RUGBY UNION
CARTER: I LOVE RONAN RIVALRY
By DAIRE WALSH
FORMER All Black hero has revaled the competitiveness he enjoys with Ronan O’Gara.
Racing 92 star Carter was in House on Dublin’s Leeson Street yesterday to launch the Foroige Youth Citizenship Awards.
And he admitted that he has enjoyed working with the former Irish out-half – now a coach at Racing – since his arrival in Paris at the end of last year.
“There’s no coaching, it’s just purely competitiveness – winners takes all,” said Carter of O’Gara who signed a new deal with the Top 14 side until 2019.
“We’re not trying to help each other at all. We’re trying to get one up on each other. It’s all light-hearted. I obviously played a lot against him but didn’t know him all that well. He’s a top man so I’m enjoying having him at the club.
“He’s got an amazing passion for the game. He’s still early into his career and I’m sure he’s got an extremely bright future. There’s a bit of banter going about over our kicking. We’ve had a few competitions and I’m undefeated against him. I’m quite proud of that.”
Although he initially worked as a skills and kicking guru with Racing, O’Gara has since added defence to his coaching portfolio.
With the club currently possessing the best defensive record in the French league, it is clear that O’Gara is making a significant impact.
And Carter believes that his attitude towards the game has been a major driving force for Racing this season.
He added: “Who would have thought it? Playing against Ireland we used to target the 10 channel and now he’s a defence coach but obviously he has brought a lot to the Racing 92 coaching staff – particularly defence which he runs. A lot of it is about his understanding of the game and also his attitude.
“He brings the best out of players. He doesn’t settle for anything other than the best so if we don’t perform he comes down on us pretty hard.
“We’ve got a great team culture and wanting to work hard for your team-mates. I think that’s shown the best through defence. He’s really driving that and leading the way.”
Since returning to European club rugby – he enjoyed a six-month spell with Perpignan in 2008/09 – Carter has started to play closer attention to the Six Nations Championship.
Earlier this week, the Canterbury man suggested that bonus points could improve the quality of the competition’s play.
Yesterday he added: “Right throughout my career, apart from the World Cup, I have always played for bonus points.
“You can often score a couple of tries and it inspires you to want to score a couple more. Instead of sitting on your lead and trying to close the game out, you are actually inspiring to play attacking rugby and go for the fourth try. It just gives that incentive to try and score goals not just win games.”