Dan Carter

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.

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

Carter played for the Crusaders (Super Rugby) in New Zealand and for New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks.

He is the highest point scorer in test match rugby, and is considered by many experts as the greatest ever first five-eighth (fly-half) in the history of the game.

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.

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 later 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 regularly played with first-five eighth Andrew Mehrtens before Mehrtens left the team following their 2004 season.

He was named the International Rugby Board Player of the Year in 2005, 2012 and 2015 (equaling the record three awards of Richie McCaw) and has won three Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders, and nine Tri-Nations and Rugby Championships with the All Blacks.

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.

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.

Carter played for the All Blacks in their Rugby World Cup winning teams in both 2011 and 2015, becoming one of 43 players to have won multiple Rugby World Cups.

In 2011, he suffered a groin injury during the pool stage; in 2015, he played during the entire tournament, including in the final against Australia, where he kicked four penalties, two conversions, and a drop goal, and was named the man of the match.

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 world's highest paid rugby player.

In 2015, Carter released his autobiography named 'Dan Carter: The Autobiography of an All Blacks Legend'.

In November 2015 Carter revealed that, while recovering from an Achilles tendon tear in 2013, he met with Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots of the National Football League about possibly joining the team as a kicker.

On 24 June 2016, Carter helped Racing Metro win the 2016 Top 14 final with a 29–21 win against Toulon at Camp Nou, Barcelona scoring 15 points (5 penalties) and was named Man of the Match despite being down to 14 men 18 minutes into the game after teammate Maxime Machenaud got sent off for a dangerous tackle on Australian international Matt Giteau.

On 25 November 2017, Carter left Racing 92 in France at the end of the season.

On 16 July 2018, Carter joined Kobelco Steelers, a club in the Japanese Top League.

In 2019, 'Dan Carter: A Perfect 10', a documentary film about Carter's personal life and the challenges he encountered on his road to winning the 2015 Rugby World Cup was released.

Carter was born in a small town 10 minutes drive from the Carter family home in Southbridge 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) and would go on to make representative teams for Ellesmere & Canterbury Country.

He attended Ellesmere College where he played mostly at first five-eighth, and then in his final year he transferred to Christchurch Boys' High School to further his chances of making it big in rugby.

Some have said he was a shy and quiet young man who kept grand aspirations to himself.

On 17 February 2019, it was announced that Dan Carter was returning to Racing 92 as injury cover after Patrick Lambie was forced to retire due to concussions.

On 4 June 2020, it was announced that Dan Carter was joining The Blues for Super Rugby Aotearoa.

However he never made a professional appearance for the side.

On 20 February 2021, Dan Carter announced that he was retiring from professional rugby via his Instagram.