Bismarck du Plessis has never been short of great rugby stories, but his appearance on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby delivered one of his best yet. Sitting down with Alex Payne, and Mike Tindall, the former Springbok hooker finally unpacked the full tale behind his infamous tackle on Dan Carter — a moment that has lived on in highlight reels, memes and debates for nearly two decades.
What followed was vintage Bismarck: dry humour, honesty, and a behind-the-scenes story that’s even better than the clip itself.
“When you play against him, you actually hate him… he was just that good.”
Before the hit became folklore, Carter was simply the opponent Bismarck could never quite wrap up. The respect was real — so was the frustration.
“When you play against him, you actually hate him… because he was just that good. But off the field he is a super, super human.”
Despite the fierce rivalry, the two men ended up forming a strange kind of friendship through years of Super Rugby battles.
“We would play against each other in Super Rugby. We became friends — friends and foes.”
The brokerage, the Dan Carter super-fan, and the framed poster
The story takes a turn that nobody would ever guess.
During his early Sharks days, coach Dick Muir made players do “normal jobs” for work experience. Du Plessis was placed in an insurance brokerage — where one colleague adored Dan Carter more than anyone Bismarck had ever met.
“The lady who worked with me loved Dan Carter with all her heart. She talked about him every day of my life when I was there.
She didn’t stop at talk. She got him a framed Dan Carter poster signed:
“She got me this big poster… and it said, ‘To Bismarck, with love — Dan Carter.’”
And Bismarck — half-annoyed, half-amused — made a promise he never expected to keep:
“I said to her, ‘You know what, honey? One day I’m going to kill that man.’”
He laughs retelling it — but the quote would become prophetic.
The moment: ‘I was going to tackle him with or without the ball.’
Every Springbok fan knows the clip: kickoff, Carter fields it deep, and Bismarck comes flying from the heavens.
But according to du Plessis, that entire collision balanced on a half-second window.
“I’d tried to tackle him a million times. As soon as the ball got tapped, I locked onto one thing. If the ball arrived half a second earlier, I would’ve touched the goalposts. If it was half a second later, I would’ve tackled him without the ball.”
“But I was going to tackle him with or without the ball.”
It landed perfectly — for Bismarck, at least.
“By hook or crook, it got to him at the right time.”
And then came the noise.
“As soon as I hit him and I fell on the ground, I could hear he was in pain.”
The yellow card, the boos, and Andrew Hall’s legendary chirp
The hit sparked chaos. The crowd roared. Carter stayed down. The referee reached for his pocket.
Bismarck remembers the walk of shame as vividly as the tackle.
“It was a whole big commotion. I got my card — the funniest yellow, not red. It’s not even a yellow, really.”
“About 15 metres from the sideline, I could hear Andrew Hall shouting, ‘Bismar! Bismar! Bismar!’”
Then came the punchline — courtesy of Andrew Hall, who had seen a similar incident years earlier.
“He crept up and said, ‘Told you never to touch Dan.’”
The crowd booed. Bismarck sat on the “naughty chair.” And a rugby moment was born.
Does Carter still feel it today? Bismarck laughs.
Asked whether the All Blacks icon still carries that hit somewhere in his shoulder:
“I don’t think he’s got any problems with that. I think he polishes his own boots because his boot won two World Cups.”
Classic Bismarck — blunt, honest, and still slightly amused that his most famous collision came from a running joke in a brokerage office.
Why the story still matters
Rugby’s greatest moments live not just in replays but in the characters behind them.
Bismarck du Plessis was one of a kind: ferocious on the field, warm and self-mocking off it, built from the farm but forged in Test match fire.
This story — with the humor, the timing, the chaos — is pure Bismarck.
Watch: Bismarck du Plessis reacts to the Dan Carter tackle
A post shared by The Good, The Bad & The Rugby (@goodbadrugby)
