All Blacks: Kaino shines but Carter gets his record

Dan Carter. Photo / AP

You know that Jerome Kaino must have had one of those career-defining, stratospheric type of performances because in this part of the world Dan Carter normally has only to stay upright and functional to pick up the man-of-the-match award.

Twice during this Grand Slam odyssey he has picked up the gong, at Twickenham and Lansdowne Rd, and both times you would have forgiven indefatigable No 8 Kieran Read for scratching his head and thinking "what do I have to do?"

So Jerome gets the bauble at the Millennium - and rightly so as it is hard to remember a performance so clinically physical - but Carter walks away with the headlines. Such is life.

Carter passed Jonny Wilkinson's world record of 1178 yesterday, nailing a penalty from near the halfway line, but it was not one of his better days at the office. He ended up with five from nine and a haul of 12 points but the abiding memory was him going into the halftime break with kicking stats of one from five.

There were mitigating factors. Carter does not like the ball used in Wales and the shifting sands at the Millennium Stadium can make life difficult. Still, Welsh kicker Stephen Jones was having few problems.

"I was proud to reach that milestone but disappointed to miss those kicks," Carter said. "The ones I missed were missing to the right, which means I was pulling it a bit.

"I don't like bagging balls, but it is a little more difficult to kick ... I've kicked pretty well with those balls in the past, so you get used to it," he said.

Carter admitted the prospect of passing Wilkinson's mark had started to play on his mind and, while not big on records, it was a nice one to have tucked away.

"I've got plenty of messages from family and friends on my phone congratulating me, so it's a good feeling."

Injuries have played an increasingly big part in Carter's career and it remains a moot point as to whether he is still capable of dominating games to the extent he did when the Lions toured in 2005.

His value to the team is no less significant, however.

"He is the navigator of our team, he is a very astute player. He is world class he and is perhaps the best No 10 in the world right now," coach Graham Henry said.