering earlier than expected and played for his province, Canterbury, in the opening game of the 2009 Air New Zealand Cup. He then won selection to play for the All Blacks against Australia on 22 August 2009 after only recovering for a few months. He is now the top scorer in Super 12/14 rugby history.

International

In June 2003, Carter made his All Blacks debut at age 21 in Hamilton, New Zealand, scoring 20 points against Wales. He was then capped against France in Christchurch, which the All Blacks won 31–23. He was also a substitute in a match against Australia (the Wallabies) in Sydney, which the All Blacks won 50–21. Carter was then included in New Zealand's 2003 Rugby World Cup squad, where he first gained serious international attention. Carter spent much of the latter stages of the tournament on the bench leaving New Zealand without a specialist goal-kicker. However, he did play in the games against Italy in Melbourne, which the All Blacks won 70–7, and the wins over Canada and Tonga. Although he has been an All Black since 2003 he only secured a permanent position as the first five-eighth in the team during the 2004 tour to the United Kingdom and France displacing Carlos Spencer. He had been playing as a second five-eighths up until the end of the 2004 Tri-Nations. After Carter's performance in the second All Blacks Test against the British and Irish Lions in 2005, he was hailed as the next big thing in world rugby. He scored two tries, five penalties, and four conversions. He ended the match with 33 points, passing the previous All Blacks record of 18 points in a Lions Test (Carter's second-half total of 22 points by itself was sufficient to top this).^{[citation needed]}

On 27 November 2010, after scoring a halfway penalty against Wales, Carter became the highest point scorer of all time, overtaking England's Jonny Wilkinson's previous record of 1,178 although Wilkinson took the record back on 26 February 2011 against France. Carter reclaimed the record on 30 July 2011 when he advanced to 1,204 points in the first tri-nations match of the 2011 series against South Africa. He has currently scored a total of 1,250 test points (29 tries, 224 conversions, 215 penalties, and 4 drop goals) in 85 tests, with an average of 15.0 points a game (the highest average for players who have scored more than 500 Test points). Along with Richie McCaw Carter earns 750,000 NZD a year being the joint highest paid player in New Zealand. This high paying contract by the New Zealand Rugby Union is not subject to form or fitness as both players are regarded integral to the All Blacks 2011 Rugby World Cup plans. After being vice captain for more than 50 tests under Richie McCaw, it was announced on 1 October that Carter would captain the All Blacks for the first time against Canada. However, it was later announced that Carter would miss the rest of the 2011 Rugby World Cup after tearing a groin tendon during the final training session before the match against Canada. Carter has signed a contract to re-sign with the NZRU until 2015.

International tries

Try	Opposing team	Location	Venue	Competition	Date	Result
1	Wales	Hamilton, New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Test Match	02003-06-21 21 June 2003	Won
2	Australia	Sydney, Australia	Stadium Australia	Tri Nations	02003-07-26 26 July 2003	Won
3	Italy	Melbourne, Australia	Docklands Stadium	Rugby World Cup	02003-10-11 11 October 2003	Won
4	Tonga	Brisbane, Australia	Lang Park	Rugby World Cup	02003-10-24 24 October 2003	Won
5	England	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	Test Match	02004-06-19 19 June 2004	Won
6	Italy	Rome, Italy	Stadio Flaminio	Test Match	02004-11-13 13 November 2004	Won
7	France	Paris, France	Stade de France	Test Match	02004-11-27 27 November 2004	Won
8	Fiji	North Shore City, New Zealand	North Harbour Stadium	Test Match	02005-06-10 10 June 2005	Won
9	British and Irish Lions	Wellington, New Zealand	Westpac Stadium	Test Match	02005-07-02 2 July 2005	Won
10	British and Irish Lions	Wellington, New Zealand	Westpac Stadium	Test Match	02005-07-02 2 July 2005	Won
11	Wales	Cardiff, Wales	Millennium Stadium	Test Match	02005-11-05 5 November 2005	Won
12	Wales	Cardiff, Wales	Millennium Stadium	Test Match	02005-11-05 5 November 2005	Won
13	Argentina	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Ferrocaril Oeste	Test Match	02006-06-24 24 June 2006	Won
14	South Africa	Rustenburg, South Africa	Royal Bafokeng Stadium	Tri Nations	02006-09-02 2 September 2006	Lost
15	England	London, England	Twickenham	Test Match	02006-11-05 5 November 2006	Won
16	France	Lyon, France	Stade de Gerland	Test Match	02006-11-11 11 November 2006	Won
17	Canada	Hamilton, New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Test Match	02007-06-16 16 June 2007	Won
18	Canada	Hamilton, New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Test Match	02007-06-16 16 June 2007	Won
19	Canada	Hamilton, New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Test Match	02007-06-16 16 June 2007	Won
20	South Africa	Christchurch, New Zealand	Lancaster Park	Tri Nations	02007-07-14 14 July 2007	Won
21	Scotland	Edinburgh, Scotland	Murrayfield	Test Match	02007-09-23 23 September 2007	Won
22	England	Auckland, New Zealand	Eden Park	Test Match	02008-06-14 14 June 2008	Won
23	England	Christchurch, New Zealand	Lancaster Park	Test Match	02008-06-21 21 June 2008	Won
24	South Africa	Cape Town, South Africa	Newlands Stadium	Tri Nations	02008-08-16 16 August 2008	Won
25	Australia	Brisbane, Australia	Lang Park	Tri Nations	02008-09-13 13 September 2008	Won
26	Wales	Dunedin, New Zealand	Carisbrook	Test Match	02010-06-19 19 June 2010	Won
27	Wales	Dunedin, New Zealand	Carisbrook	Test Match	02010-06-19 19 June 2010	Won
28	Australia	Melbourne, Australia	Docklands Stadium	Tri Nations	02010-07-31 31 July 2010	Won
29	Scotland	Edinburgh, Scotland	Murrayfield	Test Match	02010-11-13 13 November 2010	Won

