Jeremy Guscott: Lions should copy Crusaders’ blueprint to restrict Barrett’s influence

Beauden Barrett has a skill-set that would be the envy of a lot of world-class players, but last weekend playing for the Hurricanes against the Crusaders the All Black star did not get things all his own way. In fact, it was a bit of a shut-out of the fly-halfwho New Zealanders will be hoping inspires them to victory over the Lions.
All the great players can be restricted, but it’s a question of whether the opposition can stop a player of Barrett’s calibre from getting the ball, or to ensure that when he does get it that he is under pressure. That’s what the
Crusaders did, and the Lions can learn from it – although the main lesson was more what they did to the Hurricanes as a whole than specifically to their No.10.
Barrett is very well equipped to deal with pressure because he has exceptional pace for a fly-half. He has a side-step, a veer, and a hand-off that enables him to create opportunities for others, and also to take them for himself. His passing is accurate, his kick-pass is lethal, and his all-round ability to see what is happening and then to react and execute in a split second is of the highest order.
It makes defending against him very difficult, especially as he is no novice. Of his 49 caps he may have won only 19 as a starter, but on those 30 occasions he’s been a substitute he has been lucky enough to learn as an understudy off players with the talent of Dan Carter and Aaron Cruden.
There’s no doubt that winning the accolade of World Rugby’s Player of the Year brings added pressure, and this can often result in players like
Barrett trying too hard to justify their star billing. However, sometimes as a player you just have to accept that you can be shut-out, especially when you are with your club or provincial side.
The Hurricanes are a good Super Rugby side but they are not the All Blacks, and Barrett also no longer has Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith around him in the ‘Canes backline. At various times great fly-halves like Andrew Mehrtens, Carter, and Jonny Wilkinson – especially when he was at Newcastle – sometimes did not have the greatest of impacts, and I’d be surprised if Barrett lets it bother him.
Instead, he will learn from that Hurricanes defeat – and it will not stop him from opening up other teams. With the quality of the players around Barrett in the New Zealand side he invariably has options, and he knows that the All Blacks usually apply so much pressure that the attacking opportunities he thrives on will eventually come.
Another of Barrett’s qualities is that he is not seen as a speed-bump in defence. Sometimes he is stationed out wide when the opposition have the ball, but that is mainly so that he is free if the counter-attacking opportunity arises. However, even when he is on the wing he is an aggressive, forceful front-foot tackler who is looking to turn defence into attack.
I can remember seeing so many wonderful bits of match-turning skill from Barrett, but what impresses me most is that when he gets something wrong he just shrugs it off – in the same way that Danny Cipriani used to when he first broke through at Wasps. Barrett has that same attitude which says, “you stopped me this time, but what about next time?”
What separates the best from the rest is that they have no fear of failure, and Barrett is in that camp. He is a fly-half who will take it to the line – and risk that he might sometimes get a whack – in order to create chances. You will very rarely see him drop back deep into the pocket because he wants to challenge the defence, and is confident in his ability to react instantly and utilise the world-class skills that set him apart.
A combination of Barrett at 10 with Sonny Bill Williams outside him at 12 has a wonderful attacking capability to it, although the Lions will be confident that they have the fitness and commitment to make the New Zealanders fight for every point.
However, there is no question that having pace at scrum-half and fly-half, as is the case when Barrett is on Test duty alongside either Aaron Smith or TJ Perenara, allows you to strike when you are stretching and pulling the defensive line out of shape. Multi-phase attacks in the modern game mean that you get props and second rows standing in positions where you would normally expect to find a fly-half or inside-centre, and that’s when Barrett is at his most lethal.
It is something that the All Blacks are expert at doing, and if Barrett finds himself opposite a Rory Best or Alun Wyn Jones – especially if they are on the back foot – they cannot compete against an accelerating quick-witted No.10 of his quality.
If that’s one worry for the Lions, the same is true of Barrett’s pace and footwork off set-piece possession. You know that he will interest the back row and the opposing 10, and if the communication between them is at all lacking, he will exploit it. If the Lions fly-half is not confident that the bases on his inside are covered by the back row in case Barrett tries to cut back, he will be a split-second slow in pushing up on the attacker outside him.
That hesitation usually creates a gap or dog-leg in the defensive line for the All Blacks to exploit.
Barrett’s had a brilliant career so far, and at the moment the New Zealand 10 shirt is his. However, the competition is such that it’s not impossible that Cruden could come back into contention. Barrett’s only weakness is his goal-kicking, and Cruden’s is better.
At the moment Barrett would lose a kicking competition against any of the Lions trio of Leigh Halfpenny, Owen Farrell and Jonny Sexton, and that’s why it’s likely that All Black coach Steve Hansen will have Cruden on the bench.
I do not believe that goal-kicking pressure would derail Barrett, because missing kicks does not seem to worry him. What would worry him more is if the Lions are successful in shutting down New Zealand’s space and starving them of ball.
The idea of trying to close down Barrett through one-on-one marking is not practical. We can all remember Joe Worsley being picked specifically to stop Jamie Roberts when England played Wales in the past, but that was easier because it was much more predictable when and where Roberts would attack. With Barrett it will be very difficult because in multi-phase attacks the players opposite him will rarely be the same – so I say he is impossible to man-mark.
The New Zealanders thrive on quick ball and quick thinking and if you slow the ball down Barrett is not as effective. However, the key is to accept that they will get some quick ball, and it’s what you do then that counts. You cannot afford to let him get behind the defensive line, and that means that the quality and speed of realignment, and first-time tackling, is crucial if you are to stop Barrett making a big impact.