Beauden Barrett

Beauden John "Beaudy" Barrett (born 27 May 1991) is a New Zealand rugby union player. He plays in the fly-half position for Taranaki and the Wellington based Super Rugby side the Hurricanes, and for New Zealand's national team the All Blacks. He was key member of 2015 Rugby World Cup winning team. Barrett also plays fullback and wing as demonstrated with Taranaki and the All Blacks.

Barrett has played at under-20 and Sevens levels for New Zealand before being called into the All Blacks' training squad in May 2012 and made his international debut as a replacement in the final test against Ireland in Hamilton, when he kicked nine points. He debuted for Taranaki in 2010, and debuted in Super Rugby with the Hurricanes in 2011. In 2016, he won the World Rugby Player of the Year award.

Early life

Barrett was born in New Plymouth and grew up on a dairy farm in Pungarehu, a small town in Coastal Taranaki up the Surf Highway near Hawera, with his seven siblings. He has four brothers and three sisters; Kane, Scott, Blake, Jordie, Jenna, Zara and Ella. When he was eight years old, the Barrett family spent a year in Ireland. At St Fiach's National School in Ballinacree, Oldcastle, County Meath, he and his brother Kane learned how to play Gaelic football. From an early age, he played with the local Coastal Rugby and Sports Club. He attended Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth, where he excelled in its first XV.

Barrett came to the attention of national selectors at the age of 19, after he was selected in the New Zealand Sevens team for the final two legs of the 2010 IRB Sevens World Series in England and Scotland and debuted for Taranaki in the ITM Cup against Northland.

The following year, he, along with Charles Piutau, was selected in the New Zealand under 20 squad (coached by Mark Anscombe) and featured (in the starting XV) at Fullback most of the tournament, in which New Zealand won the world championship in Italy.

Domestic career

Taranaki

Barrett made his debut for Taranaki in the 2010 ITM Cup competition, coming on as a replacement against Northland. The then teenager was named most promising player of the year after a season that saw him break into the ITM Cup squad before he became the first choice first five-eighth at the end of the season.

Returning to Taranaki for the 2011 ITM Cup, Barrett kicked 29 points – including an ITM Cup record nine penalties – in a 39–33 win over Bay of Plenty. With Barrett playing, Taranaki finished third in the ITM Cup and lifted the Ranfurly Shield off Southland. Barrett was then named Taranaki Back of the Year later that year.

Due to his All Black duties, Barrett appeared only four times in 2012 for Taranaki, recording 60 points. He returned after missing the 2013 and 2014 seasons for the province after featuring at first five-eighth against Otago in round three of the competition. His performance didn't go unnoticed after a break, from set play, saw him break the Otago line with ease, and speed, to find wing Jackson Ormond in support to take his pass for the opening try in the 12th minute. With three minutes left in the first half, he sized up his options perfectly again to slip a kick across field where right wing Codey Rei was waiting in clear space to secure the ball and score.

Hurricanes

Barrett signed a development contract with the Hurricanes to become a Hurricanes wider squad member in 2011 after turning down an offer from the Blues. He was called up by the Hurricanes before the side's 2011 tour to South Africa where he saw time off the bench, earning his first four Hurricanes caps. He made his debut in a 50–47 win over the Central Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, a match that saw the Hurricanes prevail on full-time with a try to lock Jeremy Thrush that Barrett converted.

In 2012 Barrett scored 197 season points and broke Jon Preston's previous Hurricanes single season scoring record of 152 points set in 1997. In 2013, Barrett represented the Hurricanes in his third Super Rugby season and finished with 186 points for the year.

Barrett ended speculation concerning his future by signing a two-year contract extension with the Hurricanes in 2014. The then 23-year-old only signed a 12-month deal the previous year after reportedly almost joining the Auckland Blues. Along with Julian Savea, he started all sixteen matches for the Hurricanes and by early April, in the 2014 Super Rugby season, Barrett had already scored 100 points. He finished the season scoring 209 points.

