Peter Griffin: Video thrills the rugby star

You know you've made it as a sports superstar when Electronic Arts put you on the cover of their video game.

So it is that All Black Dan Carter is the frontman for the video game Rugby 2006.

It used to be that video games were fairly other-worldly, unrecognisable from real life. Now realism is the order of the day. The stadiums in Rugby 2006 are exact digital replicas of their real equivalents, the faces of the players in the game mapped from their real-life counterparts.

With the introduction of next-generation consoles like the Xbox 360, there's scope for games to become even more real. Look at Fight Night: Round 3 on the Xbox 360. The way the bloodied spit flies off the boxer's face, you'd think you were watching a slow-motion replay of his knockout.

Electronic Art's Rugby franchise has been through several iterations now and early accounts suggest the game is better than ever.

Carter points to the new off-load passing system which lets you trick opponents with unexpected ball passes. Rugby 2006 has been updated to feature all the latest players and tournaments, including the Super 14.

The game is already fourth on the British video game charts and usually does well in nations where rugby rules.

But the Americans also are increasingly embracing rugby in its real and animated forms.

For many Americans, rugby is sort of like the quiet girl in your high school art class, explains video game website www.gamespot.com, which gives Rugby 2006 7.6out of 10.

"You know the one, she sits in the corner most of the time and doesn't talk much. Even when she does talk, she doesn't make much sense. But if you spend a little time with her, you realise there's a lot there under the surface."

So our national game is like a socially insecure schoolgirl with hidden talents. Great.

For stars like Carter, there's obviously a lot of bonus money paid for having to talk to journalists about something other than line-out tactics and the state of your tendons.

Carter for his part approaches it all with the enthusiasm of a video gaming teenager.

"Its kind of cool," he says when asked what it's like to see oneself digitised in a video game, stubble and all.

"They have made it look really realistic in terms of the graphics, so it's quite weird seeing yourself on the screen."

Carter's a sportsman, not a geek, but he has a couple of gadgets he can't live without.

"I had a go of PSP the other day and it was so cool! I don't go anywhere without my mobile phone and my iPod," he says.

"My favourite game at the moment, apart from Rugby 2006, is Singstar!"

So our favourite All Black enjoys singing karaoke pop songs when he's not practising his set-plays in Rugby 2006.

Maybe there's something in that American schoolgirl analogy after all.