Tana to Dan: 'You should be sent home'

The most galling incident of Dan Carter's rugby career was what followed a bender during the side's 2005 tour of the UK. Photo / Getty Images

A furious Tana Umaga told Dan Carter and five team-mates they should "be sent home" after an all-night bender on the All Blacks' 2005 tour of the UK.

The star first-five, Piri Weepu, Jimmy Cowan, Aaron Mauger, Leon MacDonald and Jason Eaton earned the ire of the then All Black captain after their off-field antics.

The group travelled from Cardiff to London on an all-night drinking session before the side had played a game. Carter has revealed details of the incident " and the reaction to the players' antics " in his tell-all autobiography, My Story, released yesterday.

Carter also revealed:

The seriousness of his knee injury during the All Blacks' run to this year's World Cup final

Off-field violence dealt out to his Under-21 team in South Africa

An invitation to consider a switch to the NFL.

But for the man who proudly wore the All Blacks jersey in 112 tests and won two World Cups, the most galling incident of his rugby career was what followed a bender during the side's 2005 tour of the UK.

"Tana absolutely ripped into us. 'That's not good enough', he said.

'You should be sent home'," Carter wrote. "Jason Eaton hadn't even played a test, hadn't even played Super Rugby. Tana really got stuck into him, asking him who he thought he was, pissing on this amazing environment.

"Same with Leon and Aaron, who were part of the leadership group, who were meant to impose discipline, not need it. Piri, Jimmy and I were lucky in a way, caught in between. It was an absolutely brutal drilling, and as low as I'd felt as an All Black."

The group had been drinking at Cardiff bars before returning to their hotel. About 5am, Carter said, one of the players "had the bright idea" of going to London in a taxi.

They could continue partying at The Church, a bar popular with New Zealand, Australian and South African ex-pats. "Hitting The Church is a great way to cap off a successful tour, but a ridiculous way to begin one," Carter wrote.

The group gave a cabbie 300 ($700) and were "soon speeding towards London". They arrived at the venue at 10am but soon after, Mauger realised the group was in hot water. The six players then rushed to catch a noon train back to Cardiff.

"We knew we'd been caught, and had to face what was coming."

Carter said the week after the big night out was "awful". Pictures emerged of the players on the train.

All week he visited the All Blacks' mental skills coach, Gilbert Enoka, in a bid to "avoid drifting into black thoughts".

It was the first time in Carter's rugby career that he had endured bad press, adding he had previously felt "a little untouchable".

The boozy night wasn't the first time Carter felt the ire of All Black management and senior players for off-field behaviour. In South Africa the previous year he drank heavily with other non-playing squad members and was called to account.

"I had to apologise to the whole team. I found it intensely humiliating. [We] felt terrible, like we'd devalued the jersey, and bore the responsibility for the nature of the loss."