Carter makes Saracens favourites for final
New Zealand great Dan Carter believes Saracens will be the favourites when they face his Racing 92 side in next month's European Champions Cup final.
Former All Blacks fly-half Carter, now just one win away from completing a clean sweep of rugby union's major prizes, kicked 11 points as Racing held off Leicester 19-16 in Sunday's semi-final in Nottingham.
Paris-based Racing will face another English team in Premiership leaders Saracens in the May 14 final in Lyon.
The London club, with several of England's Six Nations grand slam stars in their side, including Owen Farrell, the Vunipola brothers and second-row duo George Kruis and Maro Itoje, maintained their bid to become the first side ever to be crowned champions of Europe without losing a pool match along the way in a 24-17 semi-final win over domestic rivals Wasps on Saturday.
"They've been the form side of the European Champions Cup and deserve their spot in the final," said Carter of Saracens.
"It's going to be an exciting game, it will be awesome," added the former All Blacks fly-half, rugby union's all-time leading international points scorer with 1,598 in 112 Tests.
"Yeah I'd have thought they would be favourites," said Carter of Saracens.
"They've probably performed best in this tournament and deserve their spot in the final.
"They've been leading the way, top of the points table at the end of the pool stages and have continued their form in the quarter-final and semi-final, so it's going to be a tough game for us."
Sunday's match saw Racing initially silence what was effectively a 'home' crowd for Leicester, who had made the short journey across the East Midlands to Nottingham Forest's City Ground, by establishing an early 10-0 lead thanks to captain and France scrum-half Maxime Machenaud's third-minute try, which Carter converted before adding a penalty.
Leicester, however, never lost touch and even when Racing established a 10-point lead in the closing stages, the Tigers kept coming with wing Telusa Veainu's converted try in the 79th minute setting up a grandstand finish.
"We're really happy with the way we started, after that Leicester were chasing the game," said the 34-year-old Carter, who effectively called time on his Test career when he opted to play club rugby in France as New Zealand do not select overseas-based players for international duty.
"We had to control our composure, we managed to do that, it was extremely tough when they came back in the last 10 minutes."
Now Carter has the chance to win the European Champions Cup title just months after guiding New Zealand to World Cup glory.
"It's pretty special, part of the reason why I came here was to play in this competition and for the team to play extremely well and reach the final, it's exciting," said Carter, who won four Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders and nine Rugby Championships with New Zealand.
"To get back to France and have a final in Lyon is fantastic.
"Hopefully a lot of French supporters will come out and spur us on to go all the way."