Carlos Spencer
Team: Auckland, Auckland Blues, Ponsonby
Height: 184 cm
Weight: 95 Kg of lean muscle (unlike a certain 1st 5/8th from Canterbury)
DOB: 14 October 1975
Carlos Spencer
Team: Auckland, Auckland Blues, Ponsonby
Height: 184 cm
Weight: 95 Kg of lean muscle (unlike a certain 1st 5/8th from Canterbury)
DOB: 14 October 1975
Even though there are banners at most rugby games at Eden Park from women asking Carlos Spencer if he would like to marry them, the Blues first-five-cum-fullback, who has the ability to send 40,000 screaming fans to their feet in wonderment with a sly dummy pass, remains a quite bloke of the field.
The days when the Levin-born star would appear in TV commercials as a topless hunk or on glossy magazine covers wearing a stetson are long gone.
Now, to use an overused cliche, he prefers to do his talking on the field. Spencer has been one of standout New Zealand players in this season's Super 12 and surely will be in the reckoning of the All Black selectors again this year.
His ability to always do the unexpected makes a mockery of opposition defensive plans and more often than not results in a try to the Blues. Off the field, however, he is a lot less extraverted and he tells nzoom.com that he prefers being out of the media and public spotlight.
"I have always been like that," Spencer says. "I am not one for going out, I have always kept to myself.
"That's just the way I am," he adds as we sit in Eden Park after a particularly heavy training session. "It has got to do with a bit of shyness I suppose and where I am from. That's the way I like it."
2002 has been a frustrating season so far for Blues fans and their coaching staff. At times their rugby has been thrilling and a joy to watch while at other times they have appeared clueless and without vision.
"There has been a lot of inconsistency," admits Spencer. "We have pulled out a couple of good games and in a couple of other games we've done well for either the first half or second half.
"But we have just got to get 80 minutes of consistent rugby."
Spencer knows that all of the Blues players will need to up their game, and it is not just the responsibility of the senior players like him to lead the way. "It is up to the whole side," he says. "The guys are pretty good and the new ones who have come in understand what it is all about."
While some rugby players like to keep fully abreast with what is going on in the Super 12, Spencer says that he rarely watches any other games over the weekend. "I try and catch none if possible," he says. "I won't go out of my way but if I am at home and one is on I might have a little look.
"Obviously I will have a look at the team we are playing against each week but that's it." Ask Spencer the obvious question about him at the moment and you will get an obvious answer.
So, Carlos, where do you want to play, first-five or fullback?
"It doesn't bother me I am happy in either position, 10 or 15 I am just happy to be out there, " he answers predictably. "If it is wearing 15 so be it and if it is wearing 10 I am happy as well. "Being out there is better than sitting on the bench no matter what number you have got on."
Source: nzoom
Date published: Apr 17, 2002