In 2015, Barrett had a couple of injuries throughout the Hurricanes 2015 season. He first had a frustrating month of rehabilitation for a knee injury suffered against the Crusaders on 2 May after Barrett's scans revealed a grade-two tear of the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee.

He had been ruled out of the Hurricanes' Super Rugby derby match against the Chiefs with a calf strain. Barrett returned to Hurricanes just in time for the 2015 Super Rugby final in which the Highlanders created an upset and heaped heartbreak on the Hurricanes with a 21–14 win in Wellington.

In 2016, Barrett scored the most individual points that season with 223, in addition he was the only player in the 2016 Super Rugby season to surpass 200 points. He was named man of the match in the Super Rugby final, scoring 15 points as the Hurricanes beat the Lions 20-3 to win their first title.

International career

In June 2012, Barrett was named in the All Blacks squad for the Irish tour of New Zealand. Barrett's Test debut was a memorable one; the first five-eighth coming off the bench after 24 minutes and helping the All Blacks contribute 9 points to a record 60–0 win over the Irish. He went on to play five Tests in 2012.

Barrett returned to international rugby in 2013, being named in the All Blacks squad for the French tour of New Zealand. Barrett was a key player, playing in the historic 30–0 victory over France, scoring his first test try, which was subsequently voted International Rugby Players' Association's Try of the Year for 2013.

Barrett holds the world record for consecutive wins since his first test (19 wins from 19 tests).

In June 2014, Barrett featured in all of the 3-Tests against England starting on the bench, in the mid-year Test series. He played in the opening 2 Bledisloe Cup Test games against Australia starting from the bench in August.

In September 2014, Barrett then got an opportunity to start in the All Blacks No. 10 role for the first time in his All Black career playing against Argentina at McLean Park in Napier following an injury to Aaron Cruden. Despite having a tough night with the goal-kicking, kicking only one from five attempts, he produce a strong 55-minutes performance and being involved in setting-up the team's 3 tries. He was then sub off by Colin Slade in the 55th minute. The following week, he was benched for the home-game clash against South Africa and came on to replace Aaron Cruden in the 58th minute of the All Blacks 14–10 win over South Africa kicking a successful penalty goal attempt.

Following Aaron Cruden's boozy night out and off-field drama, Barrett got more opportunity to start in the All Blacks No. 10 (Fly Half) role, starting for the last 2 Tests of the Rugby Championship. He even guided the All Blacks to a 3-straight Rugby Championship Title in the All Blacks' 34–13 win over Argentina in La Plata and then he featured in the 25–27 loss to South Africa in Johannesburg. He finished the Rugby Championship with 30 points (6 Conversion Goals and 6 Penalty Goals) as 5th highest point-scorer (behind teammate Aaron Cruden with 37 points).

On 18 October 2014, despite Aaron Cruden returning to the team squad for the third Bledisloe Cup match in Brisbane, coach Steve Hansen selected Barrett to start at No. 10 for the team's clash against the Wallabies. He played for 72 minutes, kicking 3 goals from 4 attempts and produced a strong performance, before being replaced by Colin Slade. The All Blacks won the game 29–28.

Barrett was selected for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, starting in one fixture against Namibia, and coming off the bench to cover wing and fullback in the rest.

On 31 October 2015, Barrett scored the final try in the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final match against Australia, having been substituted on for the injured Nehe Milner-Skudder. Dan Carter converted his try to make the final score 34–17.

During the Wales tour to New Zealand, Barrett came off the bench in the second test after Aaron Cruden was injured, he scored 11 points in the second test which New Zealand won 36-22. Barrett started in the final test against Wales; he was praised heavily for his 26-point haul in a 46-6 demolition of a tired Wales side.

Due to his superb form for the Hurricanes and against Wales during their tour; Barrett supplanted an injury-plagued Aaron Cruden at fly-half for the 2016 Rugby Championship. He seemed to cement his position as New Zealand's first choice fly-half as New Zealand beat Australia by a record 42-8, away; he followed this with another 29-9 victory over Australia in round 2. Barrett only seemed to get better as the Rugby Championship continued as New Zealand comfortably beat Argentina 57-22 and South Africa 41-13, winning the Championship with two rounds to spare. Barrett finished as the highest point scorer of the tournament, scoring 81 points across the 6 matches played.

