{"id":619820,"date":"2026-10-03T22:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619820\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T22:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:52:09","slug":"bledisloe-cup-how-scott-barrett-reacted-to-losing-all-blacks-captaincy-to-ardie-savea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/619820\/","title":{"rendered":"Bledisloe Cup: How Scott Barrett reacted to losing All Blacks captaincy to Ardie Savea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Savea, as evidenced when deputising for Barrett and Sam Cane before him, appears a more natural fit to lead the side.<\/p>\n

\"ScottScott Barrett (right) lines up for the All Blacks with his brothers Jordie (left) and Beauden. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Having been named to return to the All Blacks after a back injury and his non-playing sabbatical, Rennie hopes easing the responsibility on Barrett will allow him to regain the form that saw him become such a key player.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got appointed, I spoke a lot to Scooter [Barrett],\u201d he said. \u201cIt was more around how he found the captaincy, the leadership group and a lot of things around that.<\/p>\n

\u201cHim and I had a conversation around where he was at. I think he was a bit of a reluctant captain, [but] very proud to do that for his country. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the injury, he wasn\u2019t available to play anyway. When I was having conversations with Scooter, I hadn\u2019t told him that Ardie would be the captain. We made that appointment quite late.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he\u2019s impressive. He\u2019s obviously excited to be back in the mix, he\u2019s worked incredibly hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re rapt to have him back in, he brings a lot of experience. He\u2019s an excellent player, one of the best locks in the world. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he won\u2019t captain the side, he\u2019ll be an important part, from a leadership perspective, for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlikely Barrett will walk straight back into a starting spot. <\/p>\n

When the All Blacks squad for the Bledisloe Cup was picked, he\u2019d played just 52 minutes for Taranaki \u2013 in the second game he\u2019d ever played for his home province. <\/p>\n

\"ScottScott Barrett on his provincial return for Taranaki. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

While that might lead to questions over his match fitness to face Australia, Rennie hopes another stint against Wellington will help Barrett get back into groove before the Bledisloe Cup begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been rehabbing for a long time, he probably could have come back a tad earlier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the surgery, he\u2019s been working really hard. He\u2019s been on his feet, he\u2019s been doing a lot of contact work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was jumping out of his skin to get out there. It was good to see him get 50-odd minutes and he\u2019s going to play again this Sunday. [He\u2019ll] hopefully get another 40 minutes into him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident he can back up, if required, again the following Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Savea, as evidenced when deputising for Barrett and Sam Cane before him, appears a more natural fit to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27309,9092,5263,9082,85,4995,1863,20437,3390,8136,26888,2852,191425,10542,16555,4975,1345,221,1043,11556,3234,111,43,139,69,21984,153608,9083,8139,764,1961,61,1533,1339],"class_list":["post-619820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-added","tag-against","tag-all","tag-ardie","tag-australia","tag-away","tag-back","tag-barrett","tag-best","tag-blacks","tag-bledisloe","tag-burden","tag-captaincy","tag-cup","tag-form","tag-free","tag-home","tag-how","tag-leadership","tag-losing","tag-months","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reacted","tag-regain","tag-savea","tag-scott","tag-tests","tag-this","tag-to","tag-will","tag-without"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619820","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=619820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}