KEY POINTS:
Former Wallaby flyhalf Michael Lynagh knows a thing or two about No.10s so when he says Daniel Carter remains the benchmark in that position, it is worth noting.
Speaking to the Herald on Sunday ahead of last night's second test, Lynagh said that while Carter might not be the dominant figure he was in 2005 - the new rules and injury playing a large part in his comparatively muted Super 14 season - he was still the best pivot in the game.
"The expectations on him are too high," Lynagh said in London, where he works in finance and is a rugby pundit on Sky Sports. "People expect him to do something brilliant every time he touches the ball and that isn't going to happen now that defences are so aware of his talent. Having said that, he still does something brilliant more times than anyone else."
It is one of the great shames, Lynagh says, that English talent Danny Cipriani remains a hidden talent to most New Zealanders after he sustained an awful ankle injury in the semifinals of the Guinness Premiership recently. That injury denied fans here the chance to see probably the world's two best flyhalves matching up against each other. "He's probably as close as you get at the moment in terms of matching up against Carter," Lynagh says. "He wouldn't have been enough for England to win that first test but when you think how competitive they were in the first 20 minutes, with Cipriani behind the pack, they definitely would have created a bit more. He can be pretty special."
Unorthodox too. Carter's success is based upon his near-mastery of all the established skills of a pivot: he passes beautifully, alternates between deft kicking and booming punts, has speed of thought, upper body strength and is fleet of foot. The Englishman might not have that all-encompassing proficiency yet but, according to Lynagh, he has the ability to bring a few things to rugby's great table not seen before.
The other major difference between the two - Cipriani even has a booming left foot to match Carter's - is that the Cantabrian not only creates room for himself but is more adept at creating space for those around him too, a skill Cipriani, 20, has yet to master. "When he is at his best, Carter seems to be able to make everything seem very easy," Lynagh says, "and that includes making those around him look good."
The other great unknown about Cipriani is how the Wasps player will come back after his gruesome dislocated fracture of his right ankle. Anybody reading the sports pages in the UK's Sunday papers the day after that semifinal would have seen a foot pointing in a direction that nature would never have allowed.
Lynagh, meanwhile, has something neither Carter nor Cipriani have - a World Cup winners' medal. Throughout the World Cup era, with the possible exception of Butch James last year, the winning flyhalves have writ themselves large upon the tournament. From Grant Fox in 1987 to Jonny Wilkinson in 2003, via Lynagh, Joel Stransky and Stephen Larkham, No.10s have been the weathervanes to their team's fortunes.
But can a modern player become a true great without winning a World Cup? "I guess there were 100 years worth of great players before the World Cup era, and there have been great players who haven't won world cups since, so yes," Lynagh concedes. "But the World Cup is definitely the crowning glory." He didn't say it but what he clearly meant was that in New Zealand, more than anywhere else, a World Cup would define a player's career. "It's a mental thing rather than a physical thing. It's a big issue and it's only going to get bigger."
