Carter gets star billing as NZ press rounds on Woodward

Flyhalf Daniel Carter was the darling of the New Zealand print media yesterday after his stunning display led the All Blacks to a 48-18 victory over the British and Irish Lions a day earlier.

While the New Zealand number 10 will be soaking in all the positive reports, Lions coach Clive Woodward is likely to avoid reading the papers altogether after a second consecutive heavy defeat prompted several columnists to question his leadership.

Carter scored a record 33 points in the highest score posted against the Lions by any international team as the All Blacks cruised into an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-test series.

The Lions were beaten 21-3 in the first test on June 25. All three of New Zealand's Sunday newspapers concentrated on Carter with the front page of the Sunday Star Times displaying a photograph of the 23-year-old scoring one of his two tries underneath the headline "A perfect 10".

Former Lions captain Gavin Hastings described Carter as the best player in the world.

"Carter's was one of the greatest fly-half performances I've seen," Hastings wrote in the Herald on Sunday. "He just made things happen for himself and everyone around him.

"He is a wonderful, wonderful player."

Other columnists, however, instead chose to focus on the Lions and their head coach Woodward.

Former All Blacks coach Laurie Mains, who said before the tour began he thought it was the worst Lions team to visit New Zealand continued his attacks in the Sunday News.

"What a joke this Lions team is," Mains wrote. "The Lions were worse than I originally thought they would be."

Former All Blacks lock Andy Haden also said Woodward's legacy would not be of winning the World Cup in 2003, but of the failure to become the second coach to beat New Zealand in a series.

"Clive Woodward's $23 million experiment has been a complete and utter failure," wrote Haden in the Sunday News.

"The man who led England to World Cup glory must now realise his legacy is in ruins."