New Zealander Dan Carter is a rugby legend. Having worn his country's black jersey 112 times, scored almost 1,600 points, won two World Cups and been named best player in the world three times, he retired from international rugby in 2015. He is also no stranger to French rugby, having spent a year with Perpignan, before spending three seasons in the colors of Racing, a club he led to the French championship title in the 2016 final. At the end of the summer, he published his book The Art of Winning.
Interviewed three days after Les Bleus defeated the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup opening match, Carter talks to Le Monde about his former team's defeat and the reasons why, in his opinion, the French team is one of the favorites to win the title.
How was the All Blacks' opening defeat perceived in New Zealand?
People back home are disappointed. We knew we'd be up against an in-form French team, but we were still optimistic. Does this change anything for the rest of our World Cup? Potentially no. Whether we finish first or second in this pool, we'll still be up against one of the world's top sides – South Africa, Ireland or maybe Scotland. The knockout phase is very different, and anything can happen.
How can New Zealand improve for the rest of their World Cup?
It's often said that true failure is when you learn nothing from it. It would be dangerous for the All Blacks to continue the World Cup by telling themselves that the defeat against France doesn't really matter. So they need to break down, review, dissect and analyze that game and work out the critical points, the things they need to change to make the biggest difference. Discipline, in particular, would be an important part of the change. To win a World Cup, you have to be extremely disciplined. So we need to understand why those penalties were happening. Was it because there was too much pressure from the French team or was it just an execution or a mindset?
You also have to make the most of the opportunities that present themselves during the match. You're not going to get many opportunities to put opponents away, so you have to be extremely clinical and make the most of those opportunities.
They also undoubtedly learned from the loss of their captain a day before the match [New Zealand captain Sam Cane was injured in training the day before the opening match]. What if it happens again? History shows that, at a World Cup, there are injuries, suspensions and all sorts of problems throughout the two months. How do you learn from these situations? These little things, if they talk to each other and learn, they will be better off for it.
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