'I was always telling Irish players they need to go play Super Rugby'

The 42

3 days ago

AS THEY STROLLED up towards Byron Bay's famous lighthouse during their honeymoon, Sam Carter and his wife, Maddie, were mulling over a big decision.
Carter had already made the call to leave Australian rugby. He had achieved all he wanted with the Brumbies, playing for the Canberra side more than 100 times and captaining them. Carter had earned 16 caps in the second row for the Wallabies. He and Maddie were ready for an adventure.
There were a few enticing options at the time in 2019. When Ulster first got in touch, it didn't seem like the most exciting one. Carter simply knew very little about them.
'I didn't know much about Belfast, I didn't know any of the players except that I'd heard of Jacob Stockdale,' says Carter. 'Everyone had heard of Jacob Stockdale at that stage.'
Carter spoke with Ulster's then-head coach Dan McFarland while on honeymoon in the stunning beachside town of Byron Bay. So it was that the newly-wed Carters found themselves walking to the lighthouse, Australia's most easterly point, discussing their options.
And with the sound of the South Pacific Ocean lapping gently along the coastline, they saw something unexpected.
'This guy walked down from the lighthouse in an Ulster shirt,' says Carter, still a little incredulous six years on. 'Like, we passed a guy in an Ulster shirt while we were discussing it and I was just thinking, 'This is ridiculous!'
'There's a lot of Irish in Australia, but like… Well, my wife thinks my manager planted it to get me across there.'
Chatting over a coffee in Canberra earlier this week, Carter reflects that it proved to be the perfect sign. The first of their two daughters, four-year-old Goldie, was born in Belfast and they can't wait to bring her back one day. Any time Maddie hears Belfast mentioned in a song or on TV, she gets emotional.
Although he couldn't help them win a trophy, Carter loved the rugby in his four years with Ulster. He played nearly 60 times, captained the province, and learned lots of new things despite joining at the age of 29.
Carter loved his time in Ulster. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
He's now an ex-rugby player having retired from the pro game after playing for the Western Force in their recent game against the British and Irish Lions in Perth, where he brought his career almost full circle by finishing with two seasons in Aussie rugby.
'It was a special weekend for me,' says Carter, who played against lots of familiar Leinster faces and English international Ollie Chessum, who he played alongside in Leicester after moving on from Ulster in 2023.
Carter is 35, was happy with how his career had unfolded, and was ready to move on. Having played against the Lions in his final game, Carter loved being in Canberra for the Legends Lunch and the Brumbies' game. Canberra is where it all kicked off for him.
He and Maddie both hail from the town of Tamworth, 400km northwest of Sydney and best known for its huge annual country music festival. Carter grew up on a farm, getting stuck into work with the crops and cattle from an early age.
His father, David, played five Tests in the back row for the Wallabies in the late 1980s. Sam jokes that he wasn't very good at rugby 'for a long time,' so he didn't feel any pressure. He didn't make any representative teams when he was growing up.
He went off to boarding school at Sydney's Scots College, which has started to produce professional rugby players in recent times, and then started to make a name for himself with Sydney University. The Waratahs didn't want him, so Carter took a chance with the Brumbies.
'The Waratahs is like Leinster, they get all the talent straight out of school and then the blokes that don't stick in that environment get sent down to Canberra,' says Carter.
'The Brumbies don't get the best talent straight away, but you come down to Canberra and you become a player because of the quality of the programme, the culture.
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'You weren't first pick, but you come down here and you prove people wrong.'
It's no wonder that many ex-Brumbies have made such a success of moves to Connacht.
Carter joined in 2011, soon before Jake White arrived to lead a big rebuild. Stephen Larkham and Laurie Fisher were also part of the coaching team and they reached the Super Rugby final in 2013, coming up short against the Chiefs.
Carter celebrates with Scott Fardy. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
The Brumbies had beaten the Lions a couple of months before. Carter was in the second row of a team that rocked the 2013 tourists.
'We had a good team, a lot of guys that hadn't made the Wallabies yet. We had Henry Speight, Scott Fardy, Tevita Kuridrani, Scott Sio, Matt Toomua.
'Funnily enough, I underestimated how big a deal that was at the time. We were a little bit naive. I think it took going overseas and playing in Ireland and England to realise how big the Lions are.
