📍Southbridge, Canterbury, New Zealand
1982 – 2000“Dan Carter grew up in Southbridge, a small farming town on the Canterbury Plains, about forty-five kilometres south of Christchurch. His father, Neville, was a builder and a devoted member of the Southbridge Rugby Club, where he played more than three hundred games, and his mother, Bev, supported the family's sporting life. In a town of a few hundred people, the rugby club was the centre of community life, and Dan began playing there at five. When he turned eight, his parents put up a set of full-size goalposts in the backyard. Dan spent hours kicking, from every angle and in every weather, and by nine he was landing goals from the touchline forty metres out. The family, the club volunteers and the local coaches encouraged him, and he learned not only skills but humility, because in Southbridge everyone knew everyone and no one got ahead of themselves. He played as a half back for the club, then at first five-eighth. He attended Ellesmere College in nearby Leeston and, in his final year, moved to Christchurch Boys' High School to further his rugby. He went on to play for Canterbury, the Crusaders and the All Blacks, becoming the highest points-scorer in Test history and winning two World Cups, the second in 2015 when he was named World Rugby Player of the Year. He has never forgotten Southbridge, and those backyard goalposts have become part of New Zealand rugby folklore.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
🛰️ Satellite view · © Google