Barrett’s backups out to stake claims
Jackson Garden-Bachop found opportunities hard to come by during his debut season with the Hurricanes.
However, the unavailability of star first-five Beauden Barrett for the opening round of the Super Rugby season has opened the door for the Wellington playmaker to stake a claim for the vacant No 10 jersey.
The 24-year-old, who played just four games for the Hurricanes last year, appears to be in a two-way battle with new signing Fletcher Smith to replace Barrett, who is in the Maldives on his honeymoon, for their opening round match against the Waratahs.
‘‘We’re both working hard because we know Beaudy’s shoes are big ones to fill. We’re just both trying to push each other and make sure that whoever does get the opportunity is ready and can do our job for the team,’’ GardenBachop said.
‘‘Every opportunity to play you’ve got to take with two hands because they don’t come that often when you’ve got a worldclass player such as Beauden in front of yourself. But I’m sure whoever gets the No 10 jersey in the first week will have worked hard enough to do it justice. The coaches have trust in all of us to do a job.
‘‘I learned a lot from him last year, mainly just watching how he operates and seeing how he steers the team and holds himself on and off the field. When he’s not here, whoever is in that general position has to find their voice a bit more and I think we’ve been doing that pretty well.’’
Garden-Bachop and Smith played one half each in the Hurricanes’ 34-19 pre-season loss to the Crusaders last weekend, and assistant coach Carlos Spencer indicated the pair will get another chance to push their case when they take on the Blues in their second pre-season hit-out in Mangatainoka on Saturday.
‘‘The pressure they’re putting on each other at training has been great, I thought they both had reasonable games on the weekend, which was good. I think that rivalry is good and they get another chance this week to stake a claim for that first game,’’ Spencer said.
Although Barrett faces a mandatory two-week stand down period anyway, Spencer said it was a still a big blow to lose their star player for their opening match.
‘‘Regardless of what game, it would be good to have your top guys, but especially the first game because it’s all about momentum and getting results early so you can build that confidence. But hey, I’m confident in the guys that we’ve got here as well.’’
Meanwhile, Garden-Bachop said he has enjoyed working with Spencer, with the former Blues first-five coming on board as an assistant coach for the 2019 campaign.
‘‘It’s good when a coach has experience in your position, especially at the highest level like he has,’’ he said. ‘‘Some coaches don’t always see things that a first-five can see like Carlos, so he’s been really good.
‘‘He’s really intelligent and he’s got a really open mind in terms of attack so he’s bringing a few tricky things in slowly, nothing too out of the box yet although I’m sure he’ll have something up his sleeve.’’