Do we like Dan Carter?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean harm record, years of genuine fundraising, and one drink-driving fine he owned up to.
Dan Carter grew up in Southbridge, a small farming town on New Zealand's South Island, and started playing rugby at five with the local club. He went through Canterbury and the Crusaders, debuted for the All Blacks in 2003 and finished with 1,598 Test points, the most in Test history. He won two World Cups and was named world player of the year three times.
The messiest chapter came in 2016, when French reports said he and two Racing 92 teammates had returned positive anti-doping samples. The French Rugby Federation cleared them that October, and after a second hearing France's anti-doping agency gave the final clearance in April 2017. Carter said it was a frustrating process and that having his integrity questioned had been difficult.
The other stain is a 2017 night in Paris, when police stopped him and found him over the drink-drive limit. He apologised publicly, saying he had made a massive error of judgment, and a Paris court later fined him €1,000. The hearing was held in private, and a French journalist said the fine sat at the lower end of what was possible. It's a real mark, but a single one, and he owned it quickly.
On the harm test, we searched for anything he has said or done about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate, and found nothing harmful. The searches turned up no campaigning, no conspiracy rabbit holes and no culture-war grifting. His commercial work, such as his luxury-brand ambassador roles and a fragrance with Chemist Warehouse, is the ordinary athlete-brand fare. The honest caveat is that he rarely speaks on politics, so this is a clean record rather than a loud one.
The good stuff is the headline. In 2022 he kicked 1,598 goals in 24 hours, matching his Test points tally, and raised more than half a million dollars for UNICEF clean water and sanitation in the Pacific. He then built that into the DC10 Fund, which is still running. He said the impact on children was what kept him going through the pain barrier.
Nothing new on him lately that we could confirm with a full read. The latest coverage is rugby commentary on the All Blacks and more UNICEF fundraising, with no fresh controversy.