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International

‘He's been outstanding’: Neil Barnes’ verdict on Beauden Barrett after Stormers

Henry Lee

Published: 8 August 2026 17:57 CDT
Updated: 8 August 2026 17:58 CDT

Stormers’ South African wing Leolin Zas (L) leaps with New Zealand’s fly-half Beauden Barrett during a rugby union tour match between the Stormers and New Zealand at the Cape Town Stadium in Cape Town on August 7, 2026. (Photo by Rodger Bosch / AFP via Getty Images)

All Blacks assistant coach Neil Barnes admitted veteran first-five Beauden Barrett should be “pretty pleased” with his performance against the Stormers in Cape Town.

The 144-Test playmaker started for the All Blacks for the first time in 2026 under new head coach Dave Rennie, after missing selection in all three July Nations Championship fixtures.

Rennie opted to give Hurricanes first-five Ruben Love the No.10 jersey in all three victories at home, but he was rested in the first match of the seven-week-long Greatest Rivalry Tour.

VIDEO

Barrett started at No.10 alongside Cortez Ratima and Josh Moorby in the playmaking roles, starting the game on the front foot as the All Blacks looked to keep the ball in hand.

The Blues playmaker looked threatening at times, while also producing a couple of errors in his 68-minute shift.

Speaking to travelling New Zealand media in Cape Town, before the All Blacks’ flight to Durban for the Sharks midweek fixture, Barnes provided his take on Barrett’s performance.

“He’s been outstanding. He’s a leader in our team. That’s his first hit out in quite a long time, so if I were him, I’d be pretty pleased with his efforts,” Barnes said.

The former Taranaki head coach then explained what sort of preparation the non-playing side have had for their next fixture, on Wednesday morning NZT against the Sharks.

“We’ve trained as one the whole way through because we wanted to keep the team aligned. We had one training the day before yesterday, and we’ll put another good day’s work into them tomorrow, and then they’re out there.”

Before the first game of the tour, Rennie put complete faith in the veteran, explaining how well Barrett had been training in the lead-up to the tour.

“He’s smart, he’s played 140-odd games for this country, so he won’t try and overplay his hand.”

“His job is to implement and organise people around him. We’ve got a clear plan of how we want to play.

“He’s been training right throughout the time in New Zealand when he wasn’t playing, so he’s all over it, and we just want him to get out and drive the ship for us.”

Comments

77 Comments

Emery 26 days ago

I don’t think Barnes comment brings into question his straight shooter, truthfulness.

He said he’s been training well, he hasn’t played in a while, didn’t over play his hand, made some mistakes, they have a plan for him to play to.

While BB has 140 caps, doesn’t mean he’s going to play that great every game.

Love for me has been solid with some great spots, but he’s not blowing it out the park like a DC etc.

PickOllyMathisForAfricaTour,Dave 28 days ago

I would need to watch the game again but I really dont remember BB being that bad.

The ABs made it hard on themselves with a weak scrum leaking penalties leading to weak maul D leading to penalties….

Asides from catching highballs with all the skill of greased monkey having a seizure, most of the ABs issues I thought didn’t have much to do with our 10.

In any case, BB's days are pretty much done for the ABs. Time for Jacomb to take over the third first five role.

Leave Richie in NZ. Or if they bring him over, send Beaudan home.

LW 28 days ago

Straight shooter lol

Andrew Nichols 28 days ago

This is unnerving.

JB 28 days ago

People on this thread need to relax. Ruben Love is the test 10. He will start against the Sharks along with most of the test team. The coaches also have DMac ahead of BB.

BB started for the midweek team, and performed okay, given it was his first game for ages. Stay calm and carry on.

frandinand 27 days ago

And if Love is injured ????

TokoRFC 28 days ago

Streuth Barnsey…

really disappointing

Toaster 28 days ago

Well this is a smokescreen for all the frailties that need urgent attention

Scrum (some of this technical but still no adjustment with 5 penalties conceded by Tosi and Taukei’aho…JASE RYAN?)

Poor Maul D - JASE RYAN?

