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Beauden Barrett set for first club rugby appearance in a decade ahead of Blues debut

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

All Blacks star Beauden Barrett will make his long-awaited return to rugby at grassroots level a week before he makes his Blues debut next month.

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According to Newshub, the two-time World Rugby player of the year is set to make his first rugby appearance in five months when he takes to the field for Coastal Rugby Club against fierce Taranaki club rivals Southern on April 4.

It will also be Barrett’s first outing for his home club since 2010, and will act as a precursor to his first match for the Blues against the Hurricanes at Eden Park on April 11.

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The former Hurricanes playmaker, who completed one of the biggest transfers in Super Rugby history when he signed with the Auckland franchise on a four-year deal last July, has been on extended leave from rugby duties following the All Blacks’ failed World Cup campaign in November and is yet to take to the field for his new side.

That break will come to an end in the Taranaki township of Ratohu in a matter of weeks, though, and Coastal chairwoman Janet Fleming said she was proud to have the 28-year-old back.

“We love the fact that Beauden loves coming home,” she told Newshub.

“The entire Barrett family have long been loyal supporters of Coastal and we always enjoy having them back.”

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Fleming said she expected a big crowd for the fixture, given both Barrett’s presence and the magnitude of the rivalry between Coastal and Southern.

“We’re playing Southern, which is a big derby match for us, so it always draws a large crowd,” she said.

“Having Beauden playing in it is likely to pack the ground out completely.”

Coastal will open their 2020 Taranaki Premier Club campaign against Clifton Rugby Club on March 28, a week before Barrett takes to the field for last year’s finalists.

In other news:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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