{"id":706258,"date":"2026-05-31T12:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706258\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T12:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:21:15","slug":"why-alfie-barbeary-is-leaving-bath-and-the-impact-england-selection-had-on-choosing-saracens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706258\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Alfie Barbeary is leaving Bath and the impact England selection had on choosing Saracens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

Bath number eight Alfie Barbeary has explained in detail why he\u2019s leaving the club this summer.<\/p>\n

The in-form back-rower appeared on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast this week, to discuss his upcoming move to Saracens, his Investec European Player of the Year nomination and his \u201cunique\u201d playing style.<\/p>\n

Informed in December that his contract was not being renewed, the 25-year-old found his promising Bath career cut short after just four years with the club.<\/p>\n

He had been highly touted as a future international superstar from his early days with Wasps<\/a>. He arrived at the West Country side, expected to push on and fulfil his mountainous potential.<\/p>\n

Sadly, despite his obvious talents, he never quite pushed on to become the key player he once promised to be \u2013 at least not until after he had been informed of his release.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got injured early in the season, and it was one of those seasons where I\u2019d started well, I had a couple games, but I was coming off the bench in a few,\u201d Barbeary explained, detailing the circumstances of his impending exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you look at the Bath side, there\u2019s quality all over the back-row, so rotation was a big thing. So to get momentum in a season was hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I went into a Prem Cup game and tore my hamstring and was out for six weeks, which took me to about November time, so I didn\u2019t really play much. And then there was a break and stuff, didn\u2019t really play much, and then he [Johann van Graan] said that [his contract wasn\u2019t being renewed].\u201d<\/p>\n

Finishing strong with Bath<\/p>\n

For any player, being released from a team hurts, but there came a particular sting for Barbeary, who was a part of the infamous Wasps squad that entered administration in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was gutted. I did want to stay, but obviously, you\u2019ve got to see Bath<\/a> as a business, and I wasn\u2019t pulling my weight with how I was playing at the time, so it was understandable. It was understandable for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I might have had a bit of credit in the bank, but it\u2019s just one of those things. I still have a great relationship with Johann, and it was still a massive opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

United Rugby Championship semi-finals confirmed: Fixtures, dates, kick-off times and how to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

After such an impressive start to his professional career, his star has faded slightly. But in recent months, he\u2019s become the superstar that has always been on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The powerful number eight believes that his unique skill had been coached out of him, and his return to form was a result of his basal instincts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole time at Bath and conversations with other coaches, it\u2019s all like, \u2018you gotta get your carry height down\u2019, and my big thing was that I was a unique ball carrier, because I carry bolt upright, and that was it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I just went \u2018right, I\u2019ll go back to stop trying to like carry low and play the game\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Saracens adventure<\/p>\n

Next season, Barbeary<\/a> will be donning the red, black and white of Saracens, a team he was once forced to hate when playing for Wasps.<\/p>\n

The North London club were not the first to approach the giant back-rower, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was getting a lot of attention from France,\u201d he stated, but admitted that there\u2019s always been that nagging detail of international rugby, saying: \u201cDo I want to go to France at 25 and just completely rule myself out [of England selection]?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, the Sarries thing came up, and it just seemed with how they played, and how good Tom Willis has been. They said what they want, they said they have a very good balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at their back-row, they\u2019ve got a good balance of sort of athletes, and they want someone who\u2019s better at those tighter, harder carries, really. And I think that\u2019s where Willis has thrived, and he\u2019s been like one of the best in the world at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0NZ Rugby \u2018pull some strings\u2019 to \u2018block\u2019 Fehi Fineanganofo deal as PREM side left \u2018very, very upset\u2019 \u2013 report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bath number eight Alfie Barbeary has explained in detail why he\u2019s leaving the club this summer. The in-form…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[343662,64,63,17345,1208,818,44,20248,760,39279,85],"class_list":["post-706258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-alfie-barbeary","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bath","tag-england","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-premiership","tag-rugby","tag-saracens","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706258","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=706258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}