Lack of adequate cleaning and jackler at the breakdown - is that you “Barnesy” - she’s a far cry from Naki rugby mate

Absolutely cleaned up by a 39 year old legend

Soft D near our line which has crept in badly

Poor aerial work AGAIN

The backline was to be expected when you have:

Chiefs

Blues

Canes

Chiefs

Canes

Blues

Canes

Real back to the future backline play with standing starts and passes behind the man all off the back of not doing the basics brilliantly up front as per Rennies mantra

But sure deflect to Beauden Barnesy. He wasn’t great but to say he should be really pleased is an insult to us fans and is covering up some massive work ons

I’ll admit I’m worried as to whether Ryan and Barnes are up to it

The scrum has been going backwards for a couple of years now and we seem to have very little dominance at the breakdown

GrahamVF 27 days ago

Didn’t someone say “never again” after one scrum disintegration? The coaching emphasis I believe is disproportionately centred on continuous play, perhaps to the detriment of traditional forward strengths. It’s a gamble on both the weather and refereeing styles.

Blackmania 28 days ago

And then, when they bring Richie Mo’unga back, they’ll say it’s for Beauden Barrett’s benefit because he’s an exceptional player.

Everyone watched the game and saw the veteran All Black’s performance. Even an average rugby fan can tell you that his performance was poor.

The vast majority of media outlets around the world rated him below average, but apparently they must not know anything about rugby…

But perhaps we’re just not seeing the right things. Apparently, he must have been very good at half-time!

And if he was really that good, why take him off at 21–14 and replace him with a player who had zero caps? The game was far from over.

I don’t know. If I’m the coach and I have my exceptional No. 10 on the field with 10–12 minutes left, I don’t take any risks — I keep him on. Razor used to play him even when he was injured…

All of this is just bullshit.

Wayneo 28 days ago

Mate, are we sure we aren't completely jumping the gun by acting like Barrett is the sole reason for the struggle?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and totally scapegoat the guy when a dodgy refereeing decision or a rogue TMO call probably ruined his entire game structure anyway.

Before we buy into the coach's massive hype or the fan meltdown, shouldn't we look at how the officials actually blew the whistle?

Maybe his performance wasn't even his fault.

frandinand 28 days ago

Absolutely correct. But everyone forgets Barnes is from Taranaki where the Barretts are untouchable.

When I look at Rennies assistants if I was a Nzer I would worry. Before they were appointed how many people had heard of any of them except Umanga a failed super 12 coach and Ryan who had some cred.

But the awful NZ rugby media has been describing them as the second coming. It’s unbelievable .

Wayneo 28 days ago

I read the headline and skipped directly to the comments knowing this was going to be fun to read.

Blackmania 28 days ago

This is communication worthy of Donald J. Trump. Saying whatever you want and passing it off as the truth.

Barnes is taking us for idiots. They’ve analysed the match, and they’re clearly reading the comments.

The coaches want to keep Beauden Barrett focused and involved right until the end… and one day they’ll finally pull the trigger: “Beauden is exceptional, but he hasn’t been selected…”

Okay, we get it!

Wayneo 28 days ago

Coaches spinning the media like this is wild.

Calling Beauden Barrett "outstanding" after the Stormers game feels like it’s just a PR move to protect his confidence.

Is this smart man-management or just denying the obvious?

DM 28 days ago

Sorry Barnsey I thought he had a bit of a shocker. Time to move on.better to burn out than fade away, and at the moment he's definitely fading. To be fair he did slot his conversions

frandinand 28 days ago

Lets be blunt. BB hasn't had more than a mediocre game for 2 years.

Forget the bullshit about the quad injury. Cotter was dropping him and when he returned he was on the bench.

Rennie promised he would only be selecting on form .

Well there's the first lie. No way could anyone competent claim BB was selected on form.

And Barnes is just perpetuating the lie.

They have obviously all had lessons from Eddie Jones

smartalec 28 days ago

Not sure what game Barnes was watching. BB had a good first 15m, but then went downhill from there. His aerial skills were very poor, on one occasion he didn't even bother to jump. The attack really started firing when Jacomb came on. Might as well give Jacomb a crack at the next game.

Bazzallina 28 days ago

So with all this opinion on Beaudie ( not saying it’s wrong ) is it the right decision now to start Jacomb at 10 against Bulls ?or we looking at Dmac or Ruben …

frandinand 28 days ago

Anyone but BB.

GM 28 days ago

This statement, coming from ‘straight shooter’ Barnesy beggars belief!

