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All Blacks star Beauden Barrett stuns social media with outrageous trick shot during training
By Online Editors
He's back in his favoured No 10 jersey, and to celebrate Beauden Barrett on Friday showed off his incredible kicking skills to teammates during the All Blacks' final training session ahead of Bledisloe IV.
The All Blacks take on the Wallabies in Brisbane on Saturday night with Barrett at first-five for the first time in more than a year.
The 29-year-old replaces Richie Mo'unga, who gets a break following a man of the match performance in the third Bledisloe thumping of the Aussies in Sydney last weekend.
In a video posted to the All Blacks' Twitter account and which you can see above, Barrett is seen lining up a kick from across the field at what seems to be Leichhardt Oval in Sydney, where the All Blacks have been training for much of the past two weeks.
The two-time World Rugby Player of the Year manages to land the ball in an open rubbish bin at least 70 metres away - to the rapturous applause of his teammates.
Barrett's positional switch from fullback was one of 10 changes to the All Blacks' starting XV announced by coach Ian Foster, with brother Jordie moving from the wing to the back.
Four rookies are set to make their test debuts, with Akira Ioane starting at blindside flanker and Asafo Aumua, Cullen Grace and Will Jordan all included on the bench.
When asked on Thursday whether Mo'unga had cemented himself as the first-choice first-five with his 23 points in the 43-5 mauling in the ANZ Stadium, Foster said no one "has locked in a role in the All Blacks".
"You've got to keep performing but I'm sure Richie can sit back in the grandstand or whatever he's doing and be really satisfied with what he's done but the minute you sit back and get satisfied, that's an omen of bad things to come," Foster said.
"I thought Richie was superb last week... I don't think anyone should feel safe but he can certainly feel very proud of what he did in the last test but when he gets his next opportunity, like everyone, our expectations will ramp up.
"We always said we were keen to give Beauden a go back at 10 because it's a position he's obviously outstanding in and he deserves that right."
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Latest Comments
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It's incredible to see the boys playing like this. Back to the form that saw them finish on top of the regular season and beat Toulon to win the challenge cup. Ibitoye and Ravouvou doing a cracking Piutau/Radradra impression.
It's abundantly clear that Borthwick and Wigglesworth need to transform the England attack and incorporate some of the Bears way. Unfortunately until the Bears are competing in Europe, the old criticisms will still be used.. we failed to fire any punches against La Rochelle and Leinster which goes to show there is still work to do but both those sides are packed full of elite players so it's not the fairest comparison to expect Bristol to compete with them. I feel Bristol are on the way up though and the best is yet to come. Tom Jordan next year is going to be obscene.
Test rugby is obviously a different beast and does Borthwick have enough time with the players to develop the level of skill the Bears plays have? Even if he wanted to? We should definitely be able to see some progress, Scotland have certainly managed it. England aren't going to start throwing the ball around like that but England's attack looks prehistoric by comparison, I hope they take some inspiration from the clarity and freedom of expression shown by the Bears (and Scotland - who keep beating us, by the way!). Bristol have the best attack in the premiership, it'd be mad for England to ignore it because it doesn't fit with the Borthwick and Wigglesworth idea of how test rugby should be played. You gotta use what is available to you. Sadly I think England will try reluctantly to incorporate some of these ideas and end up even more confused and lacking identity than ever. At the moment England have two teams, they have 14 players and Marcus Smith. Marcus sticks out as a sore thumb in a team coached to play in a manner ideologically opposed to the way he plays rugby, does the Bears factor confuse matters further? I just have no confidence in Borthers and Wiggles.
Crazy to see the Prem with more ball in play than SR!
Go to commentsWhat these stats actually seem to show is that there isn't a massive about of variation in the number of cards/penalties conceded by the top teams.
South Africa received 13 yellow cards in 13 matches; Ireland received 11 in 12; New Zealand received 11 in 14. The difference is pretty immaterial.
In terms of penalties, SA conceded 131 in 13 matches; England conceded 111 in 12. Considering England had the best record of anyone, SA are hardly far off the pace.
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