Beauden Barrett appears to have lost his treasured ability to play on instinct. Photo / Photosport
Beauden Barrett appears to have lost his treasured ability to play on instinct. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Beauden Barrett’s form is concerning.
Ranking All Blacks first-fives, the list would probably look like: 1) Richie Mo’unga, 2) Damian McKenzie, 3) Stephen Perofeta and 4) Barrett – and Perofeta has mostly played fullback this season and is injured.
It’s nigh impossible to contemplate an All Blacks World Cupsquad without Barrett in it, especially with his ability to cover fullback. Yet he is giving the selectors a problem.
I wonder, on form, how much they’d play him in France in crunch matches, though maybe game time in some of the pool matches might mend what appears to be dented confidence.
Barrett and Mo’unga have diced with each other for the All Blacks’ 10 jersey for years, but the gap has never been more obvious than now. In the Crusaders-Blues match last night, the Crusaders so dominated first half possession and territory that, 14 minutes in and no score, the tackle count was 71 by the Blues, two by the Crusaders.
Mo’unga used that possession cleverly all game, snapping the ball to his outsides, probing the Blues defence with a few jinking runs – most damagingly when second receiver outside David Havili – and kicking little. However, in those rare moments when the Blues had the ball, Barrett seemed fixated with kicking, essentially returning the ball to the Blues’ tormentors.
Kicking out of defence is one thing; kicking long or attacking through aerial kicks and little dinks is another. They have to be precise or you just feed the beast; the worst moment came when a long Barrett kick went dead with runners aplenty around him, producing only a Crusaders scrum near halfway.
He wasn’t alone. Caleb Clarke and Zarn Sullivan also kicked when running and ball retention seemed more profitable. Maybe Barrett was playing to a preconceived game plan but, when he wasn’t kicking it away, he did not attack the Crusaders’ defensive line himself, preferring to try to pass to others to engineer a way through.
The Blues were better in the second half but the game was 53 minutes old before Barrett took the Crusaders’ defensive line on, setting Clarke away before he too kicked possession back to the opposition.
Damian McKenzie of the Chiefs and Richie Mo'unga of the Crusaders.
Chiefs v Crusaders, Super Rugby Pacific, FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand on the Saturday 29 April 2023. Copyright Photo: Jeremy Ward / www.photosport.nz
Late in the match, however, Barrett showed he still has the magic – with yet another kick or, rather, three of them. He fielded his own chip, put in a terrific attacking grubber that took the ball into the Crusaders’ 22 – and, as it squirted free from pursuers, his dribbled kick took it close to the goal line. But for the bounce of the ball, he could have worked a try and a tense finish out of nothing.
Barrett has had well-documented struggles with concussion and headaches which started after the loss to Ireland in late 2021 and continued through a period of months; he said at one point that he’d been scared his career could have been ended prematurely by the ongoing concussion symptoms. He suffered scares last year – dumped on his head in a red card incident against the Springboks.
He looked a more hesitant player in this match, the contrast with Mo’unga never more pronounced. It was 25 minutes before Mo’unga produced a tactical kick and, though he was later flattened by Dalton Papali’i in a red card incident, he bounced back instantly, steering the ball wide to spark Havili’s assist for Leicester Fainga’anuku’s match-deciding try.
Clarke may have been carrying an injury but, whatever the cause, he lost the battle of the left wingers to Fainga’anuku. He was into everything and, when he wasn’t being a power winger, he was an extra loose forward and a stabbing pain in the Blues’ side.
Fainga’anuku hasn’t always impressed in his two tests. The loss against Ireland in Dunedin last year set him back – as did his return home for personal reasons from last year’s European tour. However, if the All Blacks choose to take only one power wing to France, it clearly has to be Fainga’anuku, even if he has yet to demonstrate he is at home at the next level up, as Clarke has.
Codie Taylor advanced his claims to start as All Blacks hooker with a steely, all-energy display and Havili carried on his good form in an intensely physical match, the kind of clash where many think his style is less effective.
Big tighthead Tamaiti Williams also moved closer to All Blacks selection and the other key personnel battle was probably won by No 8 Cullen Grace over Hoskins Sotutu, the latter fended off by Havili in setting up Fainga’anuku’s try.
One of the few Blues players to lift his profile was halfback Finlay Christie in a gutsy display – but this low-scoring intense match was most notable for the difference between the two 10s and the solid cementing of the status quo.
