Jordie Barrett: the cricketer who missed NZ Schools and became the world's best second five

In the summer after he left school, Jordie Barrett spent more time in the indoor cricket nets at Lincoln University than in the gym. He was a Central Districts age-grade cricketer with his eye on a New Zealand Under 19 World Cup, a self-described skinny first five who had not made New Zealand Schools and had not yet had his growth spurt. Ten years on he is 1.96 metres, 95 kilograms, the All Blacks' vice-captain, an 86-Test second five his older brother calls the best in the world, and the owner of a Super Rugby title, a United Rugby Championship medal and a contract that runs to 2028. Of the three Barrett All Blacks, the youngest took the longest way round.

Where he comes from

Jordan Matthew Barrett was born in New Plymouth on 17 February 1997, the fifth of Kevin and Robyn Barrett's eight children and the youngest of the five boys. Home was the family dairy farm at Pungarehu on the Taranaki coast, a back yard with goal posts, and a father, Kevin "Smiley" Barrett, who had played 167 games for Taranaki and 14 for the Hurricanes before famously telling a match programme he was off to breed some All Blacks.

Jordie was not yet three when the family moved to Ballinacree in County Meath, Ireland, in January 2000, Kevin managing a farm and playing for the Buccaneers in Athlone; they came home about 15 months later. He has said the place still matters: "It's a special place for the Barrett family," he told 1News in 2024, before going back to play for Leinster.

He has also been clear that nobody pushed him. "I honestly can't remember a time where Dad said 'go train'," he told CNN in 2019. The only compulsion he remembers was his mother dropping the children at the top of the road with a pair of sneakers and telling them to run home.

Junior and school

Like Kane, Beauden and Scott before him, Jordie played his junior rugby for the Coastal club, which is still the club listed against his name on the All Blacks' records, and went to Francis Douglas Memorial College in New Plymouth, where he played First XV. He was a sportsman first and a rugby player second. He played age-grade cricket for Taranaki and Central Districts, and in 2014 he played one game of rugby league, a one-off final for the school's 1st XIII against Hawera High School for the Willie Talau Cup, at halfback, which his side won. "That was one single game of rugby league I played," he told 1News in 2018, when asked whether he might follow Sonny Bill Williams across the codes.

He was not picked for New Zealand Schools in 2014, his final year. By his own account he was about six foot, playing first five, and nowhere near the frame. He left for Lincoln University, south of Christchurch, on a rugby scholarship, to study commerce, and spent his first summer trying to make the New Zealand Under 19 cricket team.

Lincoln, Canterbury and a title at 19

The growth spurt arrived. At the start of 2016 Barrett was playing premier club rugby for Lincoln University in the Canterbury Metro competition and for the Crusaders Knights development side when Scott Robertson, then coaching New Zealand Under 20, picked him for the Oceania tournament on the Gold Coast in May and the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in England in June. He played three games at the championship and scored 52 points, including a try, in a team that finished fifth.

Robertson then put him in his Canterbury side for the 2016 Mitre 10 Cup. Barrett debuted off the bench, scored 25 points against Tasman in his second game and did not leave the match-day 23 again that year: 12 games, 123 points, a Ranfurly Shield defence and a 43-27 win over Tasman in the final that gave Canterbury its eighth Mitre 10 Cup title. At the New Zealand Rugby Awards that December he was named both Mitre 10 Cup Player of the Year and Age Grade Player of the Year, on the night Beauden collected the Kelvin Tremain award.

Both Super Rugby clubs with a Barrett in them wanted him. The Crusaders had Scott; the Hurricanes had Beauden and, 20 years earlier, Kevin. In September 2016 he signed a two-year deal with the Hurricanes. "It was a big decision for me to commit to rugby full time," he said in the club's announcement, admitting he had loved his cricket. Coach Chris Boyd called him "capable of playing second-five, fullback and also at first five". Steve Hansen agreed: that November, after one season of senior rugby, Barrett toured the Northern Hemisphere with the All Blacks as an apprentice. While he was away he signed with Taranaki for 2017, where he made a brief appearance that season.

The Hurricanes

Barrett made his Hurricanes debut at fullback against the Sunwolves in 2017 and became a regular when Nehe Milner-Skudder was injured, finishing his first season with 135 points and seven tries, and taking over the goal-kicking from Beauden mid-season. He played against the British and Irish Lions in the Hurricanes' midweek draw, setting up Ngani Laumape and kicking nine points.

He re-signed again and again, and by April 2024 he was a Hurricanes centurion. That month he signed with New Zealand Rugby and the Hurricanes to the end of 2028, the first All Black to commit beyond the 2027 World Cup, with a six-month sabbatical built in.

That sabbatical was Leinster. He joined the Irish club in December 2024 after the All Blacks' northern tour, scored off the bench on debut in a 35-12 Champions Cup win over Bristol at Ashton Gate on 8 December, was player of the match against Connacht a fortnight later, was nominated for Champions Cup Player of the Year in April 2025, and in his final game for the club, the United Rugby Championship Grand Final at Croke Park in June 2025, scored one of Leinster's four tries in a 32-7 win over the Bulls. "Leinster provides an opportunity for me to experience another type of rugby," he had said when the move was announced; it also delivered his first club medal.

He came back to a Hurricanes side that had been building under Clark Laidlaw, and on 20 June 2026 at Hnry Stadium in Wellington they beat the Chiefs 60-5 in the Super Rugby Pacific final, the biggest winning margin in a Grand Final, with Barrett scoring one of nine tries. It was the Hurricanes' second title and their first since Beauden's 2016 side. "It was probably beyond the realms of expectation," Jordie told Sport Nation afterwards. "We haven't tasted that success in a long time." He is in the Hurricanes' 2027 squad.

The All Blacks: three brothers and a drawn series

In June 2017 Hansen named Beauden, Scott and Jordie Barrett in the same 33-man squad, the first three brothers ever picked together for the All Blacks. Jordie's debut came on 16 June 2017 against Samoa at Eden Park, the night Beauden played his 50th Test: he replaced captain Ben Smith in the 63rd minute of a 78-0 win and set up Ardie Savea's second try. Three weeks later, with Rieko Ioane ill and Smith and Waisake Naholo injured, he started the third Test against the Lions at fullback, scored his first Test try from an Anton Lienert-Brown pass, set up Laumape's opening try and was bundled into touch after the final whistle going for a second. It finished 15-15, and the series was drawn.

Then his shoulder gave out. Named in the Rugby Championship squad, he needed surgery and missed the rest of 2017, David Havili taking his place. He was out for eight months.

2018 to 2020: fullback, wing and four tries in Rome

He returned in June 2018 and made more history: against France at Eden Park on 9 June the three Barretts started a Test together for the first time, Jordie at fullback. A week later at Westpac Stadium, his home ground, he scored twice and was man of the match in the 26-13 win that sealed the series. The year had its lows too. He scored the opening try against South Africa in Wellington on 15 September 2018, then was at fault for two Springbok tries in the 36-34 loss and was replaced before the hour. But it ended in Rome, where, picked on the right wing against Italy on 24 November, he scored four tries in a 66-3 win and was man of the match, matching Beauden's four against Australia three months earlier. His seven tries in 2018 remain his best year.

At the 2019 World Cup in Japan he was the utility man: right wing against Canada, first five against Namibia, where he scored a try and kicked eight conversions for 21 points, and bench cover through the quarter-final, the semi-final loss to England and the bronze final. In the Covid year of 2020 he started all six Tests, five of them on the right wing, scoring in each of the first three Bledisloe Tests, and wore the South's 15 jersey in the North v South match.

2021: the kicker, and a red card that was not

Jordie Barrett's 2021 was the year he became indispensable. He played 13 Tests, nine of them starting at fullback, and took over the goal-kicking for long stretches: 14 points in the 19-17 win over South Africa in Townsville, 14 more in the 31-29 loss on the Gold Coast a week later, and 19 in Beauden's 100th Test in Cardiff, where Jordie kicked five conversions and three penalties in the 54-16 win over Wales.

The season's strangest moment came in Perth on 5 September 2021. Leaping for a high ball in the 38-21 win over Australia, Barrett's boot caught Wallabies wing Marika Koroibete in the face and he was shown a red card. Three days later a SANZAAR judicial panel ruled the contact inadvertent, cleared him and struck the card from his record. "I'm just rapt with the outcome," he said. "They could see that I had no intent to hurt Marika in the game."

The move to 12

Ian Foster tried him at second five against Australia at Eden Park on 24 September 2022, a 40-14 win, and he has barely left the position since. Every one of his Test starts from 2023 onward has been in the 12 jersey: all five at the 2023 World Cup in France, including the quarter-final win over Ireland, the semi-final against Argentina and the 12-11 loss to South Africa in the final, then every start of 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Robertson, his old Under 20 and Canterbury coach, made him vice-captain alongside Ardie Savea when he took over the All Blacks in 2024, and he kept the role under Dave Rennie in 2026. By the end of the 2025 Rugby Championship, 1News's Scotty Stevenson was naming him the All Blacks' player of the tournament: he led the team in carries against Australia at Eden Park, had made 46 for the competition (only Savea had more), topped the backline for tackles and still found the pass that set up Cam Roigard's late try. Barrett, Stevenson wrote, "feels indispensable".

2026

Barrett started at second five in all eight Tests of the Rennie era to October: the three July wins over France, Italy and Ireland, the four Tests in South Africa and the United States, and the 50-19 Bledisloe win at Eden Park on 10 October, where he was man of the match on the night Scott returned from back surgery and the three brothers were together again. Beauden said afterwards that Jordie was "hands down" the best second five in the world: "I'm inspired by his work rate, his physicality, and his involvement."

A tight calf cost him the Sydney Test a week later; he was withdrawn on the morning of the game after missing training, with Timoci Tavatavanawai starting in his place. He was named in the 36-man squad for the northern tour as one of the players "returning from injury", on 86 Tests, and is expected to resume at 12 against Scotland.

Style and standing

The Museum's profile calls him a back who can "play first-five, second-five, wing, or fullback and is also a reliable goal kicker", and across 86 Tests he has started in five positions and scored 306 points. The versatility that made him a utility at 20 has become something rarer: the biggest midfielder in the game who is also one of its best footballers. Stevenson's word, "indispensable", is the one that sticks, and Beauden's, "hands down", is a brother's but not an unreasonable one.

Off the field

Barrett studied commerce at Lincoln University while chasing two sports; whether he finished the degree is not something he has made public. His cricket survives in the annual Black Clash charity match, where he has taken wickets off former internationals. He has spoken often about the Irish connection, and of wanting to look back in 30 years knowing he "left no stone unturned".

Where he is now

Barrett, 29, is with the All Blacks in Edinburgh, vice-captain to Codie Taylor, preparing for Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday morning New Zealand time, then Wales and England. He is contracted to the Hurricanes and New Zealand Rugby to the end of 2028, covering the 2027 World Cup in Australia and running to the brink of the 2029 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand. "There is still a burning desire to go one better at the next one," he said of the World Cup in 2024.

Career at a glance

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