{"id":261059,"date":"2025-07-13T07:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T07:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/261059\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T07:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T07:58:11","slug":"all-blacks-first-five-gives-retirement-hint-after-emotional-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/261059\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks first-five gives retirement hint after emotional Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>You could forgive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">All Blacks<\/a> first-five <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/beauden-barrett\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Beauden Barrett<\/a> for being slightly emotional ahead of the second Test against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/france\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">France<\/a> in his home part of the world in Wellington, alongside his brother Jordie.<\/p>\n<p>Barrett has played a lot of rugby in the capital, for the Hurricanes, and for the All Blacks in his 136-Test match career that has spanned 13 years.<\/p>\n<p>The All Blacks first-five had a huge part to play in the second Test in Wellington, one in which he was visibly emotional, having been seen crying during the national anthems before the match.<\/p>\n<p>Barrett was also part of one of the game\u2019s biggest controversies, in the 19th minute, where referee Christophe Ridley deemed the first-five to have \u201cillegally knocked the ball down\u201d on the back of a France line break.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about what he was feeling pregame, Barrett was surprised the travelling French journalist noticed his emotion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, did you notice? Yes, oh, no, it is emotional,\u201d Barrett told reporters in Wellington.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess I never really know when it\u2019s going to be my last Test, so, yeah, every time I get the chance to play, especially with a brother on my side, that gets me emotional.<\/p>\n<p>Barrett also admits that as he gets older, it\u2019s harder to prepare and get ready for a Test match.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo it takes a lot of effort these days to play Test rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old admits that the specific things that the All Blacks worked on during the week were definitely improved on in the second Test in Wellington.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, I think the areas we highlighted in the review were improved on and trained and focused on this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that\u2019s always pleasing, obviously there\u2019s always parts of the game that we will look to improve on going forward, but things like the tackle off our offensive breakdown certainly opened up some opportunities for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752393491_417_811.png.webp\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> New Zealand <\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752393491_697_806.png.webp\"\/> <\/p>\n<p> France <\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/france-vs-new-zealand\/?g=946102\/\" class=\"link-box\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">   <\/p>\n<p>The All Blacks got some reward for pinning France deep inside their half through some in-play kicking, which is something Barrett believes helped them keep the pressure on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, that was an area where we looked at turning them around, and I guess that\u2019s how they like to play also. So, yeah, it was tricky conditions out there, conditions that I\u2019m very used to, so I really enjoyed tonight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I mean in terms of performance, I thought we started a lot better, and we managed to keep the pressure on.<br \/>\u201cSo, whether it was the team or just the performance, I\u2019m not too sure, but I know that we improved.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You could forgive All Blacks first-five Beauden Barrett for being slightly emotional ahead of the second Test against&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-261059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114844867248495183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}