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Beauden Barrett on that try: 'I'll never do that again!'

Updated / Saturday, 19 Nov 2016 22:02

Beauden Barrett may officially be the best player on the planet, but the New Zealand fly-half admitted that he came close to committing the most elementary of errors during the All Blacks 21-9 win over Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.

With the visitors holding a narrow 7-3 advantage after 13 minutes, Barrett broke through the Ireland defence and crossed the line.

However, a heroic effort from Ireland’s Johnny Sexton to prevent Barrett grounding the ball almost came off.

Speaking after the match, Barrett, who scooped the man of the match award, told RTÉ Sport: “I’ll never do that again!

“That was almost embarrassing, so I apologise for that.

“I was just trying to get it under the sticks to make the kick a little bit easier, but first things first, I should put the ball down.”

Reflecting on the importance of securing a win after their shock loss in the US, the 25-year-old said: “It feels a bit better.

“We really had to work tonight. It was a true Test match, a couple of yellow cards and we had to dig really deep and the boys did that. We adapted and overcame a few challenges.”

Winning captain Kieran Read hailed the defensive performance of his team-mates, saying: “I’m not sure of the stats but we didn’t have too much ball to play with. The boys just dug in, so I’m really proud of the way we defended and kept the Irish to no tries out there.

“Back home, people expect victories, and over here as well.

“We just had to trust ourselves.”

Read eulogised over the Irish side, saying: “They’re a great opponent.

“They play a good brand of footy.

“They hold the ball. We had to defend a lot today and didn’t get too many opportunities to counter-attack because of the pressure they put on us.”  

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