'It just grated me': The Jordie Barrett missed kick that forced a rethink
All Blacks and Hurricanes fullback Jordie Barrett has revealed that a costly missed kick against the Brumbies in this year’s Super Rugby Trans-Tasman competition caused a rethink in his kicking process.
The Trans-Tasman portion of Super Rugby saw the five Kiwi teams face off with their Australian opposition, with the two teams with the greatest number of competition points secured from the international fixtures awarded berths in the grand final. Given the relative strength of the New Zealand sides, any loss would likely end a team’s hopes of playing in said final.
Going into the second-to-last round of the regular season and lining up against the Brumbies, the Hurricanes were in a strong position with three wins from three games and three bonus points to boot. Not that they would have known it at the time, but they also went on to 43-14 bonus-point win over the Reds in the final round. As such, a victory by any margin over the Brumbies would have awarded them a final – and a home one at that.
But the Brumbies had other ideas and held a narrow lead going into the final minute of the game – when the Hurricanes won themselves a penalty and Barrett was given the chance to win the match. Barrett’s kick, however, from close to 45 metres out, just sailed wide and ended the Hurricanes’ chances of a Super Rugby title.
“I’d been in two opportunities with the Hurricane before and they were probably the only times in my career I’ve had a chance to win games,” Barrett said, when reflecting on the post-buzzer kick to beat the Springboks in Townsville during this year’s Rugby Championship. “Got one of them, the first one. Missed the second one against the Brumbies, which was nagging at me for two or three or four months. It just grated me, eh? Because they’re the ones you want to kick.
“I was always a little bit disgruntled because I was thinking ‘Shite, I’m a goalkicker, I’ve been three or four years into my career now and I’ve never had a chance to win a game and I wanted to do it,” he later added. “It’s nice to win them but it’s not so nice when you’re on the other side of it. I remember a few boys walking on eggshells when talking about kicking around me for a few weeks but I’m pretty good about it.”
That miss against the Brumbies actually saw Barrett rethink one of the aspects of his kicking process – which undoubtedly helped the 24-year-old end the season with one of the best accuracies of any player in 2021.
“The time between the end of our Super season and the Rugby Championship, I actually went away and changed my kicking technique a little bit,” he said. “It wasn’t a kneejerk reaction to one kick, I just felt like I had a little bit too much clutter at the end of my run-up – that was the knee lift with my left leg at the back of my run-up.
“I just thought if I’m going to kick 100 balls, that knee lift isn’t going to be exactly the same all 100 times so if it’s a little bit off 10 times, it’ll be 10 different kicks and timings. Basically just went away, tried to simplify my run-up a little bit and still keep that flow, still try and kick the skin off it and kick it as straight as possible.
“So I wasn’t too nervous, to be honest, with that kick in Townsville. I had, like I said before, gone away and worked on my kicking game quite a lot so I was feeling pretty good about standing over that ball and yeah, just lucky it went through. Held my breath a little bit as it started heading towards the left upright but I feel like I’m in a good spot at the moment.”
Just as Damian McKenzie says he's thinking of changing positions, Jordie Barrett comes out and says he's also thinking of making a switch ? #AllBlackshttps://t.co/1O5wARk1yi
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 10, 2021
Barrett also went into depth regarding his kicking process as a whole and how he manages to get so much power into his kicks.
“For a start, just trying to kick the skin off it, that goes a long way to kicking it far,” he told Marshall. “The fact that I’m six-four, just natural physics probably helps a little bit too.
“At the top of my mark, I’ve got this little thing where I’ll lean forward and go up on my toes three times. Ben Blair – ex-All Black, spent a lot of time with Cardiff Blues, Crusaders, good goal-kicker – he got that into my game when I was down at Lincoln [University] and it was more just about trying to feel light on your feet and light on your toes. [If] you stand at the top of your mark and you’re on your heels, you don’t really feel that good about yourself. It’s more about feeling light on your feet, a couple of forward presses going up on your front toes and that just makes you feel light and like you’ve got a lot of rhythm.
“I guess the step back in my run-up, that’s just to generate a little bit of flow and then just as you probably see, a bit of a gentle tilt and then some forward momentum. I think the biggest thing to kicking far – punting or off a tee – is landing on your same kicking leg. Obviously, you’ve got your plant foot, you’ve got your kicking leg. When your kicking leg comes through, actually landing on that same leg, it just transfers power, for me. That’d be my biggest thing: land on the same kicking leg.”
Last year, Barrett nailed two monster kicks, against the Jaguares and the Chiefs, from around the 60-metre mark. The distance he can generate with his punts and goal kicks, coupled with his overall accuracy, helped him cement his spot with the All Blacks as their first-choice fullback.
Listen to Jordie Barrett’s interview on the What A Lad podcast below:
Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt 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 comments