Beauden Barrett’s brief time playing in football may have helped him with his brilliant “dribbling” try in the second half of the crushing Bledisloe Cup win in Sydney.
The mercurial first-five-eighth channelled the finest exponents of the beautiful game in the 52 nd minute when he toed the ball forward three times before diving on it to open up a 17-6 lead.
Barrett said the presence of Will Genia close behind him meant he felt it was the better option to kick the ball ahead.
“I don’t know who it was but I felt someone on me so I knew if I tried to pick it up I’d probably get tackled so instead I just backed myself and toed it ahead a couple of times so I prefer that option,” he said.
It may have been his brief stint playing football in Ireland as a youngster that developed the skills needed to score the try.
“(I played football) When I lived in Ireland back in the day, I was only 9 or 10, I actually wanted to play for Real Madrid back then until I came back home to New Zealand and realised that I was a footy boy.”
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