THE LAST TIME Dan Carter was on these shores, he all but dismissed the chances of the All Blacks being beaten by Joe Schmidt’s Ireland two days ahead of that indelible Test match in Chicago — so it comes as no surprise that he’s not writing the Lions off just yet.
“They [Lions] are going to kill us and hopefully it will work in reverse and the All Blacks will win,” he jokes, having been reminded of his prediction back in November.
“They’ve definitely got a chance, it has been a tough start for them but Test match footy is completely different and at the back of their mind that will be their focus.”
Warren Gatland’s side have had a mixed start to the tour in terms of results with two wins and two defeats from the opening four outings, including the 23-22 reversal to Highlanders on Tuesday.
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With this weekend’s fixture against the New Zealand Maori set to be the tourists’ stiffest assignment to date, coming just seven days before the first Test, it will be a good indicator as to where the Lions are at heading back to Auckland.
The New Zealand media have progressively turned the heat up on Gatland and many quarters have already predicted a series whitewash in favour of the hosts, but Carter knows what the Lions are capable of, suggesting they’ve held some things back in an attempt to surprise Steve Hansen’s side.
Carter in action against the Lions back in 2005. Inpho
Inpho
While the out-half, instrumental in the 2005 series win over the Lions, won’t predict against ‘his team’, he says the All Blacks will be presented with a tougher challenge than some of the warm up games would suggest.”
Even though they’ve been a bit up and down so far, they’re starting to build as a team and play for one another which is good and always something you need,” Carter continued.
“It always takes a few weeks to get those combinations and get that feeling for your team-mate as well. In a week and a half I think we’ll see a much stronger performance. It’s hard for me to be against my country and my team which I won’t be doing but I think we’ll see a much better performance from what we’ve seen from the Lions.
“I know what they’re capable of and that’s much more than what we’ve seen so far. You have to put things into context, they literally arrived in the country and had a game almost straight away.
“I think they’re just finding their feet and building combinations and working out how they want to play and things like that. I think they’re only going to get better and as a Kiwi I’m definitely not writing them off even though some of the media say they might struggle. I think we’re going to see a much different performance in the first Test.”
Dan Carter was speaking today at the launch of the SoftCo Foundation at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club.
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Dan Carter not writing the Lions off after his Chicago prediction went wrong
THE LAST TIME Dan Carter was on these shores, he all but dismissed the chances of the All Blacks being beaten by Joe Schmidt’s Ireland two days ahead of that indelible Test match in Chicago — so it comes as no surprise that he’s not writing the Lions off just yet.
“They [Lions] are going to kill us and hopefully it will work in reverse and the All Blacks will win,” he jokes, having been reminded of his prediction back in November.
“They’ve definitely got a chance, it has been a tough start for them but Test match footy is completely different and at the back of their mind that will be their focus.”
Warren Gatland’s side have had a mixed start to the tour in terms of results with two wins and two defeats from the opening four outings, including the 23-22 reversal to Highlanders on Tuesday.
With this weekend’s fixture against the New Zealand Maori set to be the tourists’ stiffest assignment to date, coming just seven days before the first Test, it will be a good indicator as to where the Lions are at heading back to Auckland.
The New Zealand media have progressively turned the heat up on Gatland and many quarters have already predicted a series whitewash in favour of the hosts, but Carter knows what the Lions are capable of, suggesting they’ve held some things back in an attempt to surprise Steve Hansen’s side.
While the out-half, instrumental in the 2005 series win over the Lions, won’t predict against ‘his team’, he says the All Blacks will be presented with a tougher challenge than some of the warm up games would suggest.”
Even though they’ve been a bit up and down so far, they’re starting to build as a team and play for one another which is good and always something you need,” Carter continued.
“It always takes a few weeks to get those combinations and get that feeling for your team-mate as well. In a week and a half I think we’ll see a much stronger performance. It’s hard for me to be against my country and my team which I won’t be doing but I think we’ll see a much better performance from what we’ve seen from the Lions.
“I think they’re just finding their feet and building combinations and working out how they want to play and things like that. I think they’re only going to get better and as a Kiwi I’m definitely not writing them off even though some of the media say they might struggle. I think we’re going to see a much different performance in the first Test.”
Dan Carter was speaking today at the launch of the SoftCo Foundation at Dun Laoghaire Golf Club.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
‘I just wanted to see what this whole talk about Joe was. It was fascinating’
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