Church.

Dan Carter’s autobiography has provided some very interesting insights since excerpts have started to spill onto the internet following it’s release last week, but this is one of the best.

A week before the first test against Wales in Cardiff, a 23 year old Dan Carter and his fellow All Black buddies Piri Weepu, Jimmy Cowan, Aaron Mauger, Leon MacDonald and Jason Eaton were out on the piss when someone mentioned how great it would be if they were in London, drinking at the famous ‘Church’ bar.

Before they knew it, the lads were on the way London.

Obviously we weren’t thinking clearly, but the idea was infectious, and we eventually found a cabbie mad enough to take us. We gave him £300, grabbed some mix CDs and a box of beers and were soon speeding towards London.

The sun came up. Slowly the first shards of doubt started to enter our heads. Maybe this wasn’t the greatest idea we’d ever had?

Arriving at the bar at 10am, two hours before opening, Mauger put things into perspective: “What the f*** are we doing in London? We’ve got to get out of here.”

Word had already gotten back to the New Zealand camp, and they were not impressed. After returning to Cardiff full of regret with their tail between their legs, Carter described the intense dressing down they received from their captain later that night:

Tana [Umaga] absolutely ripped into us. ‘That’s not good enough. You should be sent home’. 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, p***ing 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.

For what it’s worth, Carter wasn’t sent home, and won New Zealand rugby player of the year in 2005.