Heineken Cup –
Confident
Carter kick-starts his Perpignan career with a crucial
victory
15 December 2008
All
Black fly-half Dan Carter kicked 16 points on his debut to
help guide Perpignan to a 26-20 home win against Leicester
Tigers.
The Kiwi
No 10 kicked two conversions and four penalties on his first
outing at the Stade Aime Giral, and afterwards admitted he
had felt so nervous it was like being back at his first day
at school.
Carter
missed with a penalty attempt either side of half
time, but centre Gerrie Britz scored two tries to ensure
that Perpignan kept alive their slim quarter-final hopes.
They are still third in Pool 3, six points behind both
Leicester and the Ospreys (their next opponents).
“The
fact we won the game is really good,” admitted a relieved
Carter. “But there are still a lot of important games to
come. I cannot ease up. I must keep learning and improving,”
he said.
But he
was clearly thrilled to have got off to a winning start, and
to begin paying back part of the £30,000 per game investment
the Catalans have made in him.
“To have
come and beat a team of the quality of Leicester in my first
game in Europe was a great start,” he said.
“The
game was very similar to what I am used to in Super 14. The
standard was just as high, though the conditions were much
wetter than normal for me so it was pretty slippery out
there.”
Carter
admitted he was “very nervous” before the match and that he
was just glad to have got his debut out of the way. “I did
feel the extra pressure but the supporters were fantastic
and I’m only pleased that I was playing for Perpignan and
not Leicester,” he added.
The
visitors, and group leaders, started brightly enough with
Toby Flood kicking them into a 3-0 lead in the second
minute, but Carter replied in kind to open his Perpignan
account before Britz went over for the first of his two
tries.
Nicolas
Durand started the move in his own 22 before Britz powered
home from 30m out after brushing aside Geordan Murphy’s
attempted tackle.
Carter
converted and added two more penalties as the hosts eased
16-3 ahead, but Leicester rallied before the interval with
Tom Croft scoring to reduce the gap to six.
Britz
added his second try when an attempted clearance was charged
down shortly after the restart but Leicester again fought
back, this time with Scott Hamilton – a former team-mate of
Carter back in New Zealand – going over after a quick tap
penalty.
Flood’s
conversion brought the Tigers within three points of
Perpignan before Carter, inevitably, had the final say with
the last of his six successful kicks.
Over in the European Challenge Cup,
Brive kept their qualification hopes alive with another
resounding win over Spanish side El Salvador.
Ben
Johnston and Lachlan Mackay both grabbed two tries apiece as
the Top 14 side cruised to a 55-5 win which lifted them to
the top of Pool 4.
Ben
Cohen, Kevin Buys, Antoine Claasen and Vincent Forges also
got on the scoresheet, while Alix Palisson kicked three
conversions and Liam Davies two.
Brive
are now two points ahead of Newcastle Falcons, their next
opponents.
Meanwhile, over in Pool 5, Saracens ran in four tries as
they dispatched Bayonne 36-0 in an ill-tempered game
that also featured five yellow cards.
The
defeat was Bayonne’s third in four ECC games, but more
significantly their hosts have now lodged a complaint about
alleged eye gouging.
“That’s
part of the way they play,” said Saracens coach Eddie Jones.
“We’ve made a complaint to the referee about gouging. That’s
the second time it’s happened against them in two weeks,” he
added.
The
ERC’s disciplinary committee takes a dim view of eye-gouging
offences, with Perpignan’s Romanian hooker Marius Tincu
currently serving an 18-week ban after being found guilty in
a Heineken Cup match against the Ospreys.
Elsewhere, Toulouse fly-half David Skrela is back on
the crock list after suffering an adductor injury in
Saturday’s away win at Newport Gwent
Dragons. The French international is due to have
an MRI scan this week but is definitely out of Saturday’s
Top 14 match against basement club Mont-de-Marsan.
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