Three Barretts in one team, and the middle one being called the best midfielder the All Blacks have had

The three Barrett brothers all started the Bledisloe Cup Test at Eden Park last Saturday, and by the end of the week the conversation around the middle one had changed. Not whether Jordie Barrett is a good All Black, but where he sits among the best midfielders the team has had.

"One of the best we've had"

Tana Umaga played 74 Tests in the All Blacks midfield and now coaches the defence. His verdict on Barrett this week: "one of the best we've had." Head coach Dave Rennie said Barrett has "taken his game to another level," and captain Codie Taylor said "his actions on the field are world class." Umaga's comparison point was Ma'a Nonu, who played 103 Tests at second five-eighth.

Barrett is 29, has 86 Tests, and has started at 12 in all eight of the All Blacks' Tests this year. Former All Black Stephen Donald, on The Aftermatch podcast, put him among the favourites for World Rugby Player of the Year, an award Malcolm Marx won in 2025. Beauden Barrett won it in 2016 and 2017; if Jordie follows, they would be the first brothers to do so.

The backyard that made him

Scott Barrett, back in the side after four months out with a back injury and playing his first Test since November, told allblacks.com about the backyard cricket that shaped his younger brother. Jordie's bowling, he said, was in the style of Lasith Malinga, the Sri Lankan with the slinging round-arm action, which is as good a description of a Barrett sibling contest as you will get. Scott also credited the eldest brother, Kane, with putting him through gym sessions as a kid.

Three brothers in one starting fifteen is rare enough. Three brothers in one starting fifteen, one of them being talked about as the world's best player, is the sort of thing the next generation of backyard games is built on.