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Important SN update for Southland'Really disturbs me': Laurie Mains' 'gripe' with All Blacks' mismanagement of Beauden Barrett
Stephen Foote • July 4th, 2025 10:24 am
Photo: Photosport
The ongoing debate surrounding the duel for the All Blacks' No. 10 jersey between Beauden Barrett and Damian McKenzie continues to polarise the nation.
But for All Blacks coaching great Laurie Mains, there's only one answer - and it's not Damian McKenzie.
"Easy as that," Mains told Sport Nation's Millsy & Guy, having nominated Barrett in the blink of a millisecond.
In fact, Mains confesses he has a cross to bear about the All Blacks' treatment of the Blues pivot, who he believes has been a victim of mismanagement by the selectors in recent years.
Mains' major gripe comes in their attempt to turn a player who was arguably the world's best No. 10 into a fullback, just a year removed from winning consecutive World Rugby Player of the Year awards.
He points to the 2019 World Cup in Japan as an example where things began to go awry, where Steve Hansen and his cohorts employed their notorious dual-playmaker approach, which involved using Richie Mo'unga at first-five and Barrett at fullback, in turn shifting regular No. 15 Ben Smith to the wing.
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"Here's something that really disturbs me though and I've got a gripe about this," Mains begins.
"Two years in a row, Beaden Barrett was voted World Rugby Player of the Year as a first five-eighth.
"The following year, because of Richie Mo'unga coming on, all of a sudden the best fullback in the world, Ben Smith, gets pushed aside, and Beauden gets put to fullback."
The All Blacks were bundled out in the semi-final stage of the 2019 tournament, convincingly beaten by England.
Mains insists he's not being critical of the Crusaders legend, but is adamant Barrett should've been retained in the position in which he'd risen to such heights within the global game.
"He's a great player. But Beauden Barrett did not deserve to be put back to fullback."
Head coach of the All Blacks from 1992 to 1995, Mains - who earned 15 Test caps himself as a fullback in the early 1970s - played a key part in the development of some exceptional first-fives, most notably Crusaders superboot Andrew Mehrtens, who he awarded a Test debut during the All Blacks warm-up series against Canada prior to heading to South Africa.
Mains suggests the All Blacks have been paying for that indecision since 2019, with some of Barrett's best years gone to waste.
"He's come on at times and done some remarkable things as a fullback. But we've never settled down behind the scrum - our pivot."
McKenzie played the majority of last year's international season as the All Blacks first-choice flyhalf, while Barrett was primarily used at fullback and as McKenzie's backup.
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Barrett's ability to conjure up brilliance gives him a clear advantage over McKenzie, who he believes suffers from a sport of predictability that the elite teams - particularly at Test level - are able to expose.
Mains uses last month's Super Rugby Final as a reference, where he claimed he'd predicted the Crusaders would know precisely how to mitigate McKenzie's impact.
"I said, you mark my words, I know those Crusaders players, I know how they prepare, and I can tell you now, he won't get a chance to do much during this game," Main said, recalling his pre-match outlook.
"He will get shut down because they know what he tries to do, and he got shut down.
"You can't do that with Beauden Barrett. When he's on, he creates things out of absolutely nowhere.
"So, that's why that's my position."
Mains will no doubt be pleased with Scott Robertson's selections for the All Blacks' seaosn-opener against France on Saturday, where Barrett has been given the nod as run-on first-five, with McKenzie to provide cover from the bench.
Listen to the full interview below:
