Get Carter will be Lions' aim

Lions tour: Dusk is descending at the QEII Park in the suburbs of Christchurch. The All Blacks have finished their public training session and have emerged to sign autographs. Daniel Carter's appointed date with the media huddle is about to take place. The screams become higher. "Daaaan." "Dan-yelllll."

Yes, Daniel Carter has replaced the departing Carlos Spencer as the pin-up boy of New Zealand rugby. As evidence of this, he is about to sign a new contract modelling jockey underwear and is so inundated with fan mail he employs a friend to deal with it.

He's also replaced Spencer as the New Zealand outhalf. Only 23, he's already the All Blacks' fourth highest points scorer with 247 points, and with no specialist back-up as goalkicker or outhalf, he is probably their most important player in the series against the Lions as well.

He takes it all in his stride. His slow drawl and unflustered answers tally with what you see on the pitch. Easy-going and smiling, if this fellow was any more chilled out he'd be asleep.

Christchurch is his home town and he was always a star in the underage making. Groomed as the heir to the All Black number 10 throne for a couple of years at inside centre outside Andrew Mehrtens at Canterbury, and then Carlos Spencer with the All Blacks, he assumed the mantle last autumn as if to the manor born. The highlight being that 45-6 win over a French team still reeling from their Puma pummelling the week before.

During a proper hour-and-a-half training run even incorporating live scrummaging as opposed to a form of synchronised swimming, watching Carter was a reminder of how effortlessly he makes it all look. With that deceptive, shuffling style, he is an all-round outhalf, who plays flat on the gain line, eyes up the defence and wristily distributes short or long. He also gives and moves, often popping up in support.

After the Mehrtens-Spencer era he is a godsend, and perhaps even more than the phenomenal Richie McCaw, one of the prime reasons for the widespread expectations of a Blackwash in much of the New Zealand media. Such thinking is given one of ironic little chuckles by Carter.

"I'm not too sure about that really. It's probably going to be the biggest challenge the All Blacks have ever faced before. It's an extremely strong side we're coming up against so we're not really looking at the results; we're just going out there to try and play how we want to play."

The portrayal of the Lions as one-dimensional bores, set to kick the leather off the ball, comes with an unhealthy demand on the All Blacks and their playmaker to not only win, but to do so in an all-singing, all-dancing, all-juggling style.

"Yeah I think so," he admits, adding: "Personally I'd be happy with a win. I don't really care how we do it as long as we come out with a victory . . . We've got a style of play we like to play, and think we can win with, but it's a matter of going out there and doing that."

He has "vague" memories of watching the last Lions series here as an 11-year-old and of this challenge says: "It's going to be huge, right up there with the biggest games I've been a part of. The whole hype. And it only happens once in your career if you're lucky so I'm really excited."

With a better lead-in, the All Blacks would have been perfectly primed. They have the more established combinations. Most of their team come off a strong showing in the Super 12, especially the Canterbury Crusaders, of whom Carter was in prolific, confident form, but a 91-0 rout over Fiji didn't remotely prepare them for the intensity of what's ahead.

"I'm sure it would have been good to have a tighter test pre the Lions. I was expecting a bit more from the Fijians to be honest. It was good to play with the guys again but it's going to be very different this weekend. It's going to be faster, with definitely less room to move than it was against Fiji. We'll try and get all the boys involved nice and early so they can get their hands on the ball and take it from there."

Like everyone else around the All Blacks it seems, Carter has duly noticed the striking improvement in the Lions' work in the contact area and lower, harder more intense rucking at the breakdown. That win over France was well and good, but as Carter says: "The Lions are going to be quite a lot stronger than that French side. It's going to be a huge challenge and I think we're going to have to step up another level from what we did against the French if we're going to come out on top this weekend."

Unsurprisingly, many of the questions directed at Carter are about some bloke called Jonny and even another by the name of Gavin. Yeah he was surprised Henson was omitted, no he had no opinion on whether Wilkinson would be played at 12, before politely rejecting the question that Wilkinson has been a primary influence on his career.

"Eh, no, not really. We play in the same position and we're both left-footers but I think we've got pretty different games . . . I've played alongside Mehrts and Carlos, and they've got two completely different games as well. I've taken certain aspects of those guys' games and put them into my game, which is different as well. It's just about picking up the odd thing from them."

Is he as laid back as he seems? He smiles again. "I think it's pretty important to be pretty laid back and relaxed. We've a learnt a lot in the last few weeks about how we want to play so I've put that all on board and it's just a matter of directing the boys now, seeing what's in front of me and put guys through the holes, just standing out there and playing, and doing what we do well."

The first receiver who directs all around him, he makes it sound so easy, as if he too is playing in slow motion while all around him is a frenzied swirl of bodies. "Lucky enough" to be playing in his home town, Carter says: "I'm really looking forward to it. Things like that gee me up."

The interview has to end, the All Blacks press officer explaining "There are some 12-year-old girls who are going to die if they don't get his autograph."