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Dan Carter meets Rory McIlroy © Dan Carter

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Rory McIlroy has admitted he tried to sell to Dan Carter the idea of moving to Ulster.

McIlroy is currently preparing for The Masters in Augusta and bumped into Carter in a gym. Carter is currently on a sabbatical and McIlroy has admitted he did mention the possibility of the New Zealand fly-half moving to Ulster, a province the golfer is a big fan of.

"Yeah, I was trying to twist his arm a little bit," McIlroy told the Daily Telegraph. "I walked into the gym and I saw him on the bike and I go: 'There's a big lad ...' And I was like, it sort of looks like him - but then I'm like, what would he be doing here? Shouldn't he be playing down in the southern hemisphere somewhere?

"I went over and introduced myself and he's telling me that they are giving him six months off to recover from the Achilles injury that he had last year. And so he's just a big fan of golf, here sort of to enjoy it.

"I talked to him a little bit about the Heineken Cup defeat [to Saracens] we had on Saturday. But I think, yeah, it would take a few Masters wins for me to try and sign him for Ulster! It was great to meet him."