Exclusive interview with world’s best
Beauden Barrett tells Mick Cleary about the farm upbringing which shaped All Black into the world’s best player
Beauden Barrett’s mother Robyn would arrive at the school gates in rural Taranaki to meet the 10-year-old and his brothers Scott and Jordie but took home only their bags. They were told to run the 3½km to the family farm at Pungarehu, on the Surf Highway near the Cape Lighthouse – bare-footed.
Beauden, the oldest of the three, is now the world player of the year and last Friday against Samoa the Barretts became the first trio of siblings to be in a match-day All Black squad at the same time. An active upbringing was central to creating one of the most talented families in New Zealand’s sporting history.
“Yeah, that’s the way it was,” recalled Beauden, in an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph yesterday. “Mum always encouraged us to run, she was very athletic. I just thought, ‘Oh well, at least we’re out of the classroom’. The goal was to beat the bus home. The bus had a block to do, more times than not, we’d beat it.”
It is little wonder that the 26-year-old Beauden was on the end of an All Black breakout from defence against Samoa, an 80-metre effort that ended with him toe-poking the ball onwards and touching down, the little kid still chasing and beating the school bus. He won his 50th cap in the match, lock Scott his fifth, while Jordie, a utility back, was on debut. Older brother Kane was a Super Rugby player with the Auckland Blues but has been sidelined with concussion while the youngest of the five boys of eight children, Blake, is a promising player with Taranaki club Coastal.
To appreciate the relish with which Beauden plays rugby, his zest, his enthralment, his energy and his mastery of the fly-half trade, you have to understand his childhood.
“I’m a Kiwi country boy, approachable, genuine, never getting too far ahead of myself, a straightforward kind of bloke,” said Barrett. “A lot of the values I have come from the farm and from my parents, of grafting and of giving, and of always striving to be the best you can be. It’s about teamwork. The flashy stuff, the instinctive in-the-moment play, is just one per cent.”
The Barretts were Kiwi sporting Waltons, always playing games in the wide open spaces of the farm where father, Kevin, a former hard-nosed Taranaki forward, tends 250 dairy cows. Impromptu games of rugby and cricket with family and friends would be the norm once the chores were done.
“Fresh air and big open spaces – we were blessed with that,” said Barrett. “It was all we knew I guess. I live in Wellington now but I love going back to the farm where all you can hear are the cows or the sea crashing in about a kilometre away. Our uncle’s farm is on the beach and we are one up from that towards the mountain.
“Dad used to teach us the basic catch-and-pass skills, the very sort of stuff we do now with the All Blacks so, yeah, a lot to be grateful for there.
“They were never pushy parents. Sport was ingrained in us. Dad would milk the cows and go off and play an NPC [National Provincial Championship] match for Taranaki. That was just life. Mum and Dad worked so hard. We’d come home from school and Dad would appreciate help in the cow sheds. It was about sharing the load.
“We played a lot of cricket in the back field. In December we’d get the lawnmower and roller out, and we’d be steaming in all afternoon. I was [aping New Zealand cricketer] Stephen Fleming, a left-handed batsman. Jordie is a very good cricketer. As he grew up and got taller and taller, he just got faster and faster. I haven’t faced him for a few years and I’m not in a hurry to either. I remember him as a youngster bursting into tears with determination to get his older brothers out.”
The Barretts are a tightknit clan, always close, always getting on with life. The family spent 18 months in Ireland in the late 1990s, following the death of Kevin’s younger brother in a car accident, to manage a dairy farm in Ballinacree in Co Meath. They all upped sticks and the boys were sent off for their first day at the local primary school. It was early January.
“We went bare-footed as we always did back home,” recalled Beauden. “We got told off and couldn’t figure out why. It was Miss Mccormack, giving us the cross face, the finger to come to her that indicated you were in trouble.” Not for long. The Barretts became an integral part of that small community. They played Gaelic football and football.
“I’d never played soccer before and loved it, wanted to be David Beckham as Manchester United were my favourite, that and Real Madrid with Luis Figo,” said Barrett, who was also an exceptional cross-country runner, winning an all-ireland title. “Well, they were all sorts in that race, it was full-on, lots of ages. Mum just told me to run it so I did. All I can really remember is that it was mud and freezing cold.”
Barrett loved his introduction to football but when they returned to New Zealand, rugby took over (and later golf, with all the boys fine players and Beauden having a handicap of six). But he was lightweight in stature and had difficulties imposing himself on larger Polynesian opponents.
“That was why Mum emphasised the need for running, Dad the need for skills, the pass off both hands, the kicks off both feet, to have a point of difference,” said Barrett. “I wasn’t a great player at school, actually, but I did
‘Mum always encouraged us to run. The goal was to beat the bus home. More times than not, we did’
‘I wasn’t a great player at school – but I did pride myself on being fit, on going longer than others’
pride myself on being fit, on being able to go longer than others.” Given that one of the hallmarks of his game is his blistering speed off the mark, making him the most potent fly-half in the world game, it is a surprise to learn that he was not a sprinter at school.
“It was more 400metres, 800m or even 1500m for me,” said Barrett. “I learnt to sprint as I grew older, when I got into the gym, did plyometrics and stuff. I had to work at it.”
As he did at his game. He left school, the Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth, without being picked up by a professional outfit. His break came about by chance.
“I was just intending to go to uni the following year, play club rugby and see if I could crack an ITM squad [for the Kiwi provincial competition, now called the Mitre 10 Cup]. An opportunity came up to play sevens for Taranaki and that was my first experience of playing with men, finding ways to beat them one-on-one and I finally realised that I could make something of it. From then on, it was a matter of working hard. I got my self-confidence from playing sevens in that tournament. I had to believe in myself first.“
And the rest has followed. Just as Dan Carter, an idol of Barrett, announced himself to the wider world with his tour de force performances in the 2005 series against the Lions, so a starring role in the forthcoming series might lie ahead of Beauden, for whom the trappings of fame include being an ambassador for Tudor Watch. Not that he would accept that he could be a global superstar as Carter has become. “I’m happier catching up with mates, walking my dog, a little black fella’, Monty, a miniature schnauzer, and that’s it, really. New Zealanders don’t tend to make a fuss of things,” said Barrett. “There is no such thing as celebrity here.” Barrett may not seek out the spotlight but it will continue to find him, the country boy who beat the bus home.