All Blacks utility back Beauden Barrett is relishing the prospect of playing against Wales at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday and expects a tough challenge.
Despite suffering a 2-1 series defeat to the Springboks in July, Wales will be brimming with confidence as they were competitive in all three of those Tests and notched their first victory on South African soil against the Boks.
Keen to continue improvement
Barrett revealed that the All Blacks are aware of that but said they are focussed on continuing their improvement from the latter stages of the Rugby Championship.
“We’re at a stage where we’re looking at ourselves, where we’re looking to get better from the Japanese game, and towards the end of the week, we’ll start looking a little bit more at what they’re going to bring,” he said.
“No doubt they’ll be staunch. They’re a fit side, they like to play a lot of rugby. We’ll be up for the challenge, but at the moment we’re just focusing on ourselves.”
With Wales‘ first choice fly-half Dan Biggar ruled out through injury, Barrett expects New Zealand-born fly-half Gareth Anscombe to wear the number 10 jersey on Saturday.
Anscombe is no stranger to Barrett as they were team-mates in the New Zealand U20 side when they won the World Rugby Championship in that age group in 2011.
With Anscombe being injury free, Barrett expects him to be determined to put in a good performance against the All Blacks.
Sam Whitelock was this week appointed as the All Blacks’ new captain, after Sam Cane was forced to withdraw due to injury, Barrett and Ardie Savea having been named as vice-captains.
The fly-half said he is looking forward to playing under Whitelock’s captaincy as he leads by his actions and prepares well for Tests.
“He’s been around a long time and has plenty of experience and stories,” said Barrett. “We’re gutted to lose Sam Cane for the tour. He’s a different leader – whilst he still leads by example, he is a great communicator.
“We’re well supported in the leadership group, and we’re fully supporting Sam Whitelock and it’s great that Ardie [Savea] and I can be v-cs [vice-captains].”
Looking back to the opening tour match against Japan in Tokyo on Saturday, Barrett said although the All Blacks claimed a narrow victory, the Brave Blossoms deserve respect as they have improved considerably.
Need to step up again
“It just goes to show every Test match anyone can win on the day,” he added. “We’ve got a lot of room for improvement there so we highlighted areas in our review where we need to be better because it’s going to be another step up back here at Principality Stadium against a hungry Welsh side.”
A Welsh victory on Saturday would be a momentous one as they last beat the All Blacks in 1953.
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