Jordie Barrett
He’s seen as ‘Mr Versatile’ but wants t o play 15 f or t he Hurricanes and All Blacks
JORDIE BARRETT entered his fifth year of Super
Rugby knowing exactly where he’s going to play and exactly what he needs to do to help his beloved Hurricanes back to the heights.
Such is the quality of his rugby that in four seasons he has risen to rank as the finest No 15, whose name is not Christian Cullen, in the franchise’s history. Barrett may not be in Cullen’s league as an explosive counter-attacker, but his feats for the Hurricanes are already many and varied. Off the back of a northern tour with the 2016 All Blacks as an ‘apprentice’, a season in which he was adjudged the best player in the Mitre 10 Cup (for Canterbury) as a 19-year-old, Barrett took to Super Rugby like the proverbial duck to water. Seven tries and
144 points in 2017, mostly from full-back, catapulted him into the All Blacks and a start in the white-hot atmosphere of the third Lions Test. He scored a try.
In 2018 and 2019, Barrett was moved around more, onto the right wing or into midfield, and often ceded the goalkicking to big brother Beauden. Yet he loved the 2020 season with the Hurricanes. New head coach Jason Holland told him he’d be at 15 from the get-go and taking the shots off the tee. He didn’t score a try, but compiled nearly a century of points and was clearly the best No 15 in Super Rugby, and not just in New Zealand. The highlight was a monster 63m penalty against the Jaguares in Buenos Aires (see Top 3). It all meant that Barrett, equipped to play all back-line positions except half-back, was a certainty for any All Blacks match-day squad.
So what of 2021? Barrett is “excited” by the Hurricanes pack and is delighted by Julian Savea’s return to the franchise.
“Awesome to have Jules back,” he says. “He’s looking lean and fit. I think the stint playing 12 in France has been good for him too. His skill levels are high. To have a guy like that, who’s scored almost 50 Test tries, back with a smile on his face, is great for us.”
Barrett seems to have formed a good rapport with coach Holland, who knows his man can play almost anywhere in the back-line but recognises he is of most value at 15 for the Hurricanes.
“Certainty is nice,” says Barrett. “I like going from week to week knowing what’s required of me. I enjoyed playing 15 every game last year and just trying to build on every performance. I took confidence from week to week and getting big minutes.
“I do like the responsibility of goalkicking and kicking for touch. Jase knows that, which is why he thrust those duties upon me.
I can get a handle on the game and get into it a little bit more. That’s something I want to get better at this year and hopefully thrive in that position.
“I’ve built a very good relationship with Jase now. He knows what I want and he knows what I want out of myself and the team. Fifteen is well suited for me at the moment. Who knows, if I slow down later in my career, I feel like I can play a few years at 12. That will be my secondary position later on, but 15 is very much the focus for me at the moment.”
If he is to play regularly at 12 for the Hurricanes, he may have to wait until Ngani Laumape moves on, as much of the team’s play is built around him, as it was with Ma’a Nonu on occasion.
It is, of course, a different scenario with the All Blacks. He has started seven of his 23 Tests at the back, but he’s not going to throw his toys out of the cot if they shunt him to the right wing, as happened in 2020. He was still the top try-scorer and the only back to start all six Tests, so it was not as though he was marginalised. But you don’t have to be Wayne Smith to see that his attacking talents are best utilised, at this stage of his career, at the back.
“The (All Blacks) coaches and other players are under no illusions. They know I want to play 15. But if you’re told to play somewhere else, you get on and do that and try to play as well as you can. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles. I certainly enjoyed playing on the wing but I’d love to play 15 at some stage.”
For now, Barrett is steeling himself for the relentless nature of matches against the other four Kiwi teams in the second half of Super Rugby Aotearoa.
“From a viewer’s point of view, every game is a genuine coin toss. Squads have so much depth and talent. Not many guys are shipping offshore. NZ derbies are so hard and hard to prepare for, where to try to exploit teams.
They are tough, physically and mentally, but it’s where you want to be, playing against the best players in the world.”
If he can repeat his 2020 form, then the Hurricanes will go alright. And he might just force the hand of the All Blacks selectors.