All Blacks: Icy Carter headache for Wallabies

Daniel Carter (right). Photo / Getty Images

All Blacks 30
Australia 14
How could anyone tire of watching Daniel Carter.

Easily if you are the latest opposition he has taunted or you are blinkered to the genius he has brought to the All Blacks No 10 jersey.

The five-eighths purred through his 82nd test on Saturday against the Wallabies, running the attack with a stunning array of strikes, defending with stacks of grit, kicking with great accuracy and then, just for good measure, knocking over a tidy dropped goal.

As he talked through his evening's work, Carter almost got animated. You could detect a bubbling glow of satisfaction around his eyes as he picked over the match with the media, telling them he and the team had been very excited about the match.

This is the bloke whose pulse might stagger over 40 beats a minute when he was really humming, the ice-cold temperament in the footy furnace.

"It was very satisfying we stepped up against a quality opposition," Carter said politely.

"The thing driving us was the Bledisloe Cup, it means a lot to us."

A comparison between Carter and Quade Cooper would have also meant a great deal to the All Black coaching staff after the test. The All Blacks put the squeeze on Cooper and he looked flaky, repeatedly, while Carter whirred and purred around Eden Park. Had their roles been reversed it is hard to imagine Carter buckling as Cooper did.

The template for the test was set by the pack, eight men imbued with a selflessness and team purpose, no egos, no cherry-picking manoeuvres, just plain old roll the sleeves up and get going harder than before attitude.

"It is infectious," stylish centre Conrad Smith noted.

"It is massive, it goes right through the team. When you see forwards knocking over the opposition it feels like you have got to do the same," he said.

Jerome Kaino wasting Rob Simmons or Owen Franks shirtfronting Rocky Elsom, were pulsating acts of aggression.

Smith said the All Blacks were experienced and sensed with the hype about the opening Bledisloe Cup test that some of the combatants might play the match too early.

"We mentioned the edge all week and the guys were keen to have a good hit out and out of respect for the Wallabies and the danger they possess, you have to make sure you put them on the back foot otherwise they are hard to handle."

Carter had been on fire and players like that were used to stepping up in big matches. The Wallaby backline suffered because they had to live off turnovers, they had defenders in their face from phaseplay and that made it awkward.

One of those was Kaino, the hatchet man on defence, who was felled at one stage by his own skipper Richie McCaw with a stray elbow.

Kaino battled on dizzily for about five minutes with a migraine above his left eye but had no thoughts of quitting. His mindset all match was "thou shalt not pass".

"We knew if we let them dance and gave them space, you did not want to do that. We took a lot of that out of the Wallabies game against Samoa."

Midfield bulwark Ma'a Nonu said the backs lifted their game because of the set piece and defence.

"Working for each other was our plan," he added.