Beauden Barrett's stint in Japan has reinvigorated his attack
The tide has well and truly turned for Beauden Barrett, who has found flashes of his best form as the Blues attack has become the best in Super Rugby Pacific over the last couple of months.
Barrett’s season started to take off after the Blues nilled the Chiefs at home by a score of 25-0.
The first-five had two try assists, a cross-kick to Tom Robinson after he had originally sparked a long-range counter-attack on a kick return, and a wide cutout pass over the top to AJ Lam for the second.
In Christchurch against the Crusaders, Barrett had a mixed bag of moments, including charged kicks and cheap turnovers, but he ultimately came up with the big plays to get the points his side needed.
He almost scored himself from a long-range line break, only for his halfback Finlay Christie to dive over on the next phase to secure the try.
It was then Barrett who originally put Dalton Papalii into space down the left-hand touchline and the flanker busted through the Crusaders halves to make a try out of it.
His play of the night came when he saw space in the Crusaders’ 22 following an exit kick where the home side had no one defending.
He had fielded the kick in the Blues’ backfield and decided to pin the ball back deep and back himself in a foot race.
In attempt to and regather and slide over from five metres, Barrett couldn’t bring the ball in when sandwiched between the Crusaders cover tackles.
It was a near miss that would have been a classic Barrett try, one only he could have come up with.
The reason why it was an important play, despite not yielding a return, is because it was the type of magic that he was able to conjure during his brilliant 2016 and 2017 seasons at test and Super Rugby level, and, to be fair, in 2018 and 2019 in spurts.
The return of Barrett’s running game and speed has been a big part of this explosion of attacking production. He seems to have regained some of the speed that he used to have, and that is resulting in more opportunities for him.
On this phase against the Reds, the Blues lost a lot of ground but still created an opportunity in the next phase. Barrett can rely on a fast recycle despite his side going backward.
Bryce Heem (22) played halfback in order to get the ball to Barrett quickly on the short side where only Suliasi Vunivalu (14) was left defending. The speed of the recycle preserved the opportunity before any of the Reds’ tight five forwards could fold.
After a kick through by Akira Ioane, Barrett burnt past Tate McDermott and only a covering effort from James O’Connor helped prevent a would be try.
The speed and acceleration Barrett is known for was back on show to catch up to McDermott and then pass him and almost score.
His pace was back on show later in the second half in the two phase try he scored from the line out maul.
After breaking the line on the first phase directly after the maul, he had open pasture to regather the ball from a Stephen Perofeta grubber kick on the next phase with an empty Reds backfield.
The 30-year-old Barrett has found the juice to maintain his best asset, speed, which has always been the foundation of his game and catalyst for the out-of-the-box big plays that he has produced.
Perhaps this can be traced back to his sabbatical stint at Suntory in Japan last year in a competition where the game is less physical, more open, and a lot faster.
The chance to find open space happens frequently, and players end up running free more often. It seems to have sharpened up his acceleration and sparked his creative vision once again.
He went from Top League action straight back into the All Blacks last year and showed how dangerous he could be, running riot against Argentina, busting the Springboks open from a scrum play, and then scoring twice against Wales in his 100th test.
Now he is breaking the line far more frequently for the Blues and creating more tries than he was for the side in 2020, when he was stifled a bit at fullback and did not have the size on his frame – a result of coming back to the Blues early from a post-World Cup break due to the pandemic.
Barrett is getting back to his best which bodes well for the Blues and by extension, the All Blacks when the Irish visit in July.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments