All Blacks No 10 Beauden Barrett opens up on horrendous spill against Springboks

Star All Blacks No 10 Beauden Barrett has admitted he “feared the worst” after his horrific spill against the Springboks in Mbombela that left him fortunate to escape serious injury.

The 31-year-old, 105-test international has spoken for the first time about the incident late in the opening Rugby Championship test that saw Springboks wing Kurt-Lee Arendse red-carded, and subsequently banned for four weeks, for his illegal mid-air challenge. South Africa won the match 26-10 to inflict a fifth defeat in the last six matches for the All Blacks.

Barrett, in an interview with the All Blacks media team, opened up on the scary thoughts that ran through his head in the immediate aftermath of the spill and then the enormous sense of relief he had when he was cleared of significant injury.

The New Zealander was spun around by Arendse’s challenge and landed on his neck in a precarious position indeed. All Blacks coach Ian Foster described the incident as “probably the worst I’ve seen” and halfback Aaron Smith tagged the Boks tactics as “borderline”.

“It was quite a big collision,” said Barrett in Johannesburg in the leadup to a much-anticipated rematch at Ellis Park. “I did think of the worst instantly, especially when I was on the ground and, I can’t remember who it was, told me to stay still. It wasn’t until Doc came on and asked me could I move my fingers and toes, I was relieved I passed all those tests and eventually sat up and was able to walk off and get on with it.

“There was a fearful period there for a minute or so where you do think of the worst. It’s quite scary when you go over backwards and find yourself come down on your head and shoulders. It’s part of the game and every time we go up for the high ball we’ve got to be courageous.”

But, as Barrett conceded, sometimes courage is not enough.

“Sometimes the chasers don’t get it right,” he said. “They have intentions to get up but find themselves running into the person, which happened at the weekend. As escorters, the players in front of me are doing their best to protect me, but it’s not always the case.

“It’s something we expected from South Africa … the high ball collision and contest. I don’t think they’ll change anything. They’ll look to make it a real contest and a 50-50, but we’ll continue to be courageous, get up, and our escorters have to do a job to legally stop that chaser form running a good line and allowing that mid-air collision.

“Yeah, relief is an understatement,” he added with a rueful smile.

Barrett recalled being involved in a similar spill in 2018 against the French in Wellington when he came down “more on my shoulder” and also escaped serious harm.

“It’s high-speed, split-second stuff which can be quite dangerous,” he added. “I was lucky on that occasion and was lucky at the weekend, so let’s hope I’ve still got plenty of luck in me because I’ve got to be courageous and so does everybody who goes up to catch a high ball.

“It’s a strength of South Africa’s because they cause carnage up in the air and they like to play off the spills.”

The experienced playmaker was cleared of injury and trained fully with the All Blacks on Tuesday in Johannesburg. He is expected to be named to run out at Ellis Park in Saturday’s rematch (early Sunday NZ time).

The spill caused even more anxiety given the problems he went through in the aftermath of a head knock suffered against Ireland in Dublin last November. Barrett felt symptoms for months afterwards and it was not until early in the Super Rugby season that he was cleared to return to the field.

He admitted then he had feared his career could have been ended prematurely by the ongoing concussion symptoms.

Barrett, meanwhile, said the All Blacks were fiercely motivated to end their losing skid and bounce back against the Boks this weekend.

“We believe in what we’re doing and where we’re heading,” he said. “Winning is a habit, but losing can be too. We’ve just got to remember how well we can do the simple things, why we play the game and what got us here in the first place, and not over-complicate things, not listen to too much external noise and just enjoy playing footy.

“All I ask is for our fans to believe in us, and have our backs because we certainly need that.”