{"id":549688,"date":"2026-07-29T14:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549688\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T14:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T14:31:17","slug":"its-tough-for-him-all-blacks-reveal-plan-for-beauden-barrett-on-south-african-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549688\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It&#8217;s tough for him&#8217;: All Blacks reveal plan for Beauden Barrett on South African tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>  Published: 11 hours ago | 28 July 2026 22:51 EDT  <\/p>\n<p>mens<\/p>\n<p>international<\/p>\n<p>    New Zealand&#8217;s Damian McKenzie (R) and Beauden Barrett attend a rugby training session at One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch. (Photo by Sanka Vidanagama \/ AFP via Getty Images) <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"expand\" src=\"https:\/\/eu-cdn.rugbypass.com\/images\/common-svg\/select-arrow.svg\" height=\"6\" width=\"11\"\/>      <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rugbypass.com%2F\" onclick=\"GATracking.sendDataLayerEvent(&#039;preferredsourcegoogle&#039;);\" aria-label=\"Google Prefered Source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/google_preferred_source_badge_light.png\" alt=\"Google Prefered Source\" width=\"141\" height=\"44\" class=\"google-source\"\/> <\/a>     <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> head coach has revealed the plan for first five Beauden Barrett with the veteran set to play the first game of the tour.<\/p>\n<p>Barrett was the first choice starter under Robertson last year but the 144-Test veteran did not feature across the July Nations Championships fixtures with the All Blacks preferring Ruben Love to start and using Damian McKenzie as cover from fullback.<\/p>\n<p>Rennie said it was \u201ctough for him\u201d to sit out the July fixtures but he proved to be the ultimate professional guiding the others in preparation.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/postview.rugbypass.com\/images\/video-player\/spacer-new.png\" alt=\"Video Spacer\" width=\"100%\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/postview.rugbypass.com\/images\/video-player\/spacer-new.png\" alt=\"Video Spacer\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, Beauden will start against the Stormers. There you go. There\u2019s a little leg up,\u201d Rennie confirmed to media at this week\u2019s squad announcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, look, I\u2019ve said it before, but Beauden has really impressed me.\u00a0He\u2019s training superbly. His contribution has been excellent. Very professional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s been incredibly supportive of Ruben, you know, and and it\u2019s tough for him because he\u2019s probably trained well enough to get an opportunity, but we just felt that Ruben needed time in the seat, and he\u2019s done a really good job there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo Beauden will get his opportunity against the Stormers, which is exciting and he\u2019s he\u2019s keen to rip in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite not playing as the third option at No.10, the selectors added a fourth option to the touring squad in Chiefs\u2019 No.10 Josh Jacomb.<\/p>\n<p>Even returning All Black Richie Mo\u2019unga is still a chance to join the group, with Rennie confirming they will monitor him during his return to NPC this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, there\u2019s a chance,\u201d Rennie said of Mo\u2019unga.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019ll play for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/canterbury\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canterbury<\/a> this weekend, and then once he\u2019s done that, if we have an injury at 10, then he\u2019s an option to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With only three halfbacks selected with an extra 10 in Josh Jacomb, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/crusaders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crusaders<\/a> halfback Noah Hotham missed out altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Rennie said that wing Leroy Carter can cover halfback at a stretch and that Hotham was the \u201cobvious\u201d fourth option.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, Noah Hotham\u2019s the obvious choice as the fourth halfback, and if we were to get an injury, then then we\u2019d bring in a replacement,\u201d Rennie said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Cam\u2019s [Roigard] had a lot of footy. We\u2019re keen to get a lot more rugby into the other two boys, and and so they\u2019ll share a big chunk of the load in the first three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published: 11 hours ago | 28 July 2026 22:51 EDT mens international New Zealand&#8217;s Damian McKenzie (R) and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-549688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}