Barrett won the award for World Rugby Player of The Year later in the year, beating teammate Dane Coles to the award and becoming the next All Blacks player after Dan Carter to win that award. Barrett's 95-meter individual try against France in New Zealand's final match for the year saw Barrett overtake Ben Smith as the second to highest try scorer in the All Blacks for the year, scoring 9 tries throughout the calendar year, having doubled his career total. Barrett finished behind winger Israel Dagg who scored 10 tries that year.

Statistics

Domestic record overall:

Year	Union	Competition	GP	GS	TRY	CON	PEN	DGL	GK%	PTS
2012	Taranaki	Mitre 10 Cup (incl. Ranfurly Shield)	4	-	2	10	10	0	74.1	60	0	0
2013			0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2014			0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2015			1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2016			0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2011	Hurricanes	Super Rugby	4	-	0	1	0	0	100.0	2	0	0
2012			16	-	2	35	29	0	72.5	197	0	0
2013			16	-	2	28	40	0	73.9	186	0	0
2014			16	-	5	32	40	0	72.7	209	0	0
2015			12	-	3	17	24	0	64.1	121	0	0
2016			18	-	9	50	25	1	70.8	223	1	0
2017			0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1
Career			87	0	23	173	0	0	0	0	3	1

Test record overall:

Opposition	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Winning %	Tries	Conversions	Penalties	Drop goals	Points total
Argentina	8	8	0	0	100	1	15	5	0	50
Australia	10	8	1	1	71.43	2	9	5	0	43
England	4	4	0	0	100	0	2	2	0	10
France	5	5	0	0	100	3	3	1	0	24
Ireland	4	3	0	1	75	1	9	2	0	29
Italy	1	1	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0
Japan	1	1	0	0	100	1	2	0	0	9
Namibia	1	1	0	0	100	1	4	1	0	16
Scotland	1	1	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0
South Africa	8	7	0	1	87.5	4	13	6	0	64
Tonga	1	1	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0
Wales	5	5	0	0	100	5	9	3	0	52
Total	49	45	1	3	91.84	18	66	25	0	297

Test tries:

Tries	Opposition	Location	Venue	Competition	Date	Result
1	France	Christchurch, New Zealand	Rugby League Park	Test match	000000002013-06-15-000015 June 2013	Won
2	France	New Plymouth, New Zealand	Yarrow Stadium	Test match	000000002013-06-22-000022 June 2013	Won
3	South Africa	Johannesburg, South Africa	Ellis Park Stadium	Rugby Championship	000000002013-10-05-00005 October 2013	Won
4	Japan	Tokyo, Japan	Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium	Test match	000000002013-11-02-00002 November 2013	Won
5, 6	Wales	Cardiff, Wales	Millennium Stadium	Test match	000000002014-11-22-000022 November 2014	Won
7	Namibia	London, England	Olympic Stadium	Rugby World Cup	000000002015-09-24-000024 September 2015	Won
8	South Africa	London, England	Twickenham Stadium	Rugby World Cup	000000002015-10-24-000024 October 2015	Won
9	Australia	London, England	Twickenham Stadium	Rugby World Cup	000000002015-10-31-000031 October 2015	Won
10	Wales	Wellington, New Zealand	Westpac Stadium	Test match	18 June 2016	Won
11, 12	Wales	Dunedin, New Zealand	Forsyth Barr Stadium	Test match	25 June 2016	Won
13	Australia	Sydney, Australia	ANZ Stadium	Rugby Championship	20 August 2016	Won
14	Argentina	Hamilton, New Zealand	Waikato Stadium	Rugby Championship	10 September 2016	Won
15, 16	South Africa	Durban, South Africa	Growthpoint Kings Park	Rugby Championship	8 October 2016	Won
17	Ireland	Dublin, Ireland	Aviva Stadium	Test match	19 November 2016	Won
18	France	Paris, France	Stade de France	Test match	26 November 2016	Won