Beauden Barrett: 'I never asked for special treatment'

ABs' star talks playing future, PLUS: Instant World Cup reaction from a stunning final.

Barrett takes on the line against South Africa. Christiaan Kotze / Photosport

If Beauden Barrett wants you to know one thing about his rugby playing future it is this: he never asked New Zealand Rugby for a special exemption to play for the All Blacks while playing for an overseas club.

The 31-year-old was surprised to read last week that “his request was rejected”, saying it is a fundamental misreading of what occurred.

Instead, Barrett, who is considering his post-World Cup playing options, was approached by NZR to ask if he would be interested in extending his international career beyond next year’s World Cup in France if the board agreed to a special exemption.

“Like a lot of players at this stage of their career, I’m considering my options for 2024 and beyond and when the contract people at NZR mentioned the possibility that I could play two years of club football overseas and remain available for the All Blacks I was obviously willing to listen,” Barrett said. “I love playing for the All Blacks and still believe I have something to offer, but as my career is nearer the end than the start, I’m also keen to explore other options and experiences.

“I was really disappointed by the implication that I’d tried to put myself above the rules, though. One of the first things that’s drummed into you in rugby is that nobody is bigger than the team and I believe in that idea wholeheartedly.”

Barrett reiterated that it was not his idea and that he would never have raised it himself because he knew what the rules around eligibility were, having already taken advantage of a playing sabbatical during a 10-match stint with Suntory Sungoliath last year. Barrett said he was left feeling embarrassed by the implication he was trying to engineer a special exemption for himself.

Via a statement, NZR admitted it was they, not Barrett, who raised the idea.

“In discussions with Beauden about his potential to remain in New Zealand beyond the World Cup, NZR management raised a possible option of him playing for the All Blacks in between participating in offshore competitions in one year of a much longer term,” the statement read. “All parties were aware that further discussion and decision on this remained subject to NZR board decision.

“Any suggestion that Beauden proactively came to NZR seeking exceptional treatment is incorrect.  He remains a highly regarded employee of NZR.”

Warren Alcock from Halo Sport who manage Barrett, said they had spent much of the past six months to a year working on a “conventional” overseas contract for Beauden, where he would be leaving New Zealand permanently.

“He had a serious offer on the table and the mostly likely outcome would have been him signing a two-year contract overseas. The approach by NZR with this alternative proposal gave both Beauden and us the opportunity to rethink his plans beyond 2023,” Alcock says. “We had advised NZR that Beauden’s plans post the World Cup was to sign overseas.

Alcock said that Barrett was still unsure but was intrigued enough about the idea to want to “explore every aspect of it”, knowing full well it would require board approval.

“From our point of view, we saw this as NZR trying to retain talent and I don’t think you can criticise them for being innovative in doing their job,” Alcock said.

The idea, had it been ratified, would have potentially seen Barrett sign with an overseas club - Racing Metro had been mentioned in dispatches, though this was not confirmed by Halo or the player - for two seasons, be available for the All Blacks in 2024, but then sign with the NZR from midway through 2025 through to the end of the Rugby World Cup in Australia in 2027.

“The quid pro quo for this arrangement was Beauden committing with NZR through to the end of the next World Cup.

At that point Barrett would be 36.

“I’m still loving my rugby and right now if you asked me whether I think the 2027 World Cup is a realistic possibility, I’d definitely say yes. Obviously a lot can happen between now and then with injuries and form and exciting new players emerging, so I never take anything for granted, but I look after myself off the park and genuinely feel I have a lot more rugby left in the tank.”

While intrigued by the prospect, both parties knew it would require sign-off and it is understood that the board was persuaded by objections voiced by the Super Rugby clubs and the provincial unions, who didn’t want any hollowing out of the eligibility rules.

“We always knew it was a long bow,” Alcock said, “but we’re talking about an exemption for an All Black who would have played in excess of 120 test matches across 12 years and participated in three World Cups.”

Only four players have reached that mark - Richie McCaw, Sam Whitelock, Keven Mealamu and Kieran Read - and only Barrett and Aaron Smith are within striking distance.

“We always considered that was such a high threshold, so it’s not going to open the floodgates,” Alcock said. 

The idea of extending the runway on Barrett’s 112-match All Black career was attractive to NZR on two counts.