When Sititi had a few obvious glitches against Italy (in amongst a mountain of work) Rennie admitted it hadn’t been S’s best game, and he was dropped for the next.

Why can’t there be a bit of honesty around BB? Yes, he’s an icon, but it’s not just his ‘skill-set’ that’s gone, it’s his nerve. He’s gun-shy under the high ball. If Proctor is injured, Rennie needs to bite the bullet and get Richie over there pronto, even if that moves does condemn BB to one last AB game against the Lions URC.

Toaster 28 days ago

Good points

There is an opportunity to bring Mounga over which he needs to do

Wayneo 28 days ago

Exactly! Why look at his actual form when we can just pretend a rogue TMO or a blind referee ruined his entire game structure? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves blaming BB when the officials clearly forced him to be gun-shy.

JW 28 days ago

I doubt he was dropped. This doesn’t look like a coaching team picking on form week to week. They are the typical preplanned changes with very specific workloads in mind.

But he might have felt it wasn’t because he was quite right after that concussion?

It was sad to see him hold onto that pop pass in the first few minutes of the game. Theres a few good form 10s in the NPC but Mounga isn’t looking much better than BB atm. Jusdt about to watch the Shield replay though.

Koro Teeps 28 days ago

Thats exactly what you want to hear, coaches backing their players. They will need to remain a tight unit on this tour.

Wayneo 28 days ago

Oh absolutely, let's all hold hands in a circle, sing Kumbaya, and fully embrace this ultra-woke "coaches backing players" vibe!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves by tracking actual form, it's much more inclusive to blame a rogue TMO for disrupting his energy field.

Bazzallina 28 days ago

I’m with you to an extent Koro ( as much as I thought Beaudie was average ) the good news is I think they are tight the looks on our boys faces Rennie and Paddy T in presser they are happy to be there and roll with the punches ..gotta move an anyhow to the next game won’t be much reviewing going on

unknown 28 days ago

When interviewed, the owners of the RMS Titanic stated that “.. overall .. barring a couple of glitches .. the ship performed pretty well”!

Badnews69 27 days ago

RMS Titanic? You mean the one the front fell off? That’s not typical I’d just like to make that point

Bazzallina 28 days ago

Haha

Andrew Nichols 29 days ago

Is there a parallel universe with another Beauden Barrett?

SC 29 days ago

Well all that talk coming out out of Taranaki when Barnes was revealed as Rennie’s senior assistant coach that Barnes is a “straight shooter”, “tells it like it is”, “tells hard truths”, blah blah blah, was BS.

Barnes is lying out of his teeth. That was a very poor performance for any All Black 10, especially a player with 140 test caps.

Wayneo 28 days ago

Love how we are ahead of ourselves blaming Barrett when a bad whistle from the ref probably ruined his entire vibe anyway. Totally blameless. Clueless coach agrees!

JW 28 days ago

Haha I think he was bending the truth a little more than lying he said “I would be happy if I was him”, meaning (and I agree) he wasn’t too bad for Beaudie, who’s a 6th or 7th best 10 in NZ but 1st when it comes to leading during the week and he didn’t crap the bed in his first game back.

All the proof of the pudding I want to see is not seeing him again on the rest of the tour. Jacomb looked good out there, and he was one I had who I didn’t know if he was playing better than Beauden, but that game might have just put to bed any doubt.

Utiku Old Boy 28 days ago

Barnes’ “rosy” view of BB’s game does bring his straight - shooter reputation into question. We don’t need coaches who are blind fans and who can’t see their role is bigger than their admiration for certain players. BB had a Jekyl and Hyde performance with the bad well over-shadowing the good.

unknown 29 days ago

Barrett scored 4 in the AB player ratings on this website…how does the mush in this article tally with that?

Over the sideline 28 days ago

You believe ratings do you? Stormers scored 17 rating points higher than ABs, no points at all for their 9, and still got a thrashing 6-3 tries.

Ratings are like the easter bunny mate.

Icefarrow 29 days ago

Barnes must’ve fallen asleep after the first five minutes. Poor performance from Barrett, but not sure how much falls on him, and not the stupid no-look passes, lack of line depth, and inability to legitimately compete for the ball. Certain players like Moorby just seemed to forget all they’d been doing well throughout the NC.

Toaster 28 days ago

Agree even Moorby other than the late try was completely off too

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