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Alfie Barbeary compared to Bok World Cup winner and tipped to be 'premier' in Europe
Joint top of the Gallagher Premiership, two wins from two in the Investec Champions Cup- this has been a great start to the season for Bath, helped largely by their recruitment drive over the last two seasons.
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Of all clubs in England, Bath may have profited the most from the influx of available players that came from Worcester Warriors’ and Wasps’ collapse last season. One of those was No8 Alfie Barbeary, who had been touted as a future England player ever since making his Premiership debut for Wasps as a teenager.
No one has ever doubted the power he packs in contact, but the thing that has held him back has been the number of injuries he has already suffered at such an early stage in his career. Now 23, his head coach Johann van Graan believes his injury problems may now be a thing of a past.
Once his injury problems are taken away, Bath are left with an elite ball carrier. In fact, van Graan thinks he is left with a player who can become the best ball carrier in Europe.
As a guest on The Rugby Pod this week, van Graan discussed his No8 at length, describing what an impact he has made on Bath since arriving in November 2022, and how he wants to make the former England under-20 star fitter.
“When I came into Bath, one of the big deficiencies that I saw was that this was a team without ball carriers,” the South African said.
“I tried to look in the Premiership who can be a premier ball carrier. If I use the example of Jasper Wiese, I looked at somebody who could be that guy. Then I targeted Alfie. When I met him the first time, I said ‘look, there’s a lot of things I can say, but the one thing I see in your game is that you can become the premier ball carrier here in Europe, and that’s why I want you in my team.’
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“I signed him when he had that big hamstring operation and said ‘look, I’ve got the utmost confidence in [the medical team] to get you right. We’ve got to have your buy-in.’ He worked so hard to come back against Leicester, he had one amazing carry which said to me yes, this is the guy. Then he got injured again and that was very difficult for him because he’s had some big disappointments from injuries. We took our time, we built him up and we potentially took one or two weeks longer in the Prem Cup, we brought him back against Exeter. In his professional career, this is the longest run of games that he’s had. So he’s well conditioned. We want to get him fitter, we want to make him more robust, but he’s made a massive difference to us.
“He’s his own man, but he can carry a ball and he absolutely loves to run into contact.
“We’ve signed specific people in specific roles. It’s not about ‘that’s a nice player, let’s get him in.’ I’m looking for specific players and he fitted a premier ball carrier at No8.”
With a string of games under his belt this season, van Graan’s confidence in Barbeary is starting to pay off handsomely. The No8 scored a try in the Champions Cup win over Cardiff in Wales on Saturday, and proved to be quite a handful for his opponents while on the field.
With the Six Nations fast approaching, there are only a few more weeks for players to turn the head of Steve Borthwick. Barbearey will undoubtedly be on the head coach’s radar, and he will be wanting to make another statement this Saturday with a visit from Harlequins.
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Comments on RugbyPass
No doubt this will be a fantastic occasion and I plan to be there, but I think the bean counters have won out over the rugby brains. In my opinion, it is foolhardy to give the Black Ferns the experience of playing in front of 60,000+ at Twickenham a year before they might be playing there in a World Cup Final. Better to play France at Twickenham and Black Ferns at Kingsholm. The difference in takings would be miniscule.
1 Go to commentsDom kant
191 Go to commentsBen is a little incel desperately trying to stir the pot and stay relevant. We used to get mad at his articles. Now we just feel sorry for him
191 Go to commentsPerhaps we may need to put an asterisk on NZ’s ‘87 WC win since the Boks weren’t there. You know, just as a reminder. Poor Ben Smith. Go cry somewhere else.
191 Go to commentsNz should have won. I didn't watch the game, but the ref was at fault and the bounce of the ball and the Bokke used the Bomb squad and the Bokke slow the game down and the Bokke scrum. They should remove the scrum. The Bokke are to strong. Not fair. Nz should have won
2 Go to commentsThanks for a much more balanced piece Ned and not that BS that Bin Smuth just posted a short while ago. read this article and then Bin Smuth’s and tell me there isn’t a huge difference🙄
2 Go to commentsWere the Baby Boks part of this game or did the Baby Blacks play themselves?🤔 That man Bin Smuth once again does a little write-up on the game and it is like 95% about the Baby Blacks🤣 Glad he ends off with the Baby Blacks were actually in cruise control for most of the game and weren’t actually playing for the win WTF🤣🤣 Maybe he was expecting the Baby Blacks to run rampant….
1 Go to commentsOne does not expect anything more from Ben Smith who epitomises the worst of New Zealand media arrogance and an inability to balance what he has to say about any team that beats the All Blacks. His reference to context is pathetically thin. He does not comment that Frizell deserved a red card given his blatant manipulation of his body to ensure that he could drop his body weight onto Mbonambi’s lower leg. No mention of the ball lost forward before the All Black’s try (lost in-field of the 5 metre line and gathered beyond). The All Black commitment and effort was superb and there was little in it. Given the Springbok passage to the final and the loss of their hooker in the first three minutes, their resolve and capacity to win their fourth final out of eight attempts (not three out of ten) deserves the praise that has been forthcoming from media around the world, worth reading and listening to. Ben should join his “pundit” friends on TV - he would fit in well. This sort of article reduces any credibility Rugby Pass has ever had. Why persist with this sort of nonsense? The man does his country and a rugby blog a disservice.
191 Go to commentsEtzebeth went on to say: “I would never dream of saying that systems stay in place following a change in captain. To say that would be deeply, deeply, disrespectful of Siya. A while back an Irish person told me they would be fine without Sexton, so I’m just responding to that.”
3 Go to commentsClose games are what we want to see…. What a match it was…. I am sure that everyone was drained by the end of it. The reality of it all there has to be a winner and a loser. The fact that we still talking about it is almost 6 months to the day Rugby is the winner.. Asante sana… Here is to 2027 and what it will bring out.
191 Go to commentsIt’s going to be a good game. COYQ
1 Go to comments“Shock”, the guy was casually saying he was just slightly surprised. Nowadays if you say anything it gets taken completely out of context. Calm down everyone.
156 Go to commentsAll I can say after reading this bitter, sour, sad piece is… Thank you very much! This will be read in the change room just before kick off on 31 August…
191 Go to commentsLook, we know contradicting opinions and wacky comments bring readers and clicks, so well done to RP for allowing always-wrong-Ben to say something here. However RP needs to put a disclaimer next to his comments for their own credibility. NZ was and is incapable of acknowledging their opp beating them. They refused so with Ire and with Arg in 2022 and also the Boks in 2023 x 2. Nothing Ben says here holds water, NZ attacked backwards, except when Kolisi and Kolbe was off And cyncialy took out Bongi, we played without lineouts for 75mins. Kolisi and Kurt-Lee almost scored twice. Thats 3 vs 2 for Boks, but the Boks opportunities was legal. Boks should have been 16-3 up by half time. Tacticaly the Boks attacked better defended better scrummed better (without a hooker) kicked better and crossed the whitewash more times. Boks beat Fr Eng Nz to win in 23, comeon give some credit at least. Even Federer Verstappen NY Mets, Mamoa, was able to see a great human sport achievement by the Boks and their DNA Boks #RWC27 !🏉
191 Go to commentsForget the 85kg bit, that can become something else. However I do like the one off test on ANZAC day idea. SR plays Fri/ Sat, test players travel Sunday and the squads have the full week together before playing Saturday. Rest of SR has a week off. Either involve women's teams in same location or in the other country and rotate annually. Herbert is right in that change is needed.
3 Go to commentsI’ve read loads of nonsense before but this article takes the cake. Or perhaps someone changed the date for April Fool's Day.
3 Go to commentsReally Rugbypass? Ben Smith I think you forgot what the Springboks did to the All Blacks at Twickenham 8 weeks earlier? Springboks 35 All Blacks 7. There is alot of ifs and buts in your article. The All Blacks threw the sink at the Springboks and unfortunately they were not good enough regardless if they played with 14 men or not. It was the Springboks who forced the All Blacks to make mistakes! Sorry but not Sorry the Springboks is the best ever Rugby World Cup Nation in the world. 4 Cups baby!
191 Go to commentsYou just backed the Boks with that fantastic review! Well done! Have some cake!
191 Go to commentsBen Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
191 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the desperation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
191 Go to comments