Stephen Donald has praised Jordie Barrett\u2019s performances for the All Blacks and feels he is among the favourites to win World Rugby\u2019s Player of the Year award.<\/p>\n
Barrett has been at the forefront of New Zealand\u2019s onslaught in the international arena in 2026 and started at inside centre in all eight of his country\u2019s Tests played this year.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, he delivered another outstanding all-round performance as the All Blacks<\/a> clinched an emphatic 50-19 win over the Wallabies at Eden Park in Auckland to retain the Bledisloe Cup for the 24th successive year.<\/p>\n While appearing on The Aftermatch<\/a> podcast, Donald<\/a> was informed by the show\u2019s host, Kirstie Stanway-Thorne, that several newspapers referred to Barrett<\/a> as the best player in the world after his Bledisloe Cup display.<\/p>\n She then asked Donald if those publications had been listening to their podcast for the last year, as they have regularly praised Barrett\u2019s performances during that period, and he agreed.<\/p>\n \u2018Incredible performance again\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I think that they might be starting to, I guess, say that their sources are the Aftermatch podcast,\u201d he said. \u201cLook, incredible performance again.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s special to watch, not just the fancy stuff that he does, but it\u2019s how hard he works. We were lucky enough where we did our show from (at Eden Park). We just left our seats there and turned around and watched the game from there.<\/p>\n \u201cHe did three tackles in a row in front of us and just went, bang, got up, bang, hit another one and these were all close-quarters tackles. These were all the big forward carries.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just stayed there and just whacked them over. He gets up, and he looks exhausted, but he just goes and does it again. He is just cutting people down.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s obviously one part of his job, but geez, when you think about everything else he adds, Kirstie, his in some form. We say some form, some patch of form, but it\u2019s just continuous.<\/p>\n All Blacks: Kieran Read bemoans omission of \u2018world-class player\u2019 while Justin Marshall is \u2018baffled\u2019 by make-up of bench<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s just him now. It\u2019s just the standard that he plays to now.\u201d<\/p>\n Stanway-Thorne then said Barrett should definitely be in the running for a 2026 World Rugby Player of the Year nomination and should be amongst the favourites to win the award.<\/p>\n Barrett could make history if he wins the award<\/p>\n Donald agreed and said if that happens it would be a momentous occasion as Barrett would emulate his brother, Beauden, who won that award in 2016 and 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely. And I was thinking about that before the podcast,\u201d said the former All Blacks fly-half. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine there\u2019s ever been a set of brothers to win World Rugby Player of the Year.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019ll be another first.\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 He said, however, that the younger Barrett can expect stiff competition from Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx<\/a>, who was crowned World Rugby Player of the Year in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re looking at that, I think obviously someone like a Marx will certainly be one of those four,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then maybe another South African; take your pick of probably three or four of them.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s judged from the Northern Hemisphere. So, I would imagine someone will come out of the Six Nations this year because we got to spread the field.\u201d<\/p>\n