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It’s six short years since Carter Gordon was a skinny schoolboy on the sidelines at All Blacks’ training getting a photo snapped with Kiwi ace Ardie Savea.
With a tidy, short haircut and his Brisbane Boys’ College tie in place, it is unmistakably the early version of the mullet-wearing young gun in whom the Wallabies have put their trust.
Astonishing. Just six years. The same Carter Gordon will line-up against Savea – named captain for the clash – and his All Blacks allies at the MCG on Saturday night.
Gordon’s former schoolboys coach Shane Drahm had such a high opinion of the blond No.10 in his teenage days he was already making predictions.
“I remember promoting him everywhere. Not only was he up there with the best schoolboy five-eighths I’d seen, he was going to be as good as Jonny Wilkinson as the best tackling No.10 in the world,” Drahm recounted.
The 16-year-old Carter Gordon snapped with Ardie Savea when the All Blacks trained at Brisbane Boys’ College in 2017. (Photo: Gordon family collection)
“There were a few rugby league clubs interested but Carter had a clear path in his mind to make it in rugby.
“I knew he’d be a Wallaby for sure because he ticked every box … brains on and off the field, a perfect tall body with long limbs to be a kicking 10 and ripping 20m passes to supports out wide. And tough.”
Then-Queensland Reds coach Nick Stiles saw it too and had Gordon signed on a development contract at 17 while still at school in 2018. Injuries muted any rise at the Reds but Stiles is doing all the smiling now with Gordon as the front man for the Melbourne Rebels where he is General Manager of Rugby.
Inadvertently, there is even a little polish passed on from an All Blacks master coach in the Gordon make-up.
Gordon was just 16 when the photo with Savea was taken. The kid from Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast had a rare ringside seat to watch Aaron Smith, Lima Sopoaga, Sonny Bill Williams, Kieran Read, Damian McKenzie and co train on the turf at his Brisbane private school.
Carter Gordon. (Photo by Pete Dovgan/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
There’s a good story behind how that even happened on match eve before the Wallabies-All Blacks Test at Suncorp Stadium in 2017.
Gordon’s First XV coach Drahm had played flyhalf under All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith during their time together at Northampton Saints more than a decade earlier.
The friendship brought the All Blacks to BBC for their final Friday run. Drahm’s first XV was given privileged up-close access. Curious spectators and the media were kept out on the footpath on Miskin Street behind a high wire fence with shade cloth.
If there’s one thing the All Blacks like almost as much as beating the Wallabies, it’s a good spy games conspiracy and imagining an operative behind every bush. The security was spot on but the Wallabies produced a terrific 23-18 upset in their First Nations jersey the following night.
That important schoolboy developmental period of young Gordon’s career in 2017-18 is vivid for Drahm, who played for England A after a substantial career for the Queensland Reds and in the English Premiership.
“People are seeing it now with Carter’s play for the Rebels and his short time with the Wallabies,” said Drahm, who also coached Wallabies centre Len Ikitau at BBC.
“Being incredibly competitive and extremely tough are other strengths. Being 22 is pretty young to face the All Blacks but I know he’s tough enough. He’s a switched on guy and takes in detail well. Eddie (Jones) will probably being the best out of him.
“I know playing under Wayne at Northampton, he was always big on a five-eighth squaring his shoulders so you kept defenders guessing on the run and pass options.
“It’s something I took into my own coaching and tried to pass on to Carter.
“That day the All Blacks visited Brisbane Boys’ College was just an awesome experience for Carter, for all the boys. How often do you get to watch the All Blacks up close and meet them?”
Not as rarely as you’d think if you are Carter Gordon. He’ll be in the middle of the MCG going toe-to-toe on Saturday night.