Beauden Barrett cautious of Irish threat

It’s an experience that Ireland would rather bury under the mountain of days and weeks that have built up since but Beauden Barrett was more than happy to dig deep into the memory vault yesterday when talk turned to his All Black debut.

Just turned 21, the Kiwi out-half was an early replacement for an injured Aaron Cruden for that third summer test in Hamilton. Spooked by Ireland in Christchurch the week before, when they needed a Dan Carter drop-goal to win, New Zealand had already gone about making amends.

Leading 24-0 when the baby-faced and shaggy-haired Barrett got the nod, the hosts would add another 36 points to their haul before the tourists were put out of their misery. The rookie 10 would claim nine of them and a hand in many more.

It was the smoothest of carpet rides up to the elevated tier of Test rugby.

“It was the highlight of my career,” he reminisced.

“The first opportunity to wear the black jersey, coming off the bench feeling like Superman, making tackles I’d never made before. I couldn’t tackle back then so... it just gave me a wonderful sense of power and energy.” 

The scoreline may have been exaggerated but that’s more or less how the relationship was between the sides for over a hundred years. Ireland would rage against their subservience now and again but, for the most part, everyone knew their place in the order of things.

Many was the Kiwi who must have felt the superhero after the sides met but there was a wistful shake of the head from Barrett as he looked backwards, the observation that it was all a very long time ago and the bald statement that many things have changed since.

“Ronan O’Gara was playing back then: a guy who I looked up to in my younger years. The (Irish) team has changed a lot but so has the game. It has been six years. Yeah, we have seen the great development of the Irish game. I guess that’s on the back of some pretty good coaches as well.”

Barrett was one of those All Blacks on the wrong side of history four years after his first appearance when Ireland claimed a first win in Chicago and there is no doubt but that the balance of power has shifted considerably on its axis between the two countries since he hit the scene.

This week’s tourists still hold the centre, of course, but it is impossible not to detect an increased respect for Ireland among Kiwi coaches and players who have offered far more than the usual platitudes about Irish passion and fury this time around. The days of name-checking Brian O’Driscoll are no more.

Barrett didn’t profess to know much about head coach Joe Schmidt but he was effusive in his praise for defence coach Andy Farrell and scrum coach Greg Feek, both of whom he knows personally, and a dominant Irish pack and structured side that brings a more refined skill-set to the table.

All this may be mere panto before the real show starts but that heightened respect for Ireland is just as obvious in a travelling press corps that has been asking far more about the opposition than has ever been the case on previous winter visits.

This admiration is, of course, a two-way street.

Ireland may not tremble at the sight of the world champions anymore but they remain the barometer for everything Schmidt & Co aim to do and to be: Jonathan Sexton doesn’t ever swap jerseys but he did a switcheroo with Barrret in Soldier Field so all this respect is mutual.

“Johnny, he’s not afraid of pulling the trigger,” said Barrett.

“He can execute some pretty good plays. He likes to give the ball space. So I guess we are similar in that space, be it a cross-field kick or a big pass. Yeah, he just has a great set of skills.”

Skills will be all very well this Saturday but strength and force of will tend to carry a disproportionate worth in Test rugby: a fact highlighted two weeks after the Chicago game when New Zealand avenged that defeat in a brutal contest at the Aviva.

The memories of tackles by Sam Cane and Malakai Fekitoa, on Robbie Henshaw and Simon Zebo respectively, will be every bit as raw for some this week as hammerings such as those in Hamilton. Even if Barrett made light of those controversies here.

“I remember the Irish being aggressive too,” he joked.

They expect that and more again this Saturday.