Beauden Barrett: the barefoot Pungarehu farm boy who became the world's best, twice

There is a story told in Taranaki about a match programme from the late 1990s. Asked what he wanted to do when he finished playing, Kevin "Smiley" Barrett, 167 games as a forward for the province, wrote that he was off to breed some All Blacks. He has three. The second of his eight children is Beauden Barrett, who turned up at the All Blacks in 2012 as a skinny first five with a sprinter's legs and is still there in 2026, aged 35, with 147 Tests, two World Rugby Player of the Year awards, a World Cup winner's medal and a place on the plane to Edinburgh this week. Only Sam Whitelock and Richie McCaw have played more Tests for New Zealand.

Where he comes from

Beauden John Barrett was born in New Plymouth on 27 May 1991 and raised on the family dairy farm at Pungarehu, on the coast road between New Plymouth and Opunake. His mother Robyn played basketball for New Zealand Under 18s and netball; his father Kevin played 167 games for Taranaki between 1986 and 1999 and 14 for the Hurricanes in 1997 and 1998, picking up his nickname from the faint smile he wore in the middle of a brawl. There were eight children: five boys, among them Kane, Beauden, Scott and Jordie, and three girls.

The farm did the coaching. Richie McCaw, talking to CNN before the 2019 World Cup, pointed to the brothers running barefoot on frosty coastal paddocks as the sort of upbringing that produces Test players: "It's often the character, when the heat comes on," he said. Jordie has told of their mother dropping them at the top of the road with a pair of sneakers and telling them to run home. "Our feet were pretty tough back then," Beauden said. "I couldn't do that today."

In January 2000, when Beauden was eight, Smiley took a job managing a farm at Ballinacree in County Meath, Ireland, and the family stayed 16 months. Beauden, Kane and Scott went to St Fiach's National School, learned Gaelic football and watched their father play second row for the Buccaneers club in Athlone at 34. Kevin told the Irish Times in 2017: "It was the best thing we ever did."

Back home, Kevin coached the tiny Pungarehu school team, 84 pupils in the whole school, with Kane, Beauden and Scott in the side, to three McLeod Shields in a row. Beauden played his junior club rugby for Rahotu and for the Coastal club, the club that is still listed against his name on the All Blacks' records, and as a boy was as keen on soccer and golf as rugby, supporting Manchester United and Real Madrid.

School

Like his brothers, Beauden went to Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth, his father's old school, and played in its First XV, where his team-mates included Liam Coltman, later an All Blacks hooker. RUGBE found no record of him in the New Zealand Schools side; that honour went to his older brother Kane, who made the team in 2008 and captained it in 2009. Beauden's path ran through sevens instead. In 2010, aged 19, he was picked for the New Zealand Sevens team for the last two legs of the world series, in London and Edinburgh, and that same winter Taranaki gave him his provincial debut.

Taranaki

Barrett came off the bench against Northland in the 2010 ITM Cup and was Taranaki's most promising player by the end of the season, a 65-metre solo try against Manawatu among the highlights. In 2011 he kicked all 15 of Taranaki's points in a tryless 15-12 win over Southland in Invercargill that brought the Ranfurly Shield back to the province, set an ITM Cup record with nine penalties in a 39-33 win over Bay of Plenty, finished with 90 points and was named the province's best back.

He has been a part-time Taranaki player ever since, as All Blacks are. He played four games in 2012, including a 70-metre intercept try against Bay of Plenty and a semi-final against Canterbury that went to extra time after a 27-all draw. He was back in 2015, and on 19 September 2020 he helped Taranaki beat Canterbury 23-22 in Christchurch to take the Ranfurly Shield again. His next call-up in amber and black did not come until early October 2026, when, with no All Blacks place to hold him back, he was named alongside Scott Barrett for Taranaki's final home game of the NPC season against Wellington at Stadium Taranaki, the afternoon Jared Proffit became the province's 33rd centurion. The union billed it as the first time the two brothers had been picked together for Taranaki, and Beauden's first game for the province in New Plymouth since 2015.

The Hurricanes

The Blues wanted him in 2011. Barrett chose a wider training contract with the Hurricanes instead, was called into the squad for the 2011 tour of South Africa, and made his debut in a 50-47 win over the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, converting Jeremy Thrush's match-winning try. His first Super Rugby start, against the Stormers in 2012, was a man-of-the-match performance in a losing side. Against the Rebels that year he kicked nine from nine and scored 21 points, breaking franchise records that had stood since Jon Preston in 1997.

He kicked 186 points in 2013 and 209 in 2014, signed on for two more years after reportedly coming close to joining the Blues, and in 2015 tore the medial ligament in his right knee, getting back only in time for the final, which the Highlanders won 21-14 in Wellington. The next year he put it right. Barrett scored 223 points, the only player past 200 that season, and in the 2016 final against the Lions, on a wet, windy Wellington night, he kicked two penalties and two conversions and pounced on a botched Lions lineout for the try that sealed a 20-3 win and the Hurricanes' first title. He was man of the match.

Discipline was the one blot. In 2017 he collected four yellow cards and a red (for two yellows against the Waratahs) and handed the goal-kicking to his younger brother Jordie, new in the squad, because of a leg problem. He played his 100th Hurricanes game against the Crusaders on 10 March 2018, and when he left for Auckland after the 2019 season he was the club's all-time leading scorer with 1,238 points and its fourth most-capped player.

The Blues, Japan and back

Barrett re-signed with New Zealand Rugby through 2023 in July 2019 and announced he was joining the Blues. He made his Blues debut in 2020 against the Hurricanes, took a sabbatical with Suntory Sungoliath in Tokyo for the 2021 Japanese season (missing the Blues' Trans-Tasman title that June), then returned to captain the Blues in 2022. They won 15 games in a row and topped the table, but lost the final 21-7 to the Crusaders at Eden Park, a match believed to be the first major final with brothers as the opposing captains: Beauden for the Blues, Scott for the Crusaders.

A second Japanese sabbatical followed the 2023 World Cup, this time with Toyota Verblitz. While he was there, on 4 December 2023, New Zealand Rugby announced he had re-signed with the Blues and the All Blacks to the end of 2027. "It's a huge privilege to put on the black jersey," he said in the release. Blues chief executive Andrew Hore called him "one of rugby's good people". He flew home in May 2024 and trained with a Blues side on its way to the 2024 title, but the agreed plan was for him to return to Super Rugby in 2025. By December 2023 he had played 30 games for the Blues for 199 points; he is in the 2027 squad under new coach Jason Holland, alongside Ardie Savea, who joins from Moana Pasifika.

The All Blacks: 19 wins to start

Steve Hansen called Barrett into the All Blacks in May 2012, and on 23 June 2012 at Waikato Stadium he came off the bench after 24 minutes against Ireland and kicked nine points in a 60-0 win. He did not taste defeat in a Test for a very long time. His first 19 Tests were all victories, a world record for a debutant, and the 20th was a draw.

In 2013 he scored his first Test try, in the 30-0 win over France in Christchurch; the International Rugby Players' Association named it the try of the year. In September 2014, after Aaron Cruden was injured, he started at first five for the first time, against Argentina in Napier, and he kept the jersey for the Rugby Championship run-in and the third Bledisloe Test in Brisbane, a 29-28 win. At the 2015 World Cup he was the utility back, starting once against Namibia and covering wing and fullback from the bench. In the final at Twickenham he came on for the injured Nehe Milner-Skudder and scored the last try, Dan Carter converting for 34-17.

The best player in the world

Carter left, Cruden was injured, and 2016 was the year Beauden Barrett became the All Blacks' first five. He scored 26 points against Wales in Dunedin, 81 points in a Rugby Championship the All Blacks won with two rounds to spare, including a record 42-8 win over Australia in Sydney, and nine Test tries for the year, among them a 95-metre solo effort against France in Paris. When Scott scored on debut against Ireland in Chicago in November, Beauden kicked the conversion. He was named World Rugby Player of the Year, the first All Black since Carter, and collected the Kelvin Tremain award as New Zealand's player of the year and the Super Rugby Player of the Year award on the same night in Auckland.

In 2017 the Barretts made history. Beauden, Scott and Jordie were all picked in the squad for Samoa and the Lions, the first three brothers in one All Blacks squad, and Beauden marked his 50th Test, against Samoa on 16 June 2017, with two tries and 24 points on the night Jordie made his debut. He scored 41 points across the drawn Lions series, was made vice-captain when Ben Smith took a sabbatical, captained the All Blacks for the first time in the non-Test win over the Barbarians, and scored the winning try against Scotland at Murrayfield in a 22-17 escape. In November he won the World Rugby award again, beating Rieko Ioane, becoming only the second player after McCaw to win it in consecutive years.

2018 brought his most spectacular night and his most criticised one, three weeks apart. On 25 August at Eden Park he scored four tries and 30 points against Australia, the first All Black with four in a Test since 2011. On 15 September in Wellington he kicked two from six and the All Blacks lost 36-34 to South Africa. The goal-kicking debate followed him for years, and his answer that November was the first drop goal of his career, in the 46th minute of a 16-15 win over England at Twickenham. His 31st Test try, in Yokohama against Australia, took him past Carter as the most prolific try-scoring first five in All Blacks history.

Fullback, Mo'unga and 100 Tests

By 2019 Richie Mo'unga had the 10 jersey and Barrett had moved to fullback, where he played every Test at the World Cup in Japan: five games, a semi-final loss to England and a bronze medal. He was still at fullback through the Covid-shortened 2020 season and the North v South match, kicking nothing, while Mo'unga and Jordie shared the goal-kicking.

On 30 October 2021, after his season in Tokyo, he played his 100th Test, against Wales in Cardiff, and scored two tries in a 54-16 win. He was the All Blacks' fullback through 2022 and at the 2023 World Cup in France, where he started six of the seven matches and scored New Zealand's only try in the final, a 12-11 loss to South Africa in Paris.

Scott Robertson gave him the 10 jersey back in late 2024. From the Bledisloe Test in Wellington on 28 September 2024 to the loss to England at Twickenham on 15 November 2025 he started his next 14 Tests at first five, kicking the All Blacks through wins over England, Ireland, France (twice), South Africa in Auckland, Scotland and Australia.

2026: out, then back

Dave Rennie's arrival changed everything. Barrett was not in the match-day 23 for any of the first six Tests of 2026, three July wins and the first three of the South Africa series, and he started at fullback in the midweek game against the Bulls in Pretoria. He finally got on in the fourth Test in Baltimore on 12 September, from the bench, and scored. "It did challenge me mentally a little bit with not being selected," he told 1News in October. Rennie, he said, had been clear "that I wasn't up in the pecking order", so he trained and waited.

An injury to Mo'unga opened the door. Barrett started at fullback alongside Damian McKenzie in both Bledisloe Tests, the 50-19 win at Eden Park, where Scott returned after ten months out following back surgery and the three brothers lined up together again, and the 43-21 win in Sydney, where Beauden scored twice, the second a 70-metre intercept, his 48th Test try. "I'd be lying if I said that it hasn't affected me," he said of the months outside the team, "but the important thing is to bounce back."

He was named in the 36-man squad for the Nations Championship tour on 27 October with 147 caps, and Rennie signalled that the McKenzie-Barrett pairing would continue at Murrayfield. "I really like him and Beauden together," the coach told RNZ.

Style and standing

The Museum's profile on allblacks.com calls him "one of New Zealand rugby's most electrifying playmakers", and that is the right word: speed first, then the kicking game, then the eye for a gap or an intercept. For a decade he was also the All Blacks' most reliable source of points, and his 843 Test points sit behind only Carter and Andrew Mehrtens. His 48 tries put him third on the All Blacks' all-time list, behind only Will Jordan and Doug Howlett, and no first five in the team's history is close.

The criticism, when it came, was always about the boot under pressure. The praise is about everything else. Robertson, announcing his 2023 re-signing, said he "is the second most-capped All Black back in history for a reason". Beauden himself, asked about his younger brother in October 2026, said Jordie was "hands down" the best second five in the world. The family loyalty runs both ways.

Off the field

Barrett married in 2019 and has three daughters. His book, "Beaudy: Skills, Drills and the Path to the Top", written with broadcaster Rikki Swannell and published by Upstart Press, covers his upbringing, the Irish year and the decision at 18 that set him on the road to the All Blacks, with coaching drills for young players. At the Blues he has been, in Hore's words, "a key driver for many of our social projects", including the club's Covid and flood responses. He has been Taranaki's Sportsperson of the Year three times, in 2013, 2016 and 2019.

Where he is now

Barrett, 35, is expected to start at fullback against Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday morning New Zealand time, then Wales and England on the following weekends. He is contracted to the Blues and New Zealand Rugby to the end of 2027, which takes him to the World Cup in Australia. Whitelock's record of 153 Tests is six away.

Career at a glance

Test figures are from RUGBE's match-by-match All Blacks data to 17 October 2026.