Paul Lewis: Deal just makes good cents

Dan Carter. Photo / Greg Bowker

It's a funny thing in this rugby-mad little country of ours that even the successes are sometimes branded as failures - like the retention of Dan Carter.

A minority, have criticised the retention of Carter under a unique, innovative NZRU contract. It was put together with the precise intention of him playing in this country for another four years - but with the flexibility to play overseas without losing the ability to turn out for the All Blacks.

You'd think this would be cause for universal celebration - Danny being quite good at the game and all. But some came out with 'what about the others?' - a reference to people such as Nick Evans and Carl Hayman who opted for overseas assignments and large amounts of foreign exchange without the promise of All Black jerseys to go with it.

Perhaps the most noticeable comment came from former All Black first five-eighths Frano Botica, who said he thought there shouldn't be one rule for someone and another rule for others; and that agents would now try and get their players more money as a result.

It was an odd thing for Botica to say. He, better than many, knows people are not created equal; nor does life dole out equality cards, sadly. He stayed on the bench a frustrating number of times as an All Black while a bloke called Grant Fox took the 10 jersey.

They weren't paid by the NZRU in those days but, if they had been, Botica's cheque would naturally have been smaller than Fox's - because of the latter's importance to the team. If you subscribe to that theory, then it is only a small leap to Carter's exalted position.

It was also a strange thing for Botica to say because of the Llanelli experience. Having left rugby for league's money, Botica jumped back over the fence when rugby went professional in 1996 - joining the Welsh club for £200,000 after a fine career with league club Wigan.

At about the same time, Llanelli went dangerously close to going broke. They got out of the mire only by selling their treasured ground (Stradey Park) to the Welsh Rugby Union for £1.25m. Now, no one is saying Botica nearly sent Llanelli bust. There were other elements but an extra £200,000 didn't help.

It's also pretty likely that many others - perhaps even most - in the Llanelli team weren't earning £200,000. So ... one rule for everyone? Hardly. Llanelli clawed their way back financially and, with Botica a star, did well on the field too.

If you're talking Hayman and Evans and others, they may well feel aggrieved but let's be clear - apart from his "sabbatical", Carter has opted for New Zealand and the All Blacks. Efforts were made to get Hayman back for this year's World Cup. He chose France.

It was this newspaper which broke the news last month that the world's best tighthead prop was sitting on the bench for Toulon more than he was starting; his replacement, a Georgian who wasn't even regarded as the best scrummager in Georgia. That may confirm the opinions of many that All Blacks who leave for overseas usually arrive back in this country playing at a level below that of their departure.

That might be too blanket a judgement (Evans would likely waltz back into an All Black World Cup squad this year) but it is also mostly true.

The stated NZRU reason for not removing the block on overseas-based players being eligible for the All Blacks has always been that the floodgates would open and we'd be left with no players in this country.

I have never quite believed that and it is clear (see Gregor Paul story, p86) that South Africa, for example, manages their want-aways, returning them to international duty, better than New Zealand does.

However, you have to congratulate the NZRU for securing Carter's services in an imaginative way. They have balanced Carter's wish for the black jersey, some sort of foreign diversion, money and ego into a compelling package.

If that package contains more than anyone else is getting, that's what happens in a professional capacity when star quality is assessed.

About a year ago, I got some grief from other media fossils for a debate, published in the Herald on Sunday, with Gregor Paul about who was the better player - Carter or Richie McCaw. Gregor opted for McCaw; I chose Carter. In truth, I don't like comparing players in different positions. Nor different eras. It's just too hard. However, Carter's the best all-round player I have seen.

Here's what I said in that comparison: "The question - perhaps the only relevant question - is which player would win more matches for you. Which is why Daniel Carter is still the greatest I have ever seen. Carter can and does win games in the following ways: scoring a try; kicking goals; dropping goals; kicking from hand; making a break; setting up a try; producing an essential tackle. He has a fend, a sidestep and that uncoachable ability to find space and to produce a piece of irresistible brilliance that can decide a match."

Can you compare him to Colin Meads or Sean Fitzpatrick? No - unless it's to say that it's unlikely The Tree or Fitzy will kick the goal to win the World Cup. Would Hayman have come home for a four-year contract and a guarantee of overseas rugby? Maybe - but there's no guarantee, particularly seeing what has happened at Toulon, that Hayman would still be at that level in 2015.

Carter has the ability to foot it in today's demanding brand of rugby - and to do so through to the next World Cup. Ask most ex-All Blacks whether they'd like to be playing today's game and the answer is often in the negative. There are other reasons but one of them is that the game is so fast, so aerobically and physically demanding; full of bigger, faster players engaging in collisions that hit players who are little protected for them.

Carter copes remarkably well with all of that without shirking his defensive duties; well enough to be around and still a key figure in 2015. Whether he does is, of course, in the lap of the gods. But the NZRU would have been daft if they hadn't have given it a crack. On a lighter note, the Herald on Sunday football team trumped the Sunday Star-Times in their annual clash at North Harbour Stadium last week.

HoS sports writer Michael Burgess (three) and NZ Herald staffers Stuart Dye and Paul Colegate scored in a 5-4 win.

In a noble gesture, New Zealand World Cup referee Michael Hester and his assistants agreed to officiate the match and did well to keep the sometimes fierce rivalry under control.