Way back when, before Dan Carter was a rugby superstar with a World Cup winner’s medal and the highest paid player on the planet, he was part of an All Blacks Under-21 team that toured these shores in 2002 for the Junior World Cup.

The Kiwis were defeated in the semi-finals with the Baby Boks going on to win the tournament, although that probably isn’t the bit that stands out most for Carter.

In his autobiography Dan talks about an incident that occurred at a Jozi nightclub when things turned very ugly. These extracts below from the NZ Herald:

Carter and team-mates headed to a bar in Johannesburg several hours after they had beaten Wales in the play-off for third and fourth at the 2002 Junior World Cup. The majority of the team wore team-issue polos – which Carter described as “our armour”.

But after several hours drinking at what Carter recalled as a “dodgy club”, the team’s choice of clothing saw them being targeted for a level of brutality which the star first-five never experienced during his 12 years of test rugby.

“Out of the blue, a voice boomed out over the club’s sound system: ‘Could all the New Zealanders please leave the premises immediately’.”

Initially the New Zealand team thought the announcement was a joke, but then realised the seriousness of the situation once it was repeated. Scuffles started breaking out once the team left the venue. Shocked at what was unfolding, Carter and fellow future All Black star Luke McAlister fled the venue and the pending violence.

“We didn’t know it yet, but that one random, somewhat selfish decision might have ended up saving lives,” he said.

“As soon as we left things exploded. Players started brawling with the bouncers. But what sent the whole scene over the edge was when reinforcements arrived not long after.”

That included several fans arriving and “big security types piled out”.

“It became a scene of extreme violence, and guys from both sides were getting seriously beaten up. The whole thing had a level of violence way beyond the average pub brawl.

“Then gunshots rang out.” The gunfire saw members of the New Zealand Under-21 team seek the refuge of their team vans.

“Sam had been pistol-whipped, Jason Shoemark had copped a hell of a beating,” Carter wrote. “As the vans tried to leave, the windows were smashed in – guys were jumping fences, just running for their lives.”

When Carter and McAlister rejoined their team-mates at their hotel, he wrote they were greeted by the sight of “carnage”.

“There were guys with blood everywhere, guys missing teeth, guys with eggs on their heads, broken noses, black eyes,” he recalled. “It was horrifying. Everyone was terrified, scared for their lives.”

Of the gun fire, Carter wrote: “I still don’t know if guns were being shot at people, or whether security guards were just shooting in the air to put the s**** up them.

“It doesn’t really matter – the fact that they had guns and were pistol whipping guys and pointing them at us made the situation by far the most serious and intense I’d encountered at any point in my playing career.”

Don’t worry, he also has a horror story to tell about a night out in this neck of the woods:

He was to endure more off-field horror after being robbed during a night out in Cape Town.

“Out of nowhere two guys came up, grabbed me and pinned me up against a wall,” he wrote in My Story.

“One of them demanded my phone, but I was a bit drunk and cocky. ‘It’s alright’, I replied, ‘I’m talking on it’.

“‘Get your gun out and shoot him’, I heard. My blood ran cold. I handed him the phone, put my head down and walked off as quickly as I could, my pulse racing, entirely sobered up.”

Say what you like about giving the All Blacks one hell of a hard time on the field, no one likes reading about incidents like these. We may have seen the last of Dan Carter on tour in South Africa, but if he ever does come back let’s try and be on our best behaviour

[source:nzherald]