Scott Barrett has revealed Dave Rennie’s ‘old-school’ approach to getting the All Blacks firing and how he dealt with the disappointment of losing the captaincy.

The second rower captained New Zealand during Scott Robertson’s two-year tenure in charge of the All Blacks, but when Dave Rennie took on the job, the leadership role was handed to Ardie Savea instead.

Barrett missed the entirety of the Super Rugby Pacific season through injury, which also ruled him out of the start of the international season as well as Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour. Once fit, he was immediately called into the All Blacks’ squad for the Bledisloe Cup Tests against Australia and has since been included in the touring squad for the November leg of the Nations Championship.

Scott Barrett on losing the All Blacks captaincy

Speaking to the media after naming his squad for the Bledisloe Cup Tests, Rennie revealed that he had a conversation with Barrett about the captaincy, with his main takeaway being that the lock was a ‘reluctant captain’.

“When I got appointed, I spoke a lot to Scooter and it was more around how he found the captaincy, the leadership group, and lots of things around that, and so he and I had a conversation around where he was at,” Rennie said in September.

“He was a bit of a reluctant captain, very proud to do that for his country, and obviously with an injury he ended up having that he wasn’t available to play anyway. So, even when I was having conversations with Scooter, I hadn’t told him that Ardie would be the captain or anything, and we made that appointment quite late.”

In an interview with Sky Sport NZ, Barrett revealed that he has taken inspiration from former New Zealand cricket captain Kane Williamson as he moves on with his career following Rennie’s decision not to hand him the captaincy.

“Right at the start of the year, when there was a change of coach, you know the coach and captain do have a close relationship – and myself and Scott had that over those two years and even a long time before. So when that decision was made, part of me felt that it might be a good change for that role and we had the conversation with Rens and ultimately decided to go another way,” he said.

“I reflected on other athletes who had once been captain and then sort of moved on. A prime example of that was Kane Williamson who captained the Black Caps, did a great job and then let go of that role and still went on to play some amazing cricket. That’s what I’d like to do for this team is contribute in the best possible way.”

Return from injury and failing to meet certain performance metrics

Reflecting on his return from injury and representing the All Blacks again, Barrett said: “For me to, I guess, play my part and have the opportunity to play again after a couple of challenging injuries, it’s been pretty special.

“You don’t take any opportunity to wear the black jersey for granted. When I was lining up in front of the Eden Park crowd, listening to the anthem, it was a great reminder of why we play the game.”

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.

Barrett produced two strong performances for New Zealand upon his return from injury, but the second rower revealed that he didn’t hit certain metrics required of him by the coaching team and said that there were ‘old-school’ consequences.

“Probably slightly less kicking, but kicking when the opportunities are there. Effort is huge as is work rate, those are non-negotiables,” he said when asked about how the team have played differently under Rennie.

“In the last two games, I didn’t quite hit a metric for the work rate. So, I was doing extras at training, which is quite refreshing, actually. A little bit old school, but it’s clear where they want to go with the way they want to play the game.”