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'Play the game' - Beauden Barrett takes umbrage with one of the worst practices in English rugby

(Photo by Michael Bradley/AFP via Getty Images)

All Blacks star Beauden Barrett has taken aim at Premiership time-wasting, asking why so many players and staff are constantly infringing on the game.

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Barrett, who is currently enjoying a sojourn in Japan with Suntory Sungoliath, was watching the Bath versus Exeter game at the Rec, and was clearly getting annoyed at the amount and length of the breaks in play during the game.

“Watching the Bath vs Exeter game. Why is there 8 yellow bibs on the field every stoppage?! Play the game!” tweeted Barrett.

Barrett is clearly used to the faster pace of Super Rugby in New Zealand but his comments found plenty of support on Twitter, including former rival for the All Blacks’ 10 spot, Lima Sopoaga, who tweeted: ‘Preach Baz’.

Former England Kevin Pieterson suggested Barrett switched over to the golf.

While the length of stoppages might have been annoying for the former Blues and Hurricanes standoff, he was at least treated to some pretty decent rugby, including Sam Simmonds’ thirteenth try of the Premiership season.

And this brilliant cross-field kick and collect from Rhys Priestland and Ruaridh McConnochie respectively.

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Right out of Barrett’s own playbook that one.

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Flankly 2 hours 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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