Champion All Blacks five eighth Dan Carter’s wait for his 100th Test will extend into November’s Europe tour after the latest blow in his injury-riddled season.
Carter is set to miss the rest of the Rugby Championship plus the third Bledisloe Cup clash with the Wallabies in Dunedin on October 19 with the shoulder injury he suffered in a brutal tackle by Springboks hooker Bismarck de Plessis.
Carter lasted just 15 minutes of Saturday’s bruising 29-15 victory over South Africa in Auckland.
It’s the latest in a frustrating run of injuries for the classy pivot, who has managed just three Test appearances in 2013 and remains three short of becoming the fourth All Black to reach 100 caps.
The All Blacks begin their European tour against France on November 9.
“Hopefully, we can get him on the plane to go to Paris,” Hansen said on Sunday.
Tom Taylor, who went off with a rib injury in his Test debut against the Wallabies in Wellington in August, is the likely replacement for Carter in the squad.
The result at Eden Park leapfrogged New Zealand, the defending champions, four points clear of South Africa and Hansen repeated his post-match comments about his pride in his players’ efforts.
“It was a massive Test match,” he said.
“It was built up to be one and it came out as one. It was a very physical encounter and we stood up to that.
“We scored four tries in various manners and got a bonus point out of it, and stopped them getting one, so that’s going to be vitally important to the outcome of the championship.”
The tackle that led to Carter’s injury appeared to be a legitimate shot, but du Plessis got a yellow card for it.
He went on to get another yellow, and thus a red card, in the 42nd minute for using his elbow to fend off loose forward Liam Messam.
Hansen admitted that du Plessis probably shouldn’t have been sin-binned for the Carter tackle.
But as to whether the hooker’s sending off ruined the spectacle, he said showing discipline was part of the game.
“Bismarck will be disappointed because probably the first one wasn’t a yellow card, but what he did the second time was just dumb,” he said.
“You can’t elbow someone in the throat.”
Similarly, he described what No.8 and stand-in captain Kieran Read and second five-eighth Ma’a Nonu did in the last eight minutes to earn yellow cards as “reasonably dumb offences”.
“You have to accept it, if you do it.”
After a break, the All Blacks fly out for Argentina next Saturday, with skipper Richie McCaw, who suffered a knee injury last weekend in the win over the Pumas, a possibility to be on the flight.