Gregor Paul: Dan Carter's new book paints stunning All Blacks picture

All Black captian Richie McCaw and teammate Dan Carter celebrate. International rugby union test match, Australia Wallabies v New Zealand All Blacks. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

OPINION:

Dan Carter has published a new book, detailing his thoughts and the statistics about every test he ever played. It's hardly classic literature but it is illuminating numerically at least in demonstrating the importance of his goal-kicking in establishing him as one of the greatest All Blacks in history.

Carter scored 1598 points in his 112 tests, with 90 per cent of those coming from his boot. Those numbers confirm what everyone already knew – that he was a supremely accurate goal-kicker.

But they also show, when compared with the numbers posted by those who have succeeded him, that Carter wasn't just accurate, he was prolific in the sense he was given more opportunity to kick for goal.

If we break down the 1598 points Carter scored, 10 per cent came from tries, 37 per cent from conversions and 52 per cent from penalties, with one per cent attributed to drop goals.

In comparison, 26 per cent of Beauden Barrett's 688 test points have come from tries, 47 per cent from conversions and 25 per cent from penalties.

Richie Mo'unga's breakdown is 240 points, with 15 per cent from tries, 65 per cent conversions and 20 per cent penalties, while 50 per cent of Jordie Barrett's 159 points have come from tries, 25 per cent conversions and 25 per cent penalties.

Between 2003 and 2015 Carter kicked 281 penalty goals. Since he retired, Beauden and Jordie Barrett, Richie Mo'unga, Aaron Cruden, Lima Sopoaga and Damian McKenzie have split the goal-kicking and between them have landed 151 penalties – just 54 per cent of what Carter managed on his own.

The picture is stunningly clear then and the most interesting part of Carter's book is not what it reveals about his career, but for the light it sheds on the period after, which is that since 2016, the All Blacks have massively reduced their appetite to kick penalty goals.

Carter played most of his test career under the captaincy of Richie McCaw, a man who believed wholeheartedly in scoreboard pressure.

Under his leadership, when the All Blacks had kickable points, they would mostly take them, subscribing to the belief that it was critical to convert pressure into points every time they mounted an attack within opposition territory.

It was a different era of course, but the strategy was undeniably smart and effective – the All Blacks back then were prepared to patiently build a score, kick their points, regain possession and start again.

McCaw was a captain who trusted that by building scoreboard pressure, the tries would eventually come and his 90 per cent win ratio and two World Cups says he was right.

21 June 2003, Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, New Zealand. All Blacks v Wales. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

After McCaw and Carter both retired, the All Blacks shifted from this mind-set of taking points when they were on offer and have aggressively chased tries instead.

For the last five years, the majority of kickable penalties have been booted to the touchline and the All Blacks have backed their lineout and driving maul to score tries.

Almost three-quarters of Beauden Barrett's test points have come from scoring or converting tries. Nearly 65 per cent of Mo'unga's points are from conversions and while there are no doubt supporters of this more adventurous and higher risk ploy, the overall win-loss statistics since 2015, compared with the Carter-McCaw era, suggest the All Blacks should revert to a more conservative, traditional test match approach of kicking for goal more than they currently do.

Certainly it felt like the All Blacks hurt their chances in both recent tests against the Springboks – particularly the first – by spurning kickable points.

The basic rule in tight games – and there is no other kind when it's against the Boks – should be to always take the points, until or unless there is an obviously favourable risk equation to justify kicking to the corner.

Why that's not been embedded in recent seasons seems to be the fault of the horribly imbalanced Super Rugby set-up where New Zealand sides have been dominant and compelled to chase try-scoring bonus points, knowing that victories alone against so many weak teams would not necessarily be enough to win play-off spots.

It ingrained a culture of higher risk option-taking where it felt horribly unambitious to kick goals and unnecessary too, because so few games were going to end up being tight.

That attitude, albeit not so aggressively or exclusively, has been taken into the test arena these last five years and while it hasn't been responsible as such for the All Blacks losing tests, it may have contributed to this sense there has been a mild erosion of New Zealand's wider understanding of what it takes to win brutal, slow-moving tests against defensively-orientated sides.

It seems relatively straightforward then, that with tests coming up against Wales, Ireland and France, whoever is captain of the All Blacks needs to point at the posts more and the touchline less and with that, instil a deeper appreciation that test match victories are ground out in a world mercifully devoid of bonus points and one where substance always conquers style.