Fantasy pulled Dan Carter back into the game he loves

By Will Toogood

After a career spent playing more than 350 matches of professional rugby, Dan Carter could be forgiven for not watching much in retirement.

Nearly half of those were spent playing for the Crusaders in Super Rugby, with Carter’s former side making the perfect start on their mission to improve on their annus horribilis of a 2024 season with a win over the Hurricanes in round one last weekend.

Speaking at the 62nd Halberg Awards on Tuesday the highest point scorer in Super Rugby history said since hanging up his boots for good he’s not watched as much rugby as he used to, but the introduction of Super Rugby Pacific Fantasy may have reignited his career in an armchair sense.

“My son has got me into it. I’m polling pretty low after round one, although I did have Damian McKenzie as captain so he got me a few points, but they’re playing the Crusaders this week so I think I might have to drop my captain, D-Mac, sorry mate.

“It was amazing, it was really good to watch. I tend to not watch a lot of rugby these days but for some reason I was really energised, maybe it was my fantasy picks.

Round one of the 2025 Super Rugby season saw an average of 65 points scored in each match and the largest winning margin just 11 points, making fans the big winners of the first weekend and defence coaches the ones with the most to be concerned about.

The immediate impact of law tweaks around the breakdown was evident in the pace of clearance from rucks and while Carter says it’s still early days in terms of assessing the changes, all signs point toward an exciting season for fans.

“Still too early to tell but that speed at the breakdown has really helped, that’s what you want. You don’t want to be attacking against stabilised defences and when the ruck speed is as fast as it was in round one you get a lot more opportunities attacking-wise... I’d hate to be a defence coach this year.”

Delivering on fan expectations has been a well-documented struggle for Super Rugby, but a bumper round one with big-name performances has Carter and many others raring to go for the rest of the season.

“I was really excited about round one and it really delivered, often it takes half a season for a lot of the well-established All Blacks to perform but the majority of them they came back. firing.

“To see that many points scored in the first round goes to show that it’s going to be an epic tournament and anyone’s guess [who will win] so it’s great for the fans, which is important.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission