The Hurricanes' plan for Jordie Barrett and the vacancy left by his older brother
NZ Herald
In 2020, the Hurricanes want to prevent Jordie Barrett from becoming a victim of his versatility.
With the departure of older brother Beauden during the off-season, there have been suggestions that Barrett would be a surprise choice to don the Hurricanes No 10 jersey.
Having lined up on the wing, at fullback and in the midfield for the Hurricanes last season, Barrett has been an asset for the team in his short tenure. Now, he’s shown there’s another string to his bow, having lined up for the All Blacks in the No 10 jersey during the World Cup.
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But while it’s all well and good to rely on his ability to cover anywhere in the back line, the Hurricanes want to put their young star in the best position to stake his claim to a starting role in the national side.
“We want to give Jordie every chance to be the 15 he is and to push to be the All Blacks 15,” Hurricanes assistant coach Jason Holland said.
“That’s where we see him at the moment but it’s encouraging to know that after we’ve seen him with the All Blacks that he can do a really solid job at 10 if needed. We’ve got three other guys there who we think will really front up for us, but it’s good to know Jordie and even Chase Tiatia can do a job at 10 as well.
“We want to try narrow that down for him so he’s not thrown around between too many positions this year. So he’ll play predominantly at 15, but we’ll see what happens.”
The Hurricanes have welcomed back James Marshall from a stint in Japan this season, with the 30-year-old joining young duo Fletcher Smith (24) and Jackson Garden-Bachop (25) in the contest for the No 10 jersey.
Garden-Bachop has played for the Hurricanes over the past two seasons, while Smith joined in 2019.
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Holland said while Marshall was the veteran of the trio, he was every chance of playing his way into the starting role come round one.
“He obviously does mentor and provides some great crack around the environment because he’s a bit of a lunatic with a great sense of humour, but he wants to be in the starting Hurricanes side and the opportunity is there for him.
“What we’ve learnt is you’ve got to give guys a run of games. While there will be competition, it’s not going to be one in one out. We want to give the guys two or three-game runs so we’ll be using the preseason like that.”
The Hurricanes had looked offshore for a replacement for the elder of the Barrett brothers, who joined the Blues after more than 100 appearances with the Wellington club.
With faith in the players they already had on the books, the hope was they would find a player who would fight into the team as opposed to signing a player in a panic to fill a role.
“We had a couple of little conversations with a couple of guys but in the end we needed to be convinced that someone would come and be there for the right reasons,” Holland said. “Nothing really panned out there, but we’re really happy with what we’ve got.”
This article first appeared on the NZ Herald and is re-published with permission here.
Crusaders’ coach Scott Robertson opens up about missing Tony Brown:
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 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
1 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 Crusades , you can keep going.
1 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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 commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments