KEY POINTS:
After this morning's test, Dan Carter should make friends with Scottish lock Nathan Hines.
The Australian-born lock is going to spend a lot of the next seven months protecting Carter, making sure some fairly nasty men don't get their hands on the All Black first five.
Hines is
a local hero at Perpignan, the club Carter will join in December for his sabbatical. The big Scot is a genuine enforcer, a bruising bloke whose reputation is known all over France. Barely a year passes without Hines picking up some sort of suspension. Put it this way, if an opponent needs to be treated to some rough justice, Hines will take the job on.
He's exactly the sort of player Carter will be grateful to have in the same jersey, although Hines doesn't believe he will be required to do a specific protection job for Carter.
``No, not at all,' he says when asked if Carter is being viewed as a prize for bounty hunters. ``I think most players probably wouldn't get near him. There are a lot of guys in Super 14 who are just as big, who hit just as hard but hardly ever get a touch on him. He's not going to be a target.'
Carter is going to have to deal with the Perpignan faithful who Hines affectionately described as ``mad'. They will want to see the world's best first five play as well as he can and to help the club fulfil its ambition.
Perpignan have not won a French championship for 50 years and the fans would dearly love that to change this season.
``We had dinner with him when he was over last month,' says Hines. ``He's just a laid back guy. I think the phrase is `humble Kiwi'. There is going to be a lot of expectation but he rarely has a bad game.
``There is a bit of realism there that obviously he's not going to come in to the team and change everything overnight. He'll have a bearing on how things go but it is going to take him some time.'
The problem is there won't be much time for Carter to bed in. He arrives next month, when Perpignan face critical back-to-back fixtures against Leicester in the Heineken Cup.
Carter was persuaded to choose Perpignan ahead of Toulon as the former had a Heineken Cup place. Perpignan won their opening fixture but lost the following week to the Ospreys, leaving the group finely balanced.
``We are still okay,' says Hines. ``Our group is pretty tight. At the moment we are not falling behind. We have got two games against Leicester and I think Dan will be there for one of them.'
He'll be there all right, hoping that Hines and his friends in the forwards are going to provide the armchair ride he so frequently enjoys with the All Blacks.
