Back row Barbeary ready to rumble
ALFIE Barbeary endured a nightmare 2021 when most of his time was spent recovering from injury, but he was in dreamland last week when he was named in the England squad just seven matches into his comeback.
It is only 18 months since the 21-year old back rower made his Premiership debut for Wasps. Named on the bench as a hooker, he came on for No.8 Tom Willis in the home match against Worcester and scored a try. Less than three weeks later, he was celebrating a hattrick against Leicester having started the game on the blindside.
Wasps then saw him as a hooker who could play in the back row, but the England head coach Eddie Jones, below, saw it the other way and after a chat with his father last year, Barbeary put his days in the front row behind him.
“It was a really tough decision,” said Barbeary. “I asked a lot of people what they thought and I had had a lot of help as a hooker, especially when it came to throwing into the lineout. It came down to where I enjoyed playing the most and after a long chat with my dad at the end of last season, I opted for the back row.
“Eddie wanted me to make a decision and I have not looked back and am loving playing. My dad has always seen me as a back rower, knowing that I want to get my hands on the ball as often as possible.
“Being picked by England is something you can only dream of and I could not believe it when I found out. A number of people had spoken about me, but you cannot take notice of that.
“The prospect of international rugby seemed a long way away last year when I was in rehab.You ask questions of yourself but I fought through it and it is a lot easier to stay positive when you are playing. My focus was on getting back playing and putting in the minutes on the field to build consistency. It has been good to put a string of games together.”
Barbeary made only eight appearances for Wasps last season, bursts of a few matches interrupted by treatment for a persistent hamstring problem, and he did not feature this season until the end of November when he made a try-scoring return from the bench against Gloucester.
He has started Wasps’ last five matches, twice at No.8, scoring three tries and charging his way through defenders. He showed another side to his game against Toulouse last weekend when he chipped to the line for Josh Bassett to chase only for the ball to roll dead before the wing could dive on it.
“I did not have to change my training regime after moving to the back row,” said Barbeary. “I am a bit slimmer and while I think I have played alright, there are little bits of my game that can be tweaked. It is all about getting better.”
Barbeary made Jones sit up with his performances this month against the Premiership leaders Leicester and the Heineken Champions Cup holders Toulouse. Wasps won both games having lost seven of their eight previous contests in all competitions.
“We demand excellence from ourselves,” said Barbeary. “We are clicking more as a group and it is showing. Leicester was one of the most brutal games of rugby I have played in and I felt it
afterwards. You have to dig in deep and fight through it.
“Our mindset was right that
day. Previously
we had tended to lose our heads when decisions did not go our way and were a bit fragile. Now we are getting on with it and putting our bodies on the line.”
They will have to do so again today when they finish their Champions Cup group campaign at Munster. Wasps head into the match outside of the qualifying positions for the last 16 following Cardiff’s five points for the cancelled game at Toulouse, leaving them needing at least a point.
“We want to do ourselves justice there,” said Barbeary, who misses the match after failing a head injury assessment following the Toulouse victory. “We have started to hit our stride in the last couple of weeks and we know there is no margin for error.
We are managing games better and that has brought results.”
Barbeary joins up with the England squad this week having been warned by John Mitchell, who joined Wasps last summer after a three year stint as defence coach under Eddie Jones, what to expect.
“Mitch has brought some things to Wasps from England,” said Barbeary. “It is nice to have someone who has been there. I know I am going to have to prove myself in the camp. You know you cannot expect anything to be easy in that environment and I like to think I am ready for it. I remember watching England win the Grand Slam in 2016 on television and it is incredible to think I might get a chance to play in the Six Nations.”