Dan Carter - pictured during his injury-plagued time at the Blues - has written about some of life's hard lessons in his new book. Photo / Dean Purcell
Dan Carter - pictured during his injury-plagued time at the Blues - has written about some of life's hard lessons in his new book. Photo / Dean Purcell
All Blacks great Dan Carter has opened up on his ongoing shame for being busted for drink-driving in Paris and how “to this day I’m so grateful I didn’t injure anyone on the roads”.
In February 2017, Carter was pulled over near the Champs-Elysees and a subsequent breath-alcohol test showed him to be almost twice the legal drink-drive limit.
At the time he was playing for cashed-up club Racing 92. He was later banned from driving for five months and given a $1700 fine.
Carter has written at length about the incident – which he says happened at a time in his life when he “might have even started to believe I was a little bit of a rock star” - in his new motivational book, The Art of Winning: Ten Lessons in Leadership, Purpose and Potential.
The all-time record test points-scorer was stopped by police on the eve of a planned flight home to New Zealand to meet his wife, Honor, and two young boys, Marco and Fox.
“I saw a flashing blue light in my rear-view mirror. I pulled over. Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Carter wrote.
“My French was still a work in progress, but I quickly gathered I’d been pulled over for driving over the speed limit. Truth be told, I already knew.
“Then they got the breathalyser out and asked me to blow into it. I already knew what would happen then. I was over the limit. Of course I was. How could you be so stupid?”
Carter’s accommodation for the night would be a Parisian police cell.
“From the high of winning the Top 14 to sitting in a cell in Paris. That’s the world bringing you back to earth,” Carter wrote.
Dan Carter (right) and All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith pictured during the launch of the contentious new All Blacks Rugby World Cup 2023 jersey.
“Except it isn’t the world. Because there was no one other than myself to blame for an act of such reckless stupidity that it still makes me feel sick talking about it – sick writing it down here.
“You idiot. You could have hurt someone – killed someone.”
Honor and their two boys had earlier flown back to New Zealand for a holiday.
But instead of boarding his plane to join them, Carter had a “very tough phone call to make” to his wife.
“Honor was furious with me,” Carter said. “She had every right to be.
“It wasn’t just about me anymore: I was the father to two young children. A husband to her. What was I playing at?”
Richie McCaw (left) and Dan Carter in happier times after winning the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Photo / Photosport
Carter’s arrest made headlines around the rugby world.
And condemnation from some quarters was also swift, including Land Rover tearing up its sponsorship deal with the 112-test veteran.
Carter also confides in his new book – which he says isn’t based on “conventional wisdom here, but hard-learned truths” - about the ramifications his “reckless” actions had on his family while he was stuck in France.
“The media camped outside my house in New Zealand for a week,” Carter said.
“You don’t always think about it at the time that these events are happening, but the effect they have on the people around you, the people who love you, is profound.
“ ... I’m the one who messed up, after all – but it’s quite another for my wife, my parents, my friends to have to deal with the consequences too. It wasn’t fair on them.”
Dan Carter's new book, The Art of Winning.
Carter said it was obvious he had “massively messed up”, saying his drink driving was “one of the stupid things I’ve done in my life”.
The match-winning first five dominated headlines for the right reasons during his playing career.
Prior to his stupidity in Paris, one of the rare times he was outed for wild behaviour involved him and five All Blacks teammates during the 2005 tour of the UK.
The group had been drinking in Cardiff – where the team was based – when they made a 5am decision to catch a taxi to London, 243km away, so they could continue drinking at an antipodean pub.
“Twelve years after jumping in a taxi from Wales to London with my teammates, I was still capable of doing something stupid, despite the wealth of life experience I’d acquired since then,” Carter wrote.
“But this was worse, of course. Far worse. I’d been disrespecting the culture and sabotaging my own career then: this could have ended in far more severe consequences, and to this day I’m so grateful I didn’t injure anyone on the roads.”
Carter said that his earlier actions in 2005 had been those of a “dickhead”.
When the group – which included Leon MacDonald, who will become the All Blacks’ assistant coach after the Rugby World Cup – returned to their Cardiff hotel they were “absolutely drilled” by captain Tana Umaga.
“In the days that followed I couldn’t think about anything else: I’ve let down my family, I’ve let down my friends, I’ve let down my teammates, the fans, the black jersey.”
The Art of Winning: Ten Lessons in Leadership, Purpose and Potential
Released by publishers Penguin on July 18, RRP $39.99
Neil Reid is a Napier-based reporter who covers general news, features and sport. He joined the Herald in 2014.
