Johnny Sexton on Beauden Barrett: 'He's just a freak of a runner and he has a lot of skills with it'
Beauden Barrett during the New Zealand All Blacks rugby squad training at UCD Bowl in Dublin. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Johnny Sexton believes Ireland must cancel out the threat posed by the freakish Beauden Barrett when the All Blacks pitch up at the Aviva Stadium this Saturday.
Both men have recently earned their 100th caps for their respective countries, the Kiwi’s coming in Cardiff two weeks ago when Wales were well beaten, and the Irish skipper’s following only four days ago when Japan were routed in Dublin.
The similarities don’t end there between two former World Players of the Year. Barrett was lavish in his praise of Sexton on Monday evening and those words have been reciprocated ahead of their sides' highly anticipated Autumn Nations Series clash.
“He’s an outstanding player,” said Sexton. “Whether he plays at 10 or 15 he brings his strengths to the game. He’s just a freak of a runner and he has a lot of skills with it: a great kicking game and those kick passes that he can do, chipping it to himself or for others. He is a strong guy.
“He can go to the line well and he can pick a pass. He has it all really. He’s one we’ll have to look out for. Whether they go for him at 10 or what, I’m not sure at this stage. Whoever gets that, Beauden will be in the team somewhere so he is obviously a threat, one of their biggest threats.”
The pair have gone head-to-head numerous times. Sexton’s record against the All Blacks, one including his meetings as a British and Irish Lion, stands at three wins in 13 attempts although Ireland have won two of their last four meetings.
New Zealand scrum-half TJ Perenara said this week that those 2016 and 2018 defeats are all but forgotten now. The last meeting was that blowout win for the Kiwis in the 2019 World Cup quarter-final but it's hard not to think that New Zealand's respect for Ireland is far greater now than five years ago.
"I'm not sure, you'd have to ask them,” said Sexton. “Look, when you go back to that 2019 game, it was the biggest one of the lot of them and we didn't play as well as we could have. We made mistakes which they capitalised on, we didn't take the chances we had and that's the game.
“If they go a couple of scores up they are very hard to chase down. We’ve got to concentrate on ourselves and make sure we can get the very best performance we can out on the pitch and see where that leaves us. That’s where all our focus is on at the moment.”
Ireland go into this one on the back of a hugely encouraging performance, and result, against the Japanese. That this was delivered on the back of just a handful of URC rounds and a few weeks in national camp made it all the better.
Andy Farrell and his staff are in situ now for just short of two years and it is Sexton’s belief that their systems and style are now beginning to bed in. And theirs is an approach that he insists will remain flexible depending on the opposition and the weather.
So it is that Ireland may deliver more of the open, running rugby that proved so devastating against the Brave Blossoms, but there will be no hesitation in reverting to a tighter, more physical game plan that is allied to a great emphasis on boot to ball if needs be.
Whatever way the game unfolds, New Zealand are the ultimate litmus test of where this Ireland side is at.
"It's the intensity that they bring to the game, the physicality. By intensity I mean the speed they play at and at the same time being physical.
"We know what's coming because we've played against them so many times but there's a few lads who haven't played against them that we have to let them know what it's like out there against them.
"Look, all the focus is on making sure we can get our best performance out there at the weekend. We know what quality they possess, we know their coaches quite well having been coached by Greg Feek and John Plumtree before.
"We know the strengths that they bring so we've got to make sure we're in the best place possible come Saturday."
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