{"id":31908,"date":"2025-07-30T07:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/31908\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T07:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:14:10","slug":"scott-barret-has-earned-the-right-to-skip-super-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/31908\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Barret has ‘earned the right’ to skip Super Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks captain Scott Barrett is expected to miss the Crusaders\u2019 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season after exercising a clause in his New Zealand Rugby contract.<\/p>\n

Crusaders boss Rob Penney suggested as much after the announcement that he has extended his contract as head coach of the Christchurch-based outfit.<\/p>\n

Penney survived an end-of-season review last year after the Crusaders failed to make the playoffs in his first campaign in charge.<\/p>\n

However, he turned things around in his second year in charge, helping them back to the top of the pile in 2025, clinching their 13th Super Rugby title. The Crusaders boss has opted to extend his contract by just one more season as he plans to take it year by year.<\/p>\n

Scott Barrett sabbatical<\/p>\n

While he is eager to chase more history in 2026, he expects to do so without the services of All Blacks<\/a> captain Barrett<\/a>, who he believes will exercise a non-playing sabbatical clause in his contract and skip the next Super Rugby season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty certain he\u2019ll do something,\u201d Penney<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s earned the right to (rest) and he needs to. That big body of his has been knocked around both for the Crusaders and for the All Blacks for a long time now. So as Codie (All Blacks and Crusaders hooker Codie Taylor) did eighteen months ago, I suspect he\u2019ll have a good break and he\u2019s deserves it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be up to other people in the group to step up and when Scoot\u2019s (Barrett) ready we\u2019ll welcome him back with open arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Taylor opted to take up a non-playing sabbatical, with Barrett seemingly set to follow his clubmate, several other All Blacks have instead decided to take the opportunity to play abroad.<\/p>\n

Jordie Barrett, Scott\u2019s younger brother, has just returned from a stint with Leinster, while Rieko Ioane is set to join the Irish club later this year. Anton Lienert-Brown and Ardie Savea will both skip Super Rugby next season to play for Japanese club Kobelco Kobe Steelers.<\/p>\n

All Blacks sabbatical trend continues as Chiefs star follows Ardie Savea in missing Super Rugby Pacific season<\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks great left \u2018concerned\u2019 about players who should be \u2018firing by now\u2019 under Scott Robertson<\/a><\/p>\n

Penney extends<\/p>\n

Speaking on his contract renewal, Penney added: \u201cI\u2019m really excited and humbled to be given the opportunity to work with this great organisation and team again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis group is on the cusp of doing something pretty special again and I\u2019m rapt to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the 2025 end-of-season review process now completed, Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge said there was a constant theme emerging about Penney.<\/p>\n

\u201cRob uses the term love a lot \u2013 he loves this place, loves the environment and loves the players \u2013 he comes from this real place of deep care, and I think that\u2019s felt by all of the players,\u201d says Mansbridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe players talked about how much he cared for them and how he genuinely tried to do the best that he could for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0All Blacks great claims Wallabies could \u2018tip\u2019 the Springboks after Rassie Erasmus \u2018mucked around\u2019 with Italy \u2018guinea pigs\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks captain Scott Barrett is expected to miss the Crusaders\u2019 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season after exercising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,29897,818,1736,44,29899,760,10282,85,29898,2356],"class_list":["post-31908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-crusaders","tag-home-page","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rob-penney","tag-rugby","tag-scott-barrett","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}