Hansen backs his man despite kicking woes

The nation may be perplexed about Beauden Barrett’s erratic goal kicking, but the All Blacks coaching staff are not planning any radical remedy in the wake of his zero per cent success rate in New Plymouth.

Barrett will almost certainly start at No 10 this week against South Africa and he will be the designated goal kicker. Faith may be in short supply elsewhere but the All Blacks coaching staff aren’t losing faith in Barrett as goal kicker and aren’t about to give up on him.

The topic is one that has been difficult to put to bed because Barrett’s success ratio has fluctuated so dramatically this season.

He kicked supremely well in the first test against the British and Irish Lions, posting a 100 per cent return. In the next two tests, however, he missed a total of six kicks.

He was back to 100 per cent in the first Bledisloe and missed only one from seven in the second — a return which effectively won the game. But in New Plymouth against Argentina, he missed three conversions in a row, before Lima Sopoaga took over the kicking duties.

The inconsistency of his work is the issue rather than his ability, which is why All Blacks coach Steve Hansen responded to questions about Barrett after the game with a terse response about the need for balance in the reporting of the No 10’s performances.

“Just get one thing straight: it is not about not liking the question, it is just about you guys being fair,” Hansen said yesterday. “That was my point — I think you can criticise the kid when he misses and give him a pat on the back when he doesn’t. We won a test in Dunedin on goal-kicking.

“When Barrett kicks well, he kicks everything. When he doesn’t, he misses two or three, and that’s the process. Do you know when he is going to kick the lot? I don’t.

“I have no idea but the problem is that we have got to work our way through. We have just got to trust that he is going to come right and we have got other kickers that can help if we need them to.”

Hansen’s last point about other kickers being able to help shouldn’t be read as a signal that the All Blacks are about to reshuffle the team to allow the more consistent Sopoaga to start at first-five. The composure and polish Sopoaga brought from the bench early in the second half and the accuracy of his goal kicking has led to the idea he start this week at No 10 with Barrett at fullback.

But the All Blacks want their best playmaker in his preferred role of first-five and will trust him to keep working on his goal kicking technique to ensure greater consistency.

“Do we want to put both of them in at the same time?” Hansen said of Barrett and Sopoaga. “Not to start, we won’t, no. But having them both on the park at the end of the game is a real possibility because it has happened most of the time.”