Dan Carter is a genius of this, or most others for that matter, rugby age, says Peter Bills.
Unless you subscribe to the bizarre theory that it's best to wait until someone has retired or died before offering praise for their talents, let us salute one particular, unique performer from the world of rugby as 2009 comes to its end.
This year began with a dire injury to the game's outstanding first five-eighths. A torn Achilles tendon can be a career terminating blow, such is the gravity of the injury.
Happily, 2009 has ended for Dan Carter in a blaze of glory. Not only did he recover from the cruel injury which brought to an early end his sojourn with French club Perpignan, but he rediscovered his glorious skills in the toughest proving ground of all, the test match stage.
Carter is a genius of this, or most others for that matter, rugby age. He is a highly skilled, delightfully inventive player who brings a sublime craft to the game. Whether it's by running, passing, kicking, tackling, covering or reading the game, he stands apart as a quite exceptional talent.
Carter is the Koh-i-Noor diamond of his time. He glitters as no other jewel can; his quality is simply breathtaking. It has been said that whoever owned the Koh-i-Noor ruled the world. The exact meaning is, Mountain of Light.
Well for sure, Carter is a wondrous beacon to those who watch this game. And as for owning the world; well, we'll know whether Carter's country achieves that at the Rugby World Cup in 2011. Rugby, of course, is a team game but let's put it this way: with Carter, New Zealand stands a very decent chance of ending their 24-year wait for a second World Cup triumph. Without him, they have next to no chance.
In a single performance last month, for the All Blacks in France, Carter demolished single-handedly the pathetic pleas of inferior countries like England for law changes, reasoning that you cannot play decent attacking rugby under the present structures. Well, England can't but Carter can.
The All Blacks' 5-tries to nil thrashing of France in Marseille was not entirely due just to Carter. But he lit the touch paper, he was the one who was fundamental to the performance. His decision-making was perfect, his running clever and his chosen angles of attack judicious. He controlled the game throughout with an (apparently) light hand on the tiller. Yet none could doubt his crucial influence.
When he struggled into the French hospital on crutches in early February for a critical operation, none knew whether he would ever be quite the same player again. You don't have to be a New Zealander to celebrate his recovery and marvel at the man's restoration to his best.
How rugby of the modern day needs a Carter. England's stupid argument was blown out of the water by his performance, just as we knew it would be. For Carter is indeed a mountain of light, a beacon for others to follow.
In a modern game in which incessant, aimless kicking has threatened to ruin the basic notion of the sport, Carter offers another perspective. For sure, he kicks but watch the variety of his game when he puts boot to ball. Long kicks downfield, touch kicks, up-and-under kicks, short chip kicks over a flat defence, little grubber kicks through it to make the defenders turn and scramble ... Carter demonstrates a whole repertoire of kicks.
The reason is, aside from the fact that he possesses the necessary skills, he has the rugby brains and vision to choose.
And then there is his running and passing which puts others into space. He can hold a fringe defence with a short dart, tying in enough defenders to make room for those outside him to whom the ball is delivered at the ideal moment. And in defence, when cover is needed, invariably it is Carter who has read the play, like we read a book.
It is within the gift of precious few players to possess all these skills. Even through all the years of rugby's history, only a very few in Carter's position have enjoyed such mastery of the role, the Irish duo Jack Kyle and Mike Gibson uppermost among that small, exclusive group.
Players of this quality have lit up this sport ever since its inception. So, regardless of your nationality, at the end of a disturbing year for the game that featured "Bloodgate" and other profoundly distasteful acts and trends, enjoy Carter's mercurial skills for what they are.
The game would be so much poorer without them.
Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media in London
