A FORMER Oxford United defender played a role in New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup win last month, it has been revealed.

Extracts from Dan Carter: My Story show Ceri Evans met with the All Blacks before their quarter-final with France.

Evans, who made 135 appearances for the U’s, is a renowned sports psychologist and was also involved in New Zealand’s 2011 triumph.

In the book, Carter writes before the 62-13 win over France: “To help our head game we met with Ceri Evans, the psychologist.

“He showed us a clip of a cliff diver aiming for a little hole in a rock.

“We talk about do or die, but it’s very literal for those extreme sportsmen: if they get it wrong, they’re dead! They have to be so focused on the moment.

“The talk made us recalibrate and really focus, again, on the process, rather than the outcome.

“You don’t know exactly what drives a performance.

“But for whatever reason – the opponent, the venue, Ceri’s talk, or genuine fear about the way we’d been playing – everything just flowed.

“We played brilliantly.”