Five caps in two years, then the No 10 jersey against the Springboks. Carter says the support around him is the reason it can work.
Dan Carter has backed Ruben Love to handle the All Blacks No 10 jersey against South Africa, arguing that the 25-year-old is not being left to sink despite his lack of Test experience. Speaking on the For The Love Of Rugby: South Africa podcast, published on Tuesday 25 August, Carter pointed to the fly-halves around Love in the touring squad as the reason.
Love started the 33-16 win at Ellis Park on Saturday 22 August, the opening Test of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, having been preferred by Dave Rennie ahead of Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo’unga.
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“He will have a support network”
Carter acknowledged the gap in experience without treating it as a problem.
“It won’t be just Ruben Love, who’s pretty inexperienced at Test match level, that has just been thrown into the deep end.”
“He will have a support network of players around him to help him thrive at the highest level.”
He described what that actually looks like inside an All Blacks week, and it is less formal than most fans imagine.
“They’ll be having coffees. They’ll be having inside-back meetings.”
Carter said the same thing happened to him in reverse, spending his first two professional seasons at 12 outside Andrew Mehrtens and Carlos Spencer and following both of them around asking questions until they got sick of him.
How Love got here
The Wellington-born Hurricanes playmaker, son of former Māori All Black Matene Love, made his debut off the bench against Japan in October 2024 and scored two tries in the final ten minutes. He had only five caps by the time Rennie named his first squad in July 2026, three of them off the bench and two as a starting full-back.
What changed was Super Rugby. Love was man of the match in the Hurricanes’ 60-5 win over the Chiefs in the final, scoring two tries and a competition final record 25 points, and Rennie picked him at 10 for the Nations Championship opener against France on the back of it.
Barrett, on 145 Tests, and Damian McKenzie, on 74, have both been watching from elsewhere in the squad since.
