Classy Carter makes right 'move'

JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post

RETURN: Dan Carter's highly anticipated return to action could happen this weekend in Christchurch club rugby.

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OPINION: On ya, Dan. In a week where it's been pretty easy to get negative about New Zealand rugby, along comes the delightful Daniel Carter and shows exactly why he's the most popular and admired player in the world game.

The guys just oozes class, and his decision announced earlier this week to stay with Canterbury and the Crusaders exemplifies this.

The sensible call might well have been to transfer to Auckland where there would have been more money in it for him. A lot more, we're told - though clearly, as the Carter saga has underlined, you can't believe all you read in some media outlets these days.

The easy call might also have been for him to head north for his domestic rugby. After all, he spends a good part of his time in the big city these days, with both his business interests and love interest now residing in Auckland.

And even the upside call might have told him that there was a lot more to be gained by moving to Auckland and guiding the dreadfully under-achieving Blues back to finals football, than by staying with the Crusaders, where success is considered part and parcel of the job.

You could just picture the storyline. Carter arrives at the Blues, suddenly the headless chooks have someone in the pivot who can run a game/kick goals/spark attacks/play with passion, and the new Super city finally has its fourth Super rugby title.

Sadly (for those who reside in this urban sprawl) that will remain only the stuff of idle daydreams and watercooler what-could-have-been discussions.

You see, where you play your sport, whose colours you pull on and which fans you play for clearly still mean something to Carter.

Granted, he's no Corinthian. He did, after all, take that sabbatical to France where he was paid ridiculous money by Perpignan to pop in for a season. (Through no fault of his own, of course, that became more a cultural mission than a rugby one as he spent most of his time laid up with a ruptured Achilles tendon).

So he was prepared to turn his back on the Crusaders for a season to undertake that little well-paying jaunt.
And if you buy the line that seven months of slog in the French Top 14 and Heineken Cup -- even if it was based in the south of France -- was undergone for lifestyle reasons only then you're as naïve as Melissa Lee.
But let's face it, less than a year away securing yourself a well-earned income topup is infinitely preferable to permanent departure and instant banishment from the international arena.

And who's to deny Carter the chance to, if not maximise, at least bump up his income. After all, as the last few months would have reminded him, you're only one serious injury away from a major income drop.

So, having established he's no saint, he is definitely a million miles from a sinner after electing to stick with the ship and probably play out his time in New Zealand rugby with the Crusaders and, to a (much) lesser extent, Canterbury.

Which to me is heartening. Some players should only ever be associated with one team. Magic was the Lakers, Michael the Bulls; Fitzy was Auckland, Toddy the Cantabs. They defined their teams, and in many ways their sides reflected their qualities and values.

I like the fact that Carter weighed up all his considerations, and then decided that he just couldn't turn his back on the city and region that has always been "home", regardless of where he may or may not reside.

I had a chat to him recently when he was still in Perpignan, shortly before his return to New Zealand. And we spent as much time talking about the Crusaders, and how they'd fared in 2009, as we did covering off the questions on my notepad. The guy cares. He lives and breathes his red and black rugby, even from thousands of miles away.

Then there's this. Damnit, if a city Auckland's size, with all that Polynesian talent, all those schools, all that competition and all those rugby fields, can't produce one quality first five-eighths of their own, then maybe they should suffer in ignominy, rather than manufacture a solution with their cheque-book.

After all this angst about the state of our All Blacks - or at least the state of the backup troops - Carter's loyalty call has been a breath of fresh air for me this week.

It just shows that even in the cash-happy world of contemporary professional rugby, money can buy you a lot of things, but not necessarily the best five-eighths in the world.

 It's refreshing to see a decision of this magnitude made on the grounds of sense, rather than dollars.

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