Jordie Barrett puts his sporting skills down to growing up in the Pungarehu paradise he still calls home.
Last August social media provided a glimpse of the youngest Barrett’s prodigious abilities as the bare-footed 20-year-old casually place kicked a rugby ball into a basketball hoop from about 40 metres on the angle.
The kick was the result of a childhood spent perfecting similar feats on the Barrett family farm where Jordie was one of Kevin and Robyn Barrett’s eight siblings.
“We were mucking around for about 10-15 minutes and I was lucky one of them came off [but] we always used to do that [growing up] and we still do as you can see,” Barrett told C60 ahead of the 2018 Investec Super Rugby season. “Some would say I had too much time on my hands, but I was just happy to be back home rehabbing [an injury] and spending some time on the coast.”
The “coast” Barrett is referring to is at the western most point of the Taranaki region where plentiful space and fresh air provided a perfect training ground for a sports mad family.
“I grew up in Pungarehu, 40 minutes from New Plymouth out on the coast, eight siblings, we grew up on a dairy farm. I went to boarding school at Francis Douglas Memorial College so I’m from a rural background,” Barrett said.
“We were very lucky on the coast we had a lot of farmland and back yard to try all sports and give everything a crack. Having a few older brothers helped because there was always a heap to do, plenty of cricket, rugby and golf, so we were pretty lucky.”
Jordie can only remember one family holiday growing up and that was when his rugby playing father Kevin packed his family up and took them to Ireland for a year to manage a farm in Meath and play for the local Buccaneers Rugby Football Club.
“When dad went to Ireland to play rugby and stay on a farm over there, which was basically a family holiday for us. After that we never really went on a family holiday until a couple of years ago,” Jordie said. “We were lucky to be where we were, we thought Taranaki was a bit of a paradise so didn’t need to go far.”
Those years spent trialling every sport under the sun meant the Barrett boys developed a vast array of skills and Jordie excelled at cricket, which was played in a vast back yard known as the BCG (Barrett Cricket Ground).
“I was an opening bowler, so tried to bowl fast. A lot of it wasn’t straight, but I played right through school to first XI and played a bit of age grade stuff for CD [Central Districts] and then club rugby took over and things progressed from there.
“I was fortunate to play both sports for as long as possible and enjoyed both. I’m still an avid follower, love watching the Black Caps, Central Stags and even club cricket in the Naki.”
Although his father was good enough to play 167 games for Taranaki and a handful for the Hurricanes, Jordie credits his primary and secondary school coaches for guiding his progress on the rugby field.
“Dad always played early on, but he didn’t really say much to us boys, he just let us be. Ali Rothwell my primary coach through the grades at Rahotu [Junior Rugby Club] then Tim Stuck our first XV coach at Francis Dougals were both awesome.
“Tim coached a number us Super Rugby boys, Ricky Riccitelli, Tei Walden [Highlanders] and all my brothers. He’s been great to us and was awesome to learn off.”
Jordie followed older brothers Scott and Beauden into the All Blacks in 2017 and said he can’t wait to see what the 2018 season brings at the Hurricanes.
“There is already a buzz within the group, a lot of young boys like last year and a lot of experienced guys again too. Last year wasn’t how we wanted to finish, so there is a lot of excitement and hopefully we go one better.”