Dan Carter

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

Carter plays for the Christchurch based Super Rugby side the Crusaders, and for New Zealand's national team the All Blacks. He is the highest points scorer in Test match rugby, and is arguably the sport's greatest ever first-five eighth (fly-half). He was named the International Rugby Board player of the year in 2005 and 2012, and has won four Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders, and six Tri-Nations and Rugby Championships with the All Blacks.

Carter was also a member of the 2011 Rugby World Cup winning All Blacks side.

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 half back (scrum half). He attended Ellesmere College, and then Christchurch Boys High School, he was also a second-string first five-eighth (fly-half) to Brendon McCullum, who went on to become Black Caps captain in cricket, 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.

Domestic career
Carter made his provincial debut for Canterbury in 2002, and in 2003 was signed by the Super Rugby side the Crusaders. Initially playing mainly at second five-eighth Carter reached the final of the Super 12 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 first-five eighth 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 several European clubs, including 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 Perpignan still managed to win the Top 14 despite Carter being injured for the remainder of the season. He recovered in time to play for his home provincial union, 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 a few months of recovery. In May 2012, Carter was the top scorer in Super Rugby history, with 1301 points. In December 2014 it was announced Carter would be joining Parisian club Racing Metro after the 2015 Rugby World Cup, on a three-year deal worth a reported €1,500,000 a season, making him the worlds highest paid player.

International career
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. In 2005, Carter starred in the All Blacks 48-18 win over the British and Irish Lions. 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). The performance was later described by The Guardian as "the definitive fly-half display of the modern era".

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 1,455 test points (29 tries, 259 conversions, 258 penalties, and 6 drop goals) in 102 tests, with an average of 14.4 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 as integral to the All Blacks 2011 Rugby World Cup plans. 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.

Carter was named IRB Player of the Year in 2012, but eyebrows were raised when he missed out being named in the shortlist for New Zealand Player of the Year.

On 16 November 2013, Carter became the fifth All Black to win 100 caps when New Zealand defeated England by 30-22 at Twickenham on their end of year tour.

International record
Test record overall:

Test tries:

Personal life
Carter is married to his longtime girlfriend and former Black Sticks striker Honor Carter. They became engaged in October 2010 when Honor was Marketing Manager at DB Breweries. They married 9 December 2011 and wedding guests included rugby luminaries Richie McCaw and All Blacks former coach Graham Henry.

Honor announced her pregnancy in November 2012 and their son Marco James Carter was born on 28 March 2013. They are expecting their second child.

Carter has modelled for Jockey underwear on billboards worldwide since 2003. In 2009, Carter and his future wife joined him in one campaign.

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 his book 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! judged Carter to be 11th on its list of the world's sexiest men, and in 2010 E! voted him the world's 3rd sexiest male athlete.

Carter has also been a spokesmodel for Daikin heat pumps, and from mid-2011, Philips electric shavers.

Personal accolades

 * Kelvin Tremain Memorial Trophy (NZ Player of the Year) 2004 and 2005
 * Rebel Sport Super 14 Player of the Year 2004 and 2006
 * IRB Player of the Year 2005 and 2012 (Nominee in 2006 and 2008)
 * All Time Super Rugby Leading Points Scorer
 * All Time International Rugby Leading Point Scorer

Canterbury

 * NPC/Air New Zealand Cup Champion, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2010
 * Ranfurly Shield holder

Crusaders

 * Super Rugby Champion 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2008
 * NZ Conference Winner, 2011
 * Super Rugby Centurion

Perpignan

 * Top 14 Champion 2009

New Zealand

 * Tri Nations/The Rugby Championship Champion, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013
 * British and Irish Lions Series Victory, 2005
 * Home Nations Grand Slam Tour, 2005, 2008 and 2010
 * Rugby World Cup Champion, 2011
 * All Black Test Centurion