AUCKLAND — Scott Barrett has called for perspective after the All Blacks' 3-1 defeat to the Springboks in Rugby's Greatest Rivalry, identifying set-piece power as the series breaker ahead of the Bledisloe Cup Tests against Australia at Eden Park. The 32-year-old second rower, sidelined for much of the year through injury and now back in the squad after a comeback for Taranaki in the NPC, watched the four-Test series from New Zealand as South Africa surged back to take the series.
"I watched those Tests as a fan, like everyone else back here," Barrett told reporters. "I think the set-piece is probably an area where they work themselves back into the game. At critical moments, they were able to get up the field through scrum penalties on their ball, and they leaned into their DNA. That fed into other areas of their game, which is their maul, which has been a strength of theirs for a long time. So, probably those couple of areas as a tight forward feel for the boys over there that were put under pressure and came away off the back of a series loss."
Asked if he viewed the Tests with a critical eye, Barrett said he checked himself. "I'm naturally a little bit of a skeptic," he said. "So, yeah, but it's easy to criticise when you're on the couch at home. You're not there with the boys in those pressure moments, and the conditions there are like no other. I had to check myself and say, 'You are not there'; don't fall into that trap, and it's a slippery slope when you start complaining about referee calls and all that stuff. So I was just sitting back here watching it as a fan more than anything, being supportive of the team and brothers who are playing over there."
Barrett said the group has addressed the shortcomings highlighted by assistant coach Jason Ryan, who admitted the All Blacks came off second best physically against South Africa, but warned fixes take time. "The Australians beat South Africa, so we're fully on alert for what's coming this week, and as a team, we've already addressed a few things on where we need to get better," Barrett said. "As you allude to around the scrum, we sort of talked about them, but it's not until you see it on the grass that you can make those shifts and turn them into habits. So, like anything, it's not an overnight fix, and we'll have to work pretty hard this week and going forward."
Barrett returns without the captaincy he held during Scott Robertson's first two years in charge, with Codie Taylor set to lead the side in the absence of Ardie Savea, sidelined by a dislocated shoulder sustained in the third Rugby's Greatest Rivalry Test. Ryan said Taylor was the obvious choice and that Barrett will still lead the lineout and defence, adding the second rower will have more freedom without the armband. "He has come in sharp and he requested to play for Taranaki yesterday. He wanted to get 40 minutes under his belt. So, he's genuinely selectable to play Test rugby," Ryan said. "He's a very lateral thinker of the game. We just need him to play free and really relaxed and be capable of what he's really good at around his ball carry and his physicality around the forward pack."