The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Perpignan and New Zealand lose as Dan Carter is injured

2nd February, 2009
Advertisement
Roar Guru
2nd February, 2009
11
1169 Reads

After making a return from an Achilles tendon strain, Dan Carter has suffered a partial rupture on the same injury and now faces up to six months out of the game.

The 26 year old All Black playmaker was injured in the final stages of Perpignan’s 13-13 draw with Stade Francais in the Top 14 clash in front of 79,122 fans at the Stade De France.

After paying 700,000 Euros for his services for six months; the French club now must resign themselves to the fact that the famous blood and gold jersey has been pulled on by the 2006 IRB World Player of the year for the last time.

He was pivotal in the performance, as Perpignan had trailed Stade by ten points with just eight minutes remaining. Carter has just kicked a penalty to level the scores before he went down innocuously in a seemingly innocent tackle.

He had already missed three weeks of action with the left leg strain. But despite doing wonders for Perpignan’s marketing and selling of Carters number ten jerseys, the sizeable investment for his services will now end.

His on-field contribution to the club was 45 points and 361 minutes of rugby. This equates to the Cantabrian earning approximately 2,000 Euro’s for each minute played.

If he had stayed fit till the end of the season, he would have played 20 games for the club. Essentially Perpignan has lost 75% of the match value of their prized asset.

It is likely that Carter will now miss at least the home international Test matches before the Tri Nations, and may even miss the beginning of that campaign.

Advertisement

Carter will now essentially re-enter the All Blacks fold on reputation alone, with no opportunity to play himself into form except perhaps for club rugby. With the rehabilitation of the injury a complex one, even when passed fit, the All Black management team may be unwilling to risk their prized asset until he can gain match fitness via non Test matches.

So while the injury will not be viewed favourably, it could ultimately benefit Canterbury rugby. Another option would be to introduce him back to international rugby via the Junior All Black brand.

However, as unfortunate as the injury is, not all will view this as a bad thing.

A massive door has now been opened for Stephen Donald, currently Carter’s “official” understudy. If he continues his development and his form does not suffer, the injury all but confirms that the Waikato standoff will now start at least the first four Tests of the international season.

It also means that if Donald fails to impress this season, then a host of young New Zealand number tens now have an opportunity to win a 2009 black jersey.

close