By RICHARD HINDS - The Age
Last updated 07:52 30/07/2010
All Blacks and glamour boys are not terms that sit comfortably. Not like, say, All Blacks and ruthless demolition or All Blacks and World Cup heartbreak. But as Dan Carter chats amiably with reporters in the manner of the well-trained modern athlete - talk a great deal without giving away a whole lot - you quickly appreciate how he has mastered this stereotype-defying role.
There are, most significantly, the raw ingredients.
The dark, handsome features that have had Carter regularly included on lists of ''world's sexiest athletes''. And the 28-year-old is a genuine pretty boy, even if his appearance is enhanced somewhat in comparison with a recent visitor to the inquistors table, battered veteran Brad Thorn.
Then there is the stellar career. Carter needs just 16 points tomorrow night to move into second place on the list of all-time test points scorers (he has 1075 at 15.3 per-game in 71 tests) - something good judges say is testament to a reliable boot that gets plenty of opportunities in an often rampant team; but which is almost incidental compared with the precision and creativity of his play from five-eighth.
So total babe magnet and points-scoring machine in a team worshiped by a nation. Little wonder Carter is regularly marketed - most notably during an underwear campaign two years ago - as ''New Zealand's David Beckham''. However, Carter says he has not modelled his career on any other successful international athlete.
''I like to pride myself on having good balance,'' he says. ''Obviously, when I'm involved in other things -media sessions or commercial work - I make sure as soon as I'm on the training paddock it's out of my mind and I'm concentrating on the job at hand. But, yeah, it can make for a busy lifestyle.''
Anything the All Blacks achieve should be weighed against the huge expectation the team shoulders. So you ask Carter if he felt a tinge of jealousy watching the All Whites win public acclaim with their giant-wounding performances in South Africa, while nothing less than constant, convincing victory is good enough from the All Blacks.
''I was just, like most other Kiwis, very proud of our country,'' he says. ''Ranked 78th, or something like that, and to do well against the world champions [Italy], it's probably similar to one of the weaker rugby teams getting within 10 points of the All Blacks. They would get a lot of adulation for that.''
Carter's comparison is revealing. Getting to within 10 points of the All Blacks. Not beating them. In 71 Tests since his debut in June 2003, Carter has been in the losing team just eight times. The thought of defeat clearly does not enter his head - even in a hypothetical sense.
Carter acknowledges those crushing expectations are always there. Slowly growing as a team that plunged New Zealand into mourning after losing in the quarter-finals to France in 2007 works towards a home World Cup next year, when nothing but victory will be acceptable.
Such pressure, Carter says, is like the team socks. It comes with being an All Black. Yet if the All Blacks are most renowned for inflicting mental injury than suffering it, Carter does acknowledge the team's ''head coach'' - mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka - is a crucial part of the support staff.
''Especially with the new guys coming into the environment, it can be a huge step up from anything they've done before, in terms of the pressure.''
For Carter's mental health, a stint with Perpignan in France at the end of 2008 was important - even if the trip was ended prematurely after two months by a serious Achilles tendon injury. Important not just for his bank balance (his initial contract was reportedly €700,000 [$1.3m at the time]), but also because he was able to stroll unnoticed through the streets of European cities where rugby was ''no big deal'' and, less happily, take an enforced break from the game.
''It definitely freshened me up,'' he says. ''It [being an All-Black in New Zealand] can be pretty challenging at times, I'd had seven years of that … hopefully it will help this year and next year as well.''
Talking about Saturday night's opposition, Carter is non-controversial to the point of bald-faced flattery. The Wallabies will miss Quade Cooper but have ''fantastic'' coverage; Will Genia is ''extremely dangerous'', the Australians will be as eager to atone for past failures against the All Blacks as the Kiwis were this year against South Africa. And so on.
But there is a genuine enthusiasm in the way Carter talks about the more expansive game both teams are playing, and an obviously agile mind at play when he discusses tactical nuances of his role - particularly the split-second decision of whether to seek the safety of the touch line or to roll the dice on kick and chase.
''It's something you get a feel for in the game,'' he says. ''I work pretty closely with our forwards in terms of how they are feeling about after they've had a few [line-outs] just to see if they want to push it closer to the touch line or back our kick-chase.
''Kicking it long can be dangerous because the Wallabies are similar to us, they love to counter-attack and they are very dangerous.
''A lot of things rule each other out in this game, that's why it is going to make for a fantastic match, they like to use the ball similar to us.''
Similar, perhaps. But at the exalted level of the All-Blacks' glamour boy?
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