Source:

Personal life

Carter models for Jockey underwear on billboards worldwide. His girlfriend (now wife), Honor Dillon joined him in one campaign in 2009.

In 2004 and 2005, Carter was voted sexiest New Zealand male in a survey, receiving 35.7% of the vote in 2005.

In November 2006, he released a book entitled Dan Carter: Skills & Performance. It included stories about his relatively brief international rugby career as well as section on skills for younger players.

In 2008 American Cable Channel E! Entertainment judged Carter to be 11th on their list of Sexiest Men in The World. In 2010, E! voted Carter the 3rd sexiest male athlete in the World.^{[citation needed]}

Carter was the first person in the world to purchase a PC shipped with Windows Vista. In addition to Jockey, Carter also is a spokesmodel for Daikin heat pumps and from mid 2011, Philips electric shavers and with the All Blacks, Rexona deoderant

In October 2010, he got engaged to his longtime girlfriend and former Black Sticks striker Honor Dillon, now a brand manager. They were married on 9 December 2011. Among the guests were some of the All Blacks squad and staff including captain Richie McCaw and former All Blacks coach Graham Henry.

Honours

Personal Accolades

• 2004 – Kelvin Tremain Memorial Trophy for Player of the Year
• 2004 – Rebel Sport Super 14 Player of the Year
• 2005 – Kelvin Tremain Memorial Trophy for Player of the Year
• 2005 – IRB International Player of the Year
• 2006 – Rebel Sport Super 14 Player of the Year
• 2010 – Most super Rugby points in the world

Carter also has the highest points average per test (15.1 points per test).

Crusaders

• 2002 Super 12 Champion

• 2005 Super 12 Champion

• 2006 Super 14 Champion

• 2008 Super 14 Champion

Perpignan

• 2009 Top 14 Champion

Canterbury

• 2001 NPC/Air New Zealand Cup Champion

• 2004 NPC/Air New Zealand Cup Champion

• 2008 NPC/Air New Zealand Cup Champion

• 2009 NPC/Air New Zealand Cup Champion

• 2010 NPC/Air New Zealand Cup Champion

New Zealand

• 2003 Tri Nations Winner

• 2005 Tri Nations Winner

• 2005 Home Nations Grand Slam Tour

• 2006 Tri Nations Winner

• 2007 Tri Nations Winner

• 2008 Tri Nations Winner

• 2008 Home Nations Grand Slam Tour

• 2010 Tri Nations Winner

• 2010 Home Nations Grand Slam Tour

• 2011 Rugby World Cup Winner

See also

• List of male underwear models

External links

• The Official website of Dan Carter
• Daniel Carter at AllBlacks.com
• Dan Carter profile on itsrugby.co.uk
• Dan Carter Videos

Awards
Preceded by Schalk Burger	IRB International Player of the Year 2005	Succeeded by Richie McCaw