Dan Carter - The Missing Man

He holds the record for the greatest amount of Test match points and is widely renowned as one of rugby’s greatest players of all time, but Dan Carter is not featuring for the All Blacks this summer, whilst England tour the country.

The world champion fly-half has followed in the footsteps of legendary All Black captain Richie McCaw and is enjoying a sabbatical – some much needed time out from the game.

Carter burst onto the international stage back in 2003 at the age of just 21 when he made his debut in Hamilton against Wales, scoring an impressive 20 points.

Since then the Crusader has gone from strength to strength and cemented himself in the all-time pantheon of rugby greats.

After a gruelling twelve years of international rugby, with a World Cup in the process, Carter has earned a rest from the game and the dedicated perfectionist says that he is loving his time off.

“To get away from the game and refresh myself mentally and also physically is really going to add to the motivation when I return to play.

“The drive will be there and then it will be only just over a year until the World Cup, which is something that I’m working towards.

“It’s really put rugby into perspective. It used to be everything for me, but having a family now and a son, you know, is great: you’ll have a bad game or a rough day at training and you come home and he has no idea, so it puts everything into perspective.

“I’m absolutely loving that part of my life at the moment.”

However, you should make no mistake that the All Black jersey has lost none of its allure for Carter, who is more focused than ever on playing for the All Blacks and winning back-to-back World Cups.

Watch how Carter made his leap to stardom from humble beginnings back in New Zealand, with this video from Talking Rugby Union’s partners Total Rugby.

It was just eight years old when Dan’s farther extended their garden to accommodate for full-size posts for him to kick over and the rest, as they say, is history…