With Richie Mo’unga likely headed overseas on a three-year contract, there is a serious lack of depth in one of the most critical positions on the park. Barrett also offers utility value, having started tests at fullback for the All Blacks.

Second, as NZR moves into the Silver Lake era, one of the discussion points the American private equity giants raised was rugby’s apparent reluctance to showcase and promote their biggest assets, of which two-time World Rugby player of the year Barrett is clearly one. 

It is clearly in Silver Lake’s best interests that NZR does whatever is in its power to retain its most prized assets for its biggest brand.

In that context, Barrett could have provided a fascinating precedent should NZR management have succeeded in creating a two-year sabbatical exemption, as the whole issue of playing breaks is still widely misunderstood by the general public.

“I’ve been involved in nearly every sabbatical deal, starting from the McCaw and Carter negotiations until more recently Whitelock and Brodie Retallick, and the rules are fundamentally clear,” Alcock said.

There are playing breaks (or rest breaks in the case of McCaw), offered to those who have played 70 tests. These are sanctioned by NZR and allow the player to come back from a single-season Super Rugby break and be immediately available for the All Blacks. They are  conditional on the player signing with the national body through to the end of the next World Cup cycle, or long term.

“People are critical of sabbaticals because players often return a bit off the pace, but you have to remember what we’re actually signing is a four-year deal,” Alcock said. “There’s always an element of crystal-ball gazing with them but what we’re trying to do is get the player through to the next World Cup in peak form.

“For example, some people were critical of the deals we signed for Sam and Brodie in 2019, but nobody would doubt their place now and Brodie has said publicly he seriously doubts whether he would have got through to 2023 without the playing break.”

Where the confusion comes in is when people assume the likes of Damian McKenzie, TJ Perenara and Patrick Tuipulotu have been granted sabbaticals. Their situation differs in that they exercised an option to terminate their NZR contract, or did not extend their agreements. They effectively took a punt on themselves that they would still be valued by NZR when they returned from their overseas clubs, and the NZR offered them a new contract. They had to play in a competition - Super Rugby or Bunnings Cup -  before they could be selected for the All Blacks.

(Just to confuse matters more, there can be an injury exemption, such as when Tuipulotu was called in this year when there was a locking injury crisis.)

As for where Barrett’s future lies now, it is at least initially overseas post-World Cup, but at the very least NZR’s desire to see him play at the 2027 World Cup has got him thinking.

“At the moment I just want to enjoy Christmas with the family and begin preparing for a huge year of Blues and All Black rugby.”

WORLD CUP SNAP REACTION

SPORTbible @sportbible

Lionel Messi has done it. He's completed football 🐐

Argentina 3 France 3 (Argentina win 4-2 on pens)

Wow. Not sure how you process that.

You watch finals hoping for the best and expecting the worst because they often let you down.

This was the best.

Just extraordinary drama where the two best teams in the world, Argentina and France, and the two best players in the world, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, couldn’t be separated after 120 minutes (plus a lifetime of added minutes).

Argentina totally dominated the first 70 minutes, not giving France a second of space and biting the ankles of everything that moved. Their second goal to Angel Di Maria was a work of art.

Didier Deschamps made a bunch of changes and the subs were tres magnifique. For the final 20 minutes of normal time France bullied Argentina, won every duel and turned the match on its head. Mbappe’s second goal was, yes, a work of art.

Extra time was just bonkers. Madness and magnificence rolled into 30-plus minutes of the highest drama.

Messi scored. It was his World Cup. France won a fortunate (yet correct) penalty. It was Mbappe’s final again, until he became the first man to score a hat-trick in a final in a losing team¹.

Both also scored in the shootout; Mbappe forcefully, Messi nonchalantly.

In the end Argentina’s mercurial keeper, Emiliano Martinez was the difference though this will always be remembered as Messi’s crowning glory.

Overtime @overtime

Mbappé is taking home the Golden Boot after scoring 8 goals throughout the tournament 🫡

Mbappe will get more opportunities. Count on it.

TOMORROW

Others will capture the mood of this match a lot better than I can, so I’ll run a special edition tomorrow wrapping up some of the best wordsmithery from this final. For now, enjoy Clarin’s triumphant homepage.

I’ll also be running a special feature with multi-award winning sports photograper Andrew Cornaga. It’s one to look out for.

1. The original version of this post incorrectly stated he was the first man to score a hat-trick in a final. Geoff Hurst in 1966 was the first.