When his dog ate All Black Leroy Carter’s passport

All Black Leroy Carter set for the Pumas tour a few days back, and tipped alongside Quinn Tupaea or Timoci Tavatavanawai to offer midfield cover on the bench for the next game on August 24, was almost held back from the likely debut, soon after Sam Robertson’s All Blacks named their squad.

Carter, a Sevens regular, and a utility back had returned to find his passport shredded on the bed, needing an emergency document to travel to Argentina.

“”I got my passport out to take a photo to send to the (team) manager and I just left it on my bedside table,” the 26-year-old had told New Zealand media

“My partner went to the gym and left my dog home alone and it’s gone down the hallway, jumped on the bed and just chewed up the passport.”

The dog also cut into Carter’s teeth aligners.

“It was a bit of a shambles yesterday. I was trying to get an emergency one but I think it’s all sussed (sorted) now,” he was quoted by Reuters. He had even had a premonition. “I thought it would happen to me, something like that, so no point getting stressed about it, just trying to sort it out.”

The majority of All Blacks flew out for Argentina where they played their Rugby Championship opener against the Pumas in Cordoba. Carter, a Sevens Olympian from Paris, winning bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, was picked by All Blacks after his debut season with the Waikato Chiefs in Super Rugby.

Carter had been out for breakfast with his partner and some of his teammates from provincial side Bay of Plenty when he got the selection call. “I got an unknown-number call. I guess I thought if there was a day to answer those it was probably (that day) and he just said congratulations,” he recalled. “I honestly can’t really remember what else he said after that. I was pretty emotional and pretty stoked to get a phone call like that. All the boys were pretty pumped but I was still in a bit of a shock.”

Then his dog ate his passport.

© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd