Umaga tips Jordie Barrett to become one of New Zealand's greatest midfielders

All Blacks defence coach Tana Umaga has declared Jordie Barrett is tracking toward greatness, pointing to the inside centre’s 16-tackle, 13-carry performance in New Zealand’s 50-19 Bledisloe Cup victory over Australia at Eden Park as further evidence of a player still with room to grow.

Barrett’s display earned widespread praise and continued a stellar year that included a central role in the Hurricanes’ drought-breaking Super Rugby Pacific title in June. Umaga, who made 122 appearances for the Hurricanes across some of the franchise’s most celebrated eras without ever lifting the Super Rugby trophy himself, is now tasked with helping Barrett reach new heights as part of the All Blacks coaching staff.

Speaking at a media session following Tuesday’s team training, Umaga said the mentoring dynamic runs in an unexpected direction. “No, it’s really the other way around,” he said. “I keep saying ‘jeez, I wish I had the skills you have when I was playing; I wish I was as fit as you.’”

“I think he’ll go down as one of the best we’ve had. I think there’s still room for him to grow. One of those attributes that all of our good midfielders have is that he’s a competitor; he wants to compete in every moment, every match. His consistency in his performance and his expectation of others, but more so of himself, I think, is right up there with some of the best we’ve ever had.”

The Eden Park win extended New Zealand’s unbroken Bledisloe Cup hold to 24 consecutive years, leaving only pride at stake when the two sides meet again in Sydney this weekend. Umaga cautioned, however, that his squad cannot afford complacency against a Wallabies side that will be energised on home soil under coach Les Kiss.

“There’s always things that we can work on from the weekend, and I’m sure the quality of Les Kiss and his staff and players, they’ll be looking for a response, and we know they’ll be up for it this weekend; they’re at home as well,” Umaga said.

“We know we’ve got to be better; we can’t just rest on our laurels and be patting ourselves on the back for what we achieved last week. We’ve done that, and now we’ve got to turn around and ask, how can we back that up?”

Barrett, who has now accumulated 86 Test caps, has established himself as one of the first names on the All Blacks team sheet in 2025, with his physicality and work rate in both attack and defence drawing comparisons to the finest centres the country has produced.