Beauden Barrett will have to decide over the summer whether he is going to extend his contract to stay in New Zealand through to 2023.
BEAUDEN BARRETT WILL DECIDE OVER THE SUMMER WHETHER HE IS GOING TO STAY IN NEW ZEALAND FOR ANOTHER FOUR YEARS. GREGOR PAUL REVEALS WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT FOR THE ALL BLACKS THAT HE DOES.
He hints that he probably will but that the deal might include a sabbatical period in Japan.
IF YOU WANT TO PLAY TO 35, 36 THERE IS NO SECRET…YOU HAVE TO RECOVER WELL. WHETHER IT IS RUNNING AROUND FOR COASTAL ON A SATURDAY OR PROFESSIONAL FOOTY; AS LONG AS I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT IT AND HAVE PLENTY OF DRIVE THEN I WOULD LOVE MY BODY TO KEEP ME GOING FOR AS LONG AS I CAN.’ BEAUDEN BARRETT
There must be times when Beauden Barrett can only shake his head, shrug his shoulders and not take things personally. He was World Rugby player of the year in 2016 and 2017 and yet by July 2018 he was being treated almost as an imposter in the All Blacks No 10 jersey.
All that he had done was seemingly forgotten in an instant when Richie Mo’unga steered the Crusaders to a consecutive Super Rugby title and persuaded a number of people – not just Cantabrians – that his time had come to inherit the All Blacks’ play-making kingdom.
That Mo’unga is a special player with a huge future is not disputed, but this haste to be shot of Barrett was as harsh as it was mad.
Barrett hadn’t enjoyed his best Super Rugby campaign and he missed half of the French series with injury, but was that really justification to start suggesting his days as the All Blacks’ preferred first-five were over and that he should make way for the Young Pretender?
Seemingly for about the half country it was, but thankfully All Blacks coach Steve Hansen was not one of them.
“We have to build slowly with Richie and build his experience. But in the meantime, we’ve got a player in Beauden who has been the world’s best player the last two years,” said Hansen.
“So we won’t be in any rush to shift him. Both of them [Barrett and Mo’unga] are very good players. Our job is to maximise the talent we’ve got. Over time, you will see Richie get more test matches, I’m sure.
“But I think about a bloke prior to the [2015] World Cup we went to and everyone wanted us to drop Dan Carter, but he had one ingredient that the other blokes didn’t have, and that was experience.”
Thankfully Hansen had the conviction to stand by his man because Barrett remains easily the most influential player on the planet and to have sidelined him in August for Mo’unga would have been a giant mistake.
Barrett played moderately well in the first Bledisloe Cup clash and then delivered the most extraordinary performance the following week in Auckland.
He was as good that night as Daniel Carter had been 13 years before in dismantling the British and Irish Lions in Wellington. The full array of Barrett’s talent was visible at Eden Park – his vision, his ingenuity, his bravery and of course his pace.
Rarely do you see a player so at ease in the international game: so uninhibited. Barrett made the almost impossible look easy and at his best as he was that night, he just flows.
He looks to be immune to pressure as if he’s out in the backyard, with not a care in the world. But as he reveals, that is not necessarily how it is.
“It is something I have had to work on certainly,” he says about that apparently natural ease he has on the biggest stage.
“I have always typically been calm on the field. The times when I feel more uncomfortable, or pressured so to speak, are the times when I feel I haven’t nailed my clarity, my preparation throughout the week.
“If I haven’t got a good understanding about what I need to do and what the team needs to do, that makes me think too much on the field and not be instinctive.
“So I want to get to that stage on a Saturday where I can just be instinctive, look up, see whatever is on and execute it. Things won’t always go your way in the game so a couple of times during the week to remind yourself of the intensity, I ask ‘what if this happens’?
“If you have already been there that week and been prepared for that to happen, it is not such a big shock when it does happen.
“Then there are little routines and techniques that I work on to stay calm in the moment and be focused.
“That ability to make an error, acknowledge it learn from it and move on that is the art of being process-driven.
“It is often the best players that have that nailed, have that sorted and can bounce back quicker than others. It is something we are always working on and it is not a finished product that is for sure.”
Natural talent is at the core of Barrett’s game but it would be remiss to not realise that it is supported by a ferocious work ethic.
He is talent plus hard work which is why he’s the player he is. He’s calm by nature and while that composure he displays in big games is mostly his natural state of mind, it is not entirely his natural state of mind.
Barrett is forever trying to improve what he does. He spends ample time with mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka to refine his mental techniques and to understand how his brain reacts to pressure.
And obviously he works relentlessly behind the scenes as it were on the physical aspects of his game.
If you think about what sort of defender he was when he first came into test rugby compared with how good he is now, it’s a stunning transformation.
But arguably the best place to see where his mental and physical improvements have combined to have the biggest impact is his goal-kicking.
As everyone knows, Barrett has had a few bad tests with the boot. The most memorable was the Lions series last year. He sprayed a few around the ground and in the end those missed kicks were deemed to have cost the All Blacks the series.
Would they have won rather than drawn had Barrett kicked better? The same question came up when the All Blacks lost to South Africa in Wellington this year. Barrett missed a handful but two in particular were car crash efforts. He missed one almost straight in front that would have drawn the All Blacks level with a few minutes left.
He smashed it off the posts, his lack of confidence in his technique obvious.
It was a shattering experience for him – to play a role like that in an All Blacks defeat on his home ground.
But he bounced back. Picked himself up, sorted things out and showed the depth of his resilience and desire to be the best. He kicked everything in Buenos Aries in his next test, landed some big pressure goals in Pretoria and was then again spot-on in Yokohama and in those three games he kicked 11 out of 12.
Where he really showed the world what he is all about was in London where he won the All Blacks the test with his boot. It was a classic kicking performance from Barrett.
The rain was torrential in London and the All Blacks needed all the points that were on offer. Barrett duly provided, banging a conversion, two penalties and a drop goal down the middle to sink England.
It was a performance that showed his dedication and his readiness to go to the World Cup as the All Blacks chief playmaker. It was also confirmation of how much being an All Black means to Barrett.
It is a tough place to survive, but the culture and ethics of the side connect with him, inspire and drive him.
“It is certainly not comfortable because if it was we wouldn’t be challenged and put in a position where there is an opportunity to learn and grow,” he says of the All Blacks.
“In other teams it may be quite easy to go about your work and cruise but it is a different mindset here. We know where we want to get to and we know that the standard we accept is the standard you walked past and that is a quote we always remind ourselves of and we keep reminding each other. If we see a teammate who is not pulling his weight… you just have to tell him.
“In other environments it doesn’t always happen…it is more ‘who cares?’ he left rubbish there but I am not going to tell him. That’s not how we live in this team.”
What’s also helped Barrett look more composed under pressure is the decision by the All Blacks to operate with twin playmakers.
That was a selection change made after the Rugby Championship tests against South Africa when it became apparent that Barrett was being left on his own to make all the key decisions, all the key plays.
The Boks knew that Barrett was a one-man show and they targeted him with the speed of their defence, shut down his space and the All Blacks couldn’t get their attack game going as a result.
He looked a touch frustrated in both games. Isolated even as if he felt like his team-mates had deserted him.
As a team the All Blacks struggled and heightened the sense they were vulnerable
to any opponent who could generate consistent linespeed against them and shut down Barrett’s space.
When the All Blacks returned to New Zealand after that late dramatic victory in Pretoria, they had a major re-think about how to set things up. They realized that Barrett was being exposed through no fault of his own and needed more support.
So the decision was made to inject Damian McKenzie into the starting team at fullback where his kicking and decisionmaking skills could be utilised as a first receiver.
The impact was immediate and dramatic. There were obvious benefits – such as the All Blacks had more options when they looked to exit their own territory. They had more threat on either side of the ruck, but it was the intangible that actually changed them the most.
Having McKenzie on the field enabled Barrett to play with more freedom and he got back to being instinctive and natural.
The All Blacks flowed again and when they played in London, while England swamped them on defence, they had the ability at least to find little holes to probe because McKenzie was such a threat.
