The ‘very good question’ that got All Black Jordie Barrett thinking and how ‘physically sore’ the Greatest Rivalry series has left him
All Blacks midfielder Jordie Barrett on duty in South Africa
Long-serving All Blacks midfielder Jordie Barrett has described the build-up to this week’s third Test in the Greatest Rivalry series as like a Rugby World Cup knockout game.
It was 2023 when the team faced off in the final in Paris, a match that the Springboks won by a point at Stade de France.
Now their four-match series with South Africa is level at one-all, and the tension has increased considerably since the hosts won last Saturday’s encounter in Cape Town by seven points.
Fronting the media on Monday ahead of the upcoming third encounter in Soweto next Saturday, Barrett admitted: “It certainly feels like a knockout stage in a World Cup at the moment, and it’s a game of chess really.
“It’s about trying to implement the best plan possible…”
“Like, we beat the Boks week one, they change a few things, and we try to change a few things. We lose, the series is one-all, so it’s about trying to implement the best plan possible to try and get a result on Saturday, and they’ll be doing the same.”
Where does Barrett believe game three will be won and lost? “Good question. Very good question,” he said, taking his time to formulate an answer.
“Like South Africa, the blueprint that got them, I guess, a victory on the weekend was their power game and they went to the air a lot, so we’re going to have to tidy up a lot of stuff around the air, winning the scraps on the ground and trying to minimize their entries into our half so they can’t get their power game on. And then getting our own game on too, trying to use the ball within reason.”
How long do the All Blacks spend at training practicing the kicking game? “If you just looked at the last Test, we kicked very little contestables,” Barrett reckoned. “The ones we did kick, we did win back.
“They kicked quite a lot and they’re often a lot shorter, so our full-back or 10 in the back field, it’s not his job to get it. It’s kind of in that zone where they want to make it messy and get scraps.
“Unfortunately, the laws of the game at the moment don’t, I guess, help a receiving team. We saw how Tupou (Vaa’i) was penalised. You have got to get up and contest. You can’t stand around the area or protect your catcher, so it turns into a bit of a lottery.
“We’ve got plans and ways around that in terms of trying to win as many of those as possible. But yeah, we practice it a lot. Trust me, it’s a lot harder than it probably looks on the telly.
“So yeah, we’re working really hard. A lot of our energy and planning is going towards it, and hopefully we can win a few more on Saturday because that’s what’s coming.
“Some areas of our game (need improving): exiting our half off kick-off, probably winning a few more of those 50/50 scrap balls in the first half; we got a lot more in the second half and it paid dividends.
“So yeah, there’s different areas of our game that we’re going to have to get a little bit better at if we want to step in the right direction to win a Test series.”
Rather than fly north and spend a full week in Johannesburg preparing for the third Test, as the Springboks have done, the All Blacks have remained in Cape Town and have started their preparations there. Getting over last Saturday’s 33-26 Greatest Rivalry defeat is taking its time, body-wise.
“Like, I’m physically sore but by the time you get to Saturday, you’re fresh mentally and physically and ready to go, so everything you do in your week is just geared towards making sure you’re mentally on the money and physically raring to go against the best team in the world.
“So, look, we felt like we got to that spot on Saturday night. We’re going to have to go there again if we want to get a good result. So, it’s exciting, but these are the Test matches you want to be a part of.
“When you’re a team that creates a lot and uses the ball a lot, there’s a perception that you leave a few more out on the park and that’s reality. You create a lot of opportunities; you’re going to leave more out there, but we also finished a lot of opportunities.
“Our attacking numbers are a lot better than the first Test, but we didn’t win the game of rugby. And that’s strange how test rugby works, and unfortunately we probably didn’t start as well as we wanted to. Particularly defensively and we were chasing for the first half an hour of that game.
“Discipline is a word that gets thrown out around a lot but when you’re forced to defend the goal line and put under a lot of pressure, unfortunately those are things that come to a head when you’re under a little bit of pressure, off sideline, bit of stuff around the ruck and maul, so I guess it’s about mitigating South Africa’s entries into our half and playing most of the game down there as much as possible.
“If you look at the parts of the game and specific moments from the past two Test matches, the good moments we’ve had is the stuff we really pride ourselves on, so it’s about going deeper at that sort of part of the game.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
“And those good moments have come from us being mentally free, brave, using the ball defensively, coming forward, meeting the collision. So, yeah, just that fearless approach that we’re going to need against the best side in the world.
“And they were a lot better at that area this Test match. They converted a lot more points when they got into our 22, where they were a little bit off in the first Test. So yeah, I guess you got one crack, and you don’t get a whole lot of, I guess, moments to ice games at this level, so we’re going to have to make sure we’re right on the money.”
READ MORE: Who’s hot and who’s not: Springbok ‘snarl’ returns but F-bomb Rassie ‘needs tap on the shoulder’
