Beauden Barrett has done the right thing leaving the Hurricanes tight five behind
There’s no doubt Beauden Barrett has done the right thing.
Leaving the Hurricanes was obviously as much about lifestyle and commercial opportunities as it was about football. But rugby surely played a part too and that decision was vindicated on Sunday.
Barrett can look back on his Hurricanes career with enormous pride, as a father-son player, centurion and Super Rugby title-winner. But having done so much of that off the back foot, Barrett must now love being a Blue.
The final score of 30-20 at Eden Park didn’t do the Blues’ dominance justice. Truth is they handled the Hurricanes with ease, comfortably taming a team who would’ve come north desperate to ruin Barrett’s Blues debut.
Television commentator Tony Johnson made mention of the Hurricanes and Blues meeting in Super Rugby’s inaugural match, way back in 1996.
The Blues have had a pretty up and down time in between, but now look capable of returning to those glory days of yore when men such as Olo Brown, Sean Fitzpatrick, Craig Dowd, Michael Jones and Zinzan and Robin Brooke dismantled visiting forward packs for fun.
The Hurricanes – as they pretty much always have been – remain a carbon copy of that 1996 side. Plenty of potential and talented individuals, but rarely a tight-five capable of functioning under pressure or against credible opposition.
It’s no newsflash, for instance, that the Blues lost their way for a few years there. Just as we’re all aware that the Highlanders now lack experience and are rebuilding a bit.
But the Hurricanes have always been deficient in the one area and don’t ever seem destined to put that right. There’s been times – thanks in no small part to the heroics of men such as Barrett – when they’ve risen above those issues, yet they remain a team that just can’t cut it up front.
You don’t want to round on or condemn individuals. The Hurricanes forwards who played at Eden Park on Sunday all tried their best, it’s just strange that any number of coaching and management regimes over the last 25 years have failed to recognise or rectify the team’s one glaring weakness.
That doesn’t diminish the performance of Sunday’s victors, though.
Even without the injured Karl Tu’inukuafe, the Blues had no trouble at scrum time and dominated the lineouts. It didn’t help the Hurricanes that their most-reliable lineout forward – Vaea Fifita – was a late scratching, even if he had only been picked on the reserves’ bench.
But it was in general play where the Blues’ superior strength really showed.
Ball, as we’re seeing, is hard to recycle well and quickly. It helps if you’re pushing over the gainline, though, as the Blues’ ball-runners did time and again.
Men such as No.8 Hoskins Sotutu, inspirational captain Patrick Tuipulotu and tighthead prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi dominated the collisions and allowed first five-eighth Otere Black time to dictate terms.
Black’s an interesting one, you know. Yes, there’s that whole narrative around Barrett and Daniel Carter being in the squad and yet Black (at least for now) being the man they want at 10.
More fascinating, though, is the Hurricanes’ angle in all this.
They knew for a long time that Barrett was going. Whether it be just the odd season-long sabbatical or somewhere else entirely, they were preparing for life without him as the regular first-five.
Black had been the man destined to replace Barrett only, at some point, the Hurricanes lost heart. Black wasn’t quite making the progress they’d hoped, or even playing that well for Manawatu, and there was a feeling that the Blues could have him.
Fletcher Smith was drafted in and Jackson Garden-Bachop around and available and here we are, with Black dictating games behind a dominant pack and Smith unable to regularly crack the Hurricanes’ top 23.
Barrett, meanwhile, was able to slip quietly onto the Super Rugby Aotearoa stage. Not required to conjure miracles, or even drive the Blues around the park, he could just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Barrett – and Black for that matter – might always be Hurricanes in their hearts, but rugby is surely a lot more fun alongside a quality pack of forwards.
Comments on RugbyPass
A lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
3 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
1 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
2 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
2 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
3 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
2 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
21 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
21 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments