Dan Carter

New Zealand star Dan Carter is confident he will be fit to face Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.

The Canterbury ace has seemingly been on a personal crusade at Wales' expense, scoring 92 points from just five appearances against them. But a calf muscle haematoma suffered during last Saturday's victory over Australia in Tokyo has restricted Carter to only light training this week.

"I am feeling confident," said Carter. "I have been managing it all week and only done light training. I have been keeping the weight off it. I had a run with the team (on Thursday), and I will see how I am on Friday."

If Carter plays - and maintains his healthy points average against Wales - then he will set a new All Blacks record at some stage on Saturday evening.

He requires 16 points to overtake Andrew Mehrtens' mark of 967 as New Zealand's all-time highest international scorer, yet it is an achievement the modest fly-half would merely take in his stride.

"Milestones are not why I play the game, but if I do get there, it will be pretty good," he added.

"I want to get stuck in and not hold back on Saturday. Wales are a strong team - I've never had an easy game against them.

"They are always fired up, so we are going to need to work hard and stick to our game-plan.

"Wales have some exciting runners and some strong ball-carriers. We will need to match them and get our game going."