'Have to deal with physically': Wallabies on All Black midfield pair Barrett and Tupaea

The Wallabies are well aware of the threat posed by starting All Black midfielders Jordie Barrett and Quinn Tupaea heading into Sydney’s Bledisloe Test.

Barrett was physically dominant at Eden Park on Saturday, with a number of big tackles leading to penalties at the breakdown while Tupaea poses a threat over the ball and hard running in attack.

The pair have established themselves as the All Blacks top midfield combination since former coach moved Quinn Tupaea to 13 last year, which resulted in a breakout performance in Perth in 2025’s corresponding fixture.

The Wallabies will be looking to prevent a repeat of Tupaea’s double try act when they meet on Saturday afternoon.

“I didn’t spend any time in the centers,” Wallaby winger Harry Potter joked.

“They, I felt like they used Jordie Barrett really well in the air. He’s a big, tall guy, and they found ways of getting him into the aerial contest.

“Quinn Tupaea is a hard ball carrier. He took it into contact well. Yeah, certainly two threats that we’re going to have to deal with physically this week in order to get the result.”

One area the All Blacks gained ascendency in was the aerial contest with Cam Roigard’s kicking game proving hard to deal with.

Jordie Barrett claimed a few aerial wins, including one over Joseph Suaalii in the lead up to the first All Blacks try.

The former NRL winger, who is a massive threat in the air himself, explained that the aerial challenges are a big difference between the two codes.

“Well, the kick’s different. More so, ball, the flight of the ball,” he explained. 

“I can go into technical things, but yeah, it’s just it’s a different kick, different catch. It’s just on us lads and us, yeah, just working on it, getting better.”

Suaalii conceded that it is a difficult area to get right but that the Wallabies had adjustments in mind to help them this weekend.

“It’s hard. I don’t really want to speak about it because I don’t want to give them our game plan going in for this week.

“For us, it’s to watch the game back, yeah we know what we need to do, going into this Saturday.

“Very confident in our coaches and us as boys to really focus on that area, and I feel like we will be great this weekend.” 

After starting second five-eighth Len Ikitau was forced from the field with injury, Harry Potter came off the bench onto the wing, moving Joseph Suaalii back into the familiar midfield role.

Potter explained that the change of rules around escorting this year has led to a number of different tactics as teams are still trying to figure out the best strategies for dealing with the ball.

“I think it’s always been a really important part of the game,” Potter explained.

“I think over the last two years, it’s been a real interesting evolution of what the tactics are. Like there used to be escorts, and and people teams got really, really good at that.

“I think teams have tried retreating catches going up for it. As you saw, New Zealand were putting sometimes two people into the contest, like it’s constantly evolving.”