Beauden Barrett will support Tadhg Beirne 'in terms of mitigating whatever happens next'

The All Blacks out-half says Munster's Beirne should never have got red in opening minutes in Chicago

Sun, 02 Nov, 2025 - 10:23

Joe Callaghan, Chicago

Beauden Barrett has offered to help ensure Tadhg Beirne pays no further penalty for the controversial red card that ended the Munster captain’s tilt at the All Blacks after just three minutes in Chicago on Saturday.

Barrett was the one on the receiving end of Beirne’s shoulder when the earliest New Zealand attack at Soldier Field ended with Ireland losing arguably their most in-form player.

It undoubtedly hurt Andy Farrell’s team who initially coped well with 14 men for 20 minutes but struggled mightily in the final 20 as Scott Robertson’s side ran rampant to win 26-13 in Chicago.

The All Blacks out-half had sought out Beirne after ticking off a third-straight victory over Ireland and consoled the lock as he argued that French referee Pierre Brousset should have kept his call at a yellow at worst.

“I spoke to Tadhg after the game and I was gutted for him to be honest. It’s one of these unfortunate parts of the game,” Barrett said afterwards. "I didn’t expect the ball. I was hoping that Cam [Roigard] would have played the other option. [Tadhg] had no option and he didn’t intentionally put a shot on me. I can’t hide for the fact that I copped a shoulder to somewhere up there. That’s what happened.

“I’ll support him in terms of mitigating whatever happens next because I don’t feel there’s any intention there. It’s just unfortunate. Certainly a miss in this instance. He may have only deserved a yellow but 20 is the absolute worst in this instance. It’s more me personally feeling for him.”

While Ireland coach Andy Farrell appeared to tread a more diplomatic line, winger James Lowe was more fortnight in his take.

While he hadn’t watched many replays — the stadium screens were unable to show the footage to Brousset and his touch judges amid myriad communication bugs at Soldier Field — Lowe was convinced that Beirne had been hardly done by.

“Obviously, Tadhg gets in an upright position. I don't know if the momentum's going into it. I've only seen snippets. Do you think it was a red card?” he asked the Irish press pack, with some shaken heads in response.

“Cool, neither. I thought it was pretty loose, man. I don't know from the one thing that I saw. And I mean, such an influential player, isn't he? He’s just spanked us last week in Croke Park and it would have been awesome to have him on our side, because he's a menace around the rucks. It would have been good to have him on our side. But sure, look, I don't think anything will come from it.

“He'll definitely be available next week. He's down at the moment, unfortunately, as you would think. But I know something about Bernie, he'll turn back up. He's a big game player and hopefully we can have him next week.”