All Blacks not panicking - Wayne Smith

BY TOBY ROBSON

Last updated 05:00 11/08/2009

Dan Carter rejoins All Blacks

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Wayne Smith denies the All Blacks selectors have pushed the panic button in rushing back star first-five Dan Carter.

The national backs coach said yesterday that the plan for reintroducing his mercurial playmaker would have been no different, regardless of the side's results in the opening three rounds of the Tri-Nations.

"Our comment was that we didn't want to put undue pressure on Dan or lock him into a time frame," Smith said yesterday.

"We left it to see how he would go and that was always the plan regardless [of results]."

All Blacks forwards coach Steve Hansen said after the All Blacks' second loss to South Africa that, unless Carter was "100 per cent right", it would be "a form of panic" to recall him during the Tri-Nations.

Smith said Carter had proven he had fully recovered from the Achilles injury that ruled him out of the first part of the test season with two strong performances for Canterbury in the Air New Zealand Cup.

"He's done everything right with regards to his rehab from the day he did it so he's physically as good as someone could be," Smith said. "Secondly, he's done the work mentally as well as physically to be ready to play top-level rugby.

"He's in a good state of mind and as a result he's hit the ground running. He's been impressive, hasn't he? He's made good decisions tactically he's been very good."

Smith said there was no guarantee Carter would start against Australia in Sydney on August 22.

"We still have to make sure he's ready [for test rugby]. He's clearly special, the way he can adapt, but you would have to keep it simple.

"He has not been gone so long that he will have forgotten our plays, so he will get up to speed quickly. But he is not a knight in shining armour. He's a cog in the machine, a very good cog, but still just one cog."

Carter will need to get through Canterbury's third-round ANZC match against Waikato on Friday without injury, and Smith said no decision on what part, if any, Carter would play against the Wallabies would be made till he had resumed training with the squad.

"I'm not too sure. The first thing is to bring him back in on Wednesday and then we need to make some judgments on that.

"There's been other guys in his jersey who have done pretty well, I think. Stephen Donald has not been the worst player in the Tri-Nations, and in fact he played very well against Australia, so that is a consideration too."

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Smith said it was simplistic and unfair on Donald to say the All Blacks' past two losses were because Carter was not wearing the No 10 jersey.

"It's one person. You can't just look at the guy in 10 and say they are letting us down ... your 10 is important, clearly, he drives the game plan, particularly from set piece, but from broken play you are relying on other people helping you out, and we need to get better at that."

Meanwhile, Otago lock Tom Donnelly has also been called into the squad to cover for Hawke's Bay's Bryn Evans, who is under an injury cloud after suffering pain in his back and leg.

Evans was forced to withdraw from the Hawke's Bay team that played Wellington last Saturday and was having scans yesterday to assess the injury.

The All Blacks, including Wellington's Tamati Ellison, who remains with the squad as cover, have a one-day training camp in Auckland tomorrow.

The 26-strong squad for Sydney will be named on Saturday, with the team assembling in Sydney the next day.

- © Fairfax NZ News