'Looking back at the best matches in my life, that would be one of the best wins I've ever had.'
Carter made his Wallabies debut the following year, starting in the second row and then keeping his place for the entire Rugby Championship. He played against Ireland that November in Dublin. Carter was part of the 2015 World Cup squad.
His last cap came in 2017, although he was back in Wallabies camp briefly last year when Joe Schmidt asked him to come in and lend an experienced hand.
Having bid farewell to Australia, he and Maddie pitched up in Belfast in 2019, not quite knowing what to expect. It started disastrously as Carter dislocated his shoulder only a few games into the season, ruling him out for nine months.
When he got fit again, Covid had shut rugby down. It meant the initial two years were tough. Carter says Ulster were excellent, allowing him to return to Australia to train there when travel allowed it but rugby was still at a standstill.
Maddie being pregnant gave them something positive to focus on. In 2021, Carter had offers to return to Australia but Ulster wanted him to stay for two more years. He had a sense of wanting to fully prove what he could offer. The Carters also loved Belfast and its people.
And the feeling was reciprocated. Ulster players speak highly of Carter.
'It's hard moving your family from one side of the world to the other with the expectation of being a foreign player, where there is maybe a bit of resentment that you might be taking another bloke's spot,' says Carter. 'But I just really got along with most of the guys.'
He bonded with the likes of Stuart McCloskey and Iain Henderson.
'When we were living in Leicester, we went back to Belfast for Christmas with the Hendersons. We had an absolute ball, a great time with his entire family.'
Carter playing against Ireland in 2014. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Carter enjoyed learning about Belfast's history, taking guided tours and reading books about the city. He liked how McFarland brought those stories into Ulster's 'themeing' of their seasons, connecting the squad to the 'incredibly unique' province around them.
Carter has been following the Kneecap story recently and watched their movie, although he struggles to understand their accents even after his four years in Belfast.
The Carters also did lots of travelling around Ireland when they could, with visits to Donegal, Portrush, Westport, the Ring of Kerry, Dingle, Waterford, and Youghal among the highlights.
As well as engaging with Ireland off the pitch, Carter loved the fresh challenge of playing with Ulster. It was different to what he knew at the Brumbies.
'I didn't realise how much I didn't know about rugby until I went over,' says Carter.
'Ulster had a completely different way of doing things. They were very, very thorough and detailed on roles and that kind of stuff.
'Like, they would analyse your opposition player every Friday before the captain's run. It was very detailed, but for them that was just the way they did it, so I had to adapt.
'The Ulster players lived and breathed rugby. When I was in Canberra, if I wasn't in the training facility, I was just not thinking about rugby. But the Ulster guys loved it, they ate rugby for breakfast.'
As he saw a different way of doing things, Carter wondered why more Irish players weren't doing something similar by having stints in Australian or Kiwi rugby.
He still feels strongly about this.
'The whole time I was at Ulster, I was always telling the Irish guys, 'You need to get out and go play Super Rugby for a couple of years.'
'It'd be such an incredible experience because it's just same-same for them in Ireland. If you grow up in Ulster, you just want to play for Ulster your entire life, but going away for a year and coming back, you can still play for Ulster.
'I've been telling Nick Timoney to come out to Australia for ages now. I'm like, 'Mate, you'd love it out here' and he'd be really good here.'
Carter has now hung up his boots. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo
Carter was sad to leave Ulster in 2023 but he says the province handled it well, telling him early in his final season that they wouldn't be able to re-contract him.
He considered retirement but felt he still had 'a bit of juice to go' when Dan McKellar, his former Brumbies boss, called and asked Carter to come to Leicester.
It was a tough season for all parties, though, and Carter got an early release in March to come back to Australia and join the Western Force. It was a joy for him to finish up on Aussie soil and particularly special to have his last game against the Lions.
Carter always checks the Ulster score first thing on a Sunday morning and he's delighted to see some of their young guns getting ahead.
'You see James McNabney and Cormac Izuchukwu coming through, I've a good relationship with Cormac. He has all the tools and you knew that once it clicked, he was going to be a very good player.'
The Carters will be back in Belfast for a visit before long.