KEY POINTS:
When Salvador Dali visited Perpignan in 1963 he declared the city's railway station "the centre of the universe", saying he always got his best ideas sitting in the waiting room.
Leicester can only hope that Dan Carter did not get too many surreally creative ideas sitting in the Crumbie Stand at Welford Road last Saturday. Perpignan confirmed yesterday that the near-perfect All Black No 10 will be starting against the east Midlanders at the Stade Aime Giral this Sunday.
Not that the Catalans were ever likely to keep Carter on the sidelines for a second weekend, having paid some 614,000 ($1.69 million) to have his services for a seven-month period - and with the club's future in the Heineken Cup on the line after their 38-27 defeat in the Tigers' lair.
Asked whether Carter would be starting against Leicester, Paul Goze, Perpignan's chief executive, said yesterday: "Yes. With us being three matches from the end of the pool stages ... we are going all out to beat Leicester and have no regrets."
Having gleaned just five points from their opening three fixtures, Perpignan lie third in Pool Three, nine points behind Leicester and five adrift of the Ospreys.
Their best hope of progress would appear to be as one of the two group runners-up who will make it to the quarter-finals.
"We are a good team but one which, until now, has never been able to make the last step up," Goze added. "With Carter, we have the possibility of doing that. He can lead us to the French championship, for which we have been waiting for 54 years."
With Carter in tow, Perpignan also have a seven-month window to maximise their marketing potential. Goze, however, maintained: "Dan is here to play rugby. Sponsors want to organise certain things around him but we don't want him to just be meeting people all week."
- INDEPENDENT