“We are always trying to find ways to grow our game and we worked out that some areas were not working as well as others and we had to tinker a few things,” Barrett says of the Rugby Championship debrief. “Often that is keeping things simple rather than over complicating it and trusting ourselves to be instinctive as the less we have in our heads the freer we will be in our heads.”
And a big part of the reason the All Blacks need to be free in their heads is so they can play their preferred style which is guerilla rugby.
The All Blacks have built multiple ways to play but they are always at their best when they open the game up, invite opponents to attack them and then turn the ball over. When they are attacking against a broken defence and able to play unstructured football, they are deadly.
“We all have to understand in those situations what we expect of each other and what we need from each other,” says Barrett.
“It is the mindset and willingness to give the ball. It is what we have done since we were kids and it is fun…it is the most exciting part of the game.
“You turn the ball over and it is an opportunity to go without thinking. Just because we had to work bloody hard for it and in those moments when it is tough and there is a little opportunity to go it is often the kick start we need.”
Barrett has a big decision to make over the summer. He’s in demand all over the world and Racing Metro in Paris want to make him the best paid rugby player in history.
He’s under contract with New Zealand Rugby until the end of next year and will have to decide whether he wants to extend for another four or try something else.
He’s hinted that he’s keen to have another four years in New Zealand, but with a playing sabbatical in Japan.
That seems to be the way he is leaning: commit to being with the All Blacks at the 2023 World Cup but have a year out, probably in 2020, playing club football in Japan.
His motivations for taking a sabbatical are not purely financial. Barrett is 27 and he’s been playing in Super Rugby since he was 20. As much as it is a physical grind it is a mental one and he’s seen how many of his All Blacks team-mates such as Ben and Conrad Smith needed to take time away from New Zealand to reboot.
He feels he will need some kind of change in routine to keep him driven and mentally fresh.
A season in Japan will allow him to experience a new way of life and it won’t hammer him physically. In his absence, Mo’unga and McKenzie will be able to share ample game time at No 10 and it could be seen as a win-win-win.
Certainly Barrett is tempted and trying to ask himself what he wants to achieve in his career. “It is forever evolving and changing,” he says.
“When I first started as a professional footballer my dream was to play for Taranaki. As I played for Taranaki and then got selected for the Hurricanes it was then to play for the All Blacks.
“It keeps getting bigger and bigger and growing. The goal is a lofty one. Another World Cup [2019] would be great…there is no doubting that. Then after that, if I was to do another one, I would be 32.
“That is still possible. I have had a pretty good run with injuries and I know physically that I could get there.
“That’s where you have to be good at managing your off field. To make sure that when you have a break, you get away from rugby because when we are required to play we have to commit 100 per cent and we have to be 100 per cent focused otherwise we are letting our team down and the jersey down. There is a lot of football in the pipeline and a lot to think about.
“I don’t eat much red meat. That’s always been the way. I have never really been into it. I have to find other ways to get my protein such as pork, chicken and fish. It is funny but I would eat a mince pie. I love red wine, but there are plenty of antioxidants in that. I do yoga and Pilates and that helps, and I am conscious of looking after myself.
“It is something I have developed and learned coming into the game. My recovery was terrible but back then your body can deal with it and recover on its own. But it is about finding your way as a professional athlete and learning from guys like Sonny [Bill Williams] and Franksy [Owen Franks] as they are the best at it.
“If you want to play to 35, 36 there is no secret…you have to recover well. Whether it is running around for Coastal on a Saturday or professional footy; as long as I am passionate about it and have plenty of drive then I would love my body to keep me going for as long as I can.
“That’s partly what I am going through at the moment, that whole process. I’ll take a couple of months over the summer to think about it and I think that is the best time. Everything is unwound and by the time I come back to Super Rugby the decision should be made.”
WE KNOW WHERE WE WANT TO GET TO AND WE KNOW THAT THE STANDARD WE ACCEPT IS THE STANDARD YOU WALKED PAST AND THAT IS A QUOTE WE ALWAYS REMIND OURSELVES OF AND WE KEEP REMINDING EACH OTHER.’ BEAUDEN BARRETT