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'I knew I wasn't really in the top 50 rugby players': The circumstances that drove Jordie Barrett off the All Blacks path - then back onto it

By Tom Vinicombe
(Photos by Getty Images)

Jordie Barrett is a prodigiously talented footballer. At just 20 years of age, he was thrust into the All Blacks line-up for his starting international debut against the British & Irish Lions and has continued to develop his game since.

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Three years older and wiser now, Barrett has revealed that if circumstances had been a bit different, he would never have pulled on the black jersey for the historic series. He may, in fact, have given up on playing professional rugby altogether.

It’s well documented that Barrett’s from a family of exceptional sportsmen with older brothers Kane, Beauden and Scott all professional rugby players.

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Ardie Savea talks family life, Jordie Barrett reveals his mindblowing 8km run time and much more.

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Ardie Savea talks family life, Jordie Barrett reveals his mindblowing 8km run time and much more.

Their talents have largely been confined to the rugby field but Jordie and Beauden have also dabbled in cricket, with the two brothers some of Team Rugby’s best performers in the annual Black Clash.

Admittedly the likes of Stephen Fleming, Dan Vettori and Grant Elliot may not pull out all the stops in their annual battle with their rugby-playing rivals, but your average cricket player is still going to struggle coming up against some former (and current) greats of the code.

Jordie’s 2 wickets from 22 balls in the 2020 game matched Grant Elliot’s take, illustrating just how dab a hand the youngest Barrett brother is at the summer sport. That’s impressive return wasn’t just the result of a few games of cricket on the beach as a child, however. The game was never just a hobby for Jordie, it was something that he excelled in from a young age and seriously considered as a career option.

In fact, had things gone a bit differently, cricket may well have trumped rugby as Barrett’s professional sport of choice.

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After high school, Barrett headed down to Lincoln University on a rugby scholarship but the oval football code wasn’t his main focus.

“That first year out of school, cricket was more my priority,” Barrett told RugbyPass.

“I was spending more time in the indoor nets down there at Lincoln University than I was in the gym.

“I was playing Central Districts Under 19s then, and I was giving the NZ Under 19s a red-hot crack because there was the World Cup at the end of the year.”

New Zealand cricket fans will be in tears and rugby fans will thanking their lucky stars at how things unfolded.

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“Unfortunately, I missed out on their World Cup squad that went to Bangladesh,” Barrett said.

“I was a bit disappointed with that but, at the time, I probably wasn’t good enough anyway.

“But I played cricket all summer again and then went back down to Lincoln the next year.”

Barrett’s commitment to the summertime sport was probably in part due to the promise he’d shown at high school. While he’d been a handy rugby player, his skills didn’t compare to what he could do on the cricket pitch.

In fact, despite making his All Blacks debut at just 20, the Francis Douglas Memorial College alumnus was overlooked completely for the New Zealand Secondary Schools side in 2014.

“To tell you the truth, I was a skinny white battler [at high school],” Barrett admitted.

“I could kick a ball but I still hadn’t had my growth spurt by then. I was only six-foot and playing first five and I would’ve been nowhere near in the frame of New Zealand schools so that wasn’t a tough pill to swallow.

“I knew I wasn’t really in the top 50 rugby players in New Zealand, at that stage, and that’s just when I was just enjoying my cricket.”

Being overlooked for the New Zealand Under 19 cricket side in 2014 changed things for the ‘white battler’, however, with rugby benefitting from the snubbing.

“At the start of 2016, I played prems for Lincoln University as well as Crusaders Knights at the start of the season,” Barrett said.

“And then, that was the same year as the Under 20s, and Razor was head coach and he picked me for that, and then picked me in this Canterbury Mitre 10 side so that’s basically where it all started.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Barrett’s Under 20s didn’t have their most successful season ever, finishing in 5th place, but his first and only stint with Canterbury later that season ended in a Premiership title.

From there, the Hurricanes came calling, and a year later, Barrett was running out in the black jersey to take on the British and Irish Lions.

It was a whirlwind journey that may never have happened if Barrett had made that Under 19 World Cup or completely pushed rugby to the side and focussed on just the one sport – which many people had suggested to him.

“It was a funny one because I was getting told by a lot of people from the respective codes that you’ve gotta start choosing, gotta start specializing in one,” said Barrett.

“My parents, the whole time, they just keep saying, nah you don’t have to commit to anyone – just keep playing both sports for as long as possible and then whatever happens, happens.

“Basically, that’s all it was. It happened that I didn’t make the Under 19 World Cup squad and then I made Under 20s for rugby the next year and I didn’t really have a chance to go back to cricket the next summer so it just worked out that way.”

Cricket’s loss is rugby’s gain, of course, and the 23-year-old already has 17 international matches under his belt – including his starting debut against the Lions and five games at last year’s World Cup in Japan.

It’s easy to forget how young the talented footballer is, given how long he’s been floating around the professional scene, but there’s still plenty of time for the utility back to develop into a world-class player – a player that we may never have seen the best of if he’d been snapped up New Zealand Under 19 cricket team in 2016.

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Jon 3 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

29 Go to comments
A
Adrian 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

29 Go to comments
T
Trevor 11 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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