Beauden Barrett – the two-time World Rugby player of the year – has called on Super Rugby officials to get serious and work out a way to embrace Japan’s cashed-up teams into the competition or risk losing relevance.
The World Cup winner also called on New Zealand Rugby to slightly loosen its hard-line eligibility policy by making Super Rugby an open-border competition, where players could play in Australia, or one day Japan, and still be picked for the All Blacks.
Although Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was the new headline act being wheeled out at the Super Rugby Pacific launch on Wednesday morning, Barrett embraced his role of being the most recognisable and successful player at the event.
Asked by The Roar how he was feeling gearing up for another season and where his motivational levels were given he was entering his 15th season as a professional, Barrett said he was pleased Super Rugby was getting back on its feet but urged the competition to continue to play to its strengths by leaning into its global nature.
“It got tiresome when we were playing head to heads with just the New Zealand teams,” Barrett said. “It was not a great competition, to be fair.
“It is exciting playing Australian teams, travelling to Fiji to take on the Drua and having Moana involved.
“I’d love to see the Japanese become part of the competition.”
Eleven of Super Rugby Pacific’s best players, including Beauden Barrett (c) at the 2025 season launch at Little Bay Beach on February 05, 2025. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
While Super Rugby expanded out of control when a sole Japanese and Argentinian side were introduced in 2016, the competition was reduced from 18 to 15 sides within two years after losing relevance and connection with its roots.
The struggles occurred in part because of the poor on-field performance of the Japanese Sunwolves and Australia’s teams, who failed to beat a single New Zealand opponent in 2017, but the unique time zones didn’t help the competition’s battle for eyeballs either.
The onset of Covid-19 saw the competition come to an abrupt halt and, later, be blown up completely as a new-look 12-team competition, including a Fijian and Moana Pasifika side based out of Auckland, were introduced.
However, with Japan’s League One competition getting stronger with every passing year, and clubs backed by wealthy corporations, many have long hoped that Super Rugby would join forces with their Northern Hemisphere allies, especially given many of the world’s best players, especially from South Africa, play there.
Barrett, who returned seamlessly for the All Blacks after playing last year for Steve Hansen’s Toyota Verblitz, said the time had come for Super Rugby to embrace Japan rather than tiptoe around the new global force, which has become a destination players head to early in their careers rather than for last-minute pay cheques like two decades ago.
“I feel like we need to grow the comp,” Barrett told The Roar.
“It’s (playing a season in Japan) those sorts of things that keep players who have been around a little bit more interested and excited to get back up for another season (in Super Rugby). Otherwise, the decision becomes, ‘OK, it’s getting a little bit stale, let’s go offshore.’
“I’ve had the luxury where I can go and do that and then come back and be eligible for the All Blacks, so there’s been a lot of factors, but certainly going up and playing in Japan has mentally freshened me up for each time, but it has been necessary too because I’ve really needed that.”
Beauden Barrett has urged Super Rugby Pacific officials to embrace Japan. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
While Barrett has previously applauded New Zealand Rugby’s hard-line eligibility policy, the free-running playmaker urged the governing body to make All Blacks selection available to anyone playing in Super Rugby.
“I’d like to think that in Super Rugby in however many years’ time, whatever countries are involved in Super Rugby, at a national level they can be eligible to represent their country,” he said.
Barrett did, however, add that Rugby Australia’s previous Giteau Law, where players who had earned 60 caps for the Wallabies and given seven years of service to Australian rugby, was a fair starting point, should the law be expanded to include players from across Super Rugby.
“I think if there’s Kiwis that want to go and play there (in Australia or Japan), they could still be eligible under a Giteau rule,” Barrett said.
“The key is that those teams are in the competition, the same Super Rugby competition because it’s all about the Super Rugby competition.
“There’s no doubt the people in charge at the Super Rugby board level are always looking at ways to grow the comp and, inevitably one day soon, the eligibility thing will have to be looked at and introducing the Japanese teams is one way to grow the comp, I believe.
“I think with the time zone we have, travelling up that way rather than across suits.
“It all depends on the structures and the way the companies are set up, but from a player point of view, we’ve lost South Africa, we need to grab another country and fill those teams, those spots, so it creates a better competition.
“It’s the travelling, the experiences you have off the field but also the stadiums, the different environments you play in, that’s what makes you a better player.”
Although several Super Rugby franchises are privately lobbying for Japan to be embraced, new Super Rugby boss Jack Mesley has strongly indicated the competition won’t change in the next few years but added that he was open to further expansion in the future.
“I think we’ve got to work out what’s the right influence, right?” Mesley said last year during a round-table discussion. “It might not be now, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be in the future. There’s a lot of shifting dynamics.
Super Rugby Pacific CEO Jack Measley speaks during the 2025 Super Rugby Season Launch. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
“Whatever we define for the competition, we’ll do the right thing for the competition for the next three years.
“Clearly we will be keeping a very open mind and an eagle eye as to what else is changing in the global dynamic that offers Super Rugby opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Barrett said Australia’s four remaining Super Rugby franchises represented a much bigger threat after the consolidation of playing talent and after 12 months with Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt.
“Obviously with the Rebels not being part of the competition, each team strengthened by players spreading out,” Barrett said.
“The change we saw with the Wallabies and under Joe Schmidt, I think you’ll certainly see a step up at Super level with where they’re going.
“It’s obviously very early to say. Yes, these are teams on paper, but I think each side will be improved respectively.”
Asked about the star-studded Waratahs, who have been bolstered by the additions of Suaalii and several Wallabies, including Taniela Tupou, Isaac Kailea and Andrew Kellaway, Barrett said he still couldn’t believe how they finished last in the competition in 2024.
“It’s hard to get my head around the fact that they came last,” Barrett said. “Hard to believe, but certainly the players are there. It’ll be all about how quickly they come together as a team and gel, but I certainly wouldn’t write them off.
“Like I say, the influence Joe Schmidt’s had, a lot of that will come through with [Dan] McKellar and the way that the Waratahs want to play, but in terms of personnel, it’s a star-studded side.”
Beauden Barrett and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii pose during at Little Bay Beach on February 05, 2025 in Sydney. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Barrett, who won the Super Rugby title in 2016 with the Hurricanes, said the key would be getting on the same page early in the season and having a clear focus from the core leaders.
“The leadership team have to be united and support the captain and be clear on standards and everything like that, and where they want to go as a team, but how they play the game is another thing as well,” he said.
“It’s about buying into that, everyone contributing, buying into the way that they want to play.
“With people coming from everywhere, it could be a lot of ideas, but the quicker they figure out the way that they want to play, the better they’ll probably be.”
Asked how important it was for Australian rugby to retain Schmidt, Barrett, who played under the New Zealand with the All Blacks and Blues, said the coach was invaluable.
“Oh gosh, I know how much of a value add he is to Rugby Australia and the Wallabies, so, as an All Black, I hope that he doesn’t sign on,” Barrett quipped.
“But I know how good it will be for the Wallabies if he does. He’s a great man and great coach.”
