Rugby: Steve Hansen calls for perspective about Beauden Barrett's kicking

Beauden Barrett of New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.

The nation may be having kittens about Beauden Barrett's erratic goal kicking, but the All Blacks coaching staff are not planning any radical remedy in the wake of the world's best player's zero per cent success rate in New Plymouth.

Barrett will almost certainly start at No 10 this week against South Africa and he will be the designated goal kicker.

Faith may be in short supply everywhere else, but the All Blacks coaching staff aren't losing faith in Barrett as goal kicker and aren't about to give up on him.

The topic is one that has been difficult to put to bed because Barrett's success ratio has fluctuated so dramatically this season.

He kicked supremely well in the first test against the British & Irish Lions, posting a 100 per cent return. In the next two tests, however, he missed a total of six kicks and was widely criticised as if he had been more accurate, the All Blacks most likely would have won the series.

He was back to 100 per cent in the first Bledisloe and only missed one from seven in the second - a return which effectively won the game.

But in New Plymouth against Argentina he missed three conversions in a row, before standing aside to let Lima Sopoaga take over the kicking duties.

The inconsistency of his work is the issue rather than his ability, which is why All Blacks coach Steve Hansen responded to questions about Barrett after the game with a terse response about the need for balance in the reporting of the No 10's performances.

Hansen made the point that Barrett's kicking won the Bledisloe Cup for the All Blacks but there was little acknowledgement of that fact.

"Just get one thing straight it is not about not liking the question, it is just about you guys being fair," Hansen said on Sunday morning when the issue came back up.

"That was my point - I think you can criticise the kid when he misses and give him a pat on the back when he doesn't. We won a test in Dunedin on goal-kicking.

"When Barrett kicks well he kicks everything. When he doesn't, he misses two or three and that's the process. Do you know when he is going to kick the lot? I don't.

"I have no idea but the problem is that we have got to work our way through. He is getting a better picture on how and why and when it is happening.

"We have just got to trust that he is going to come right and we have got other kickers that can help if we need them to."

Hansen's last point about other kickers being able to help shouldn't be read as a signal that the All Blacks are about to reshuffle the team to allow the more consistent Sopoaga to start at first-five.

The composure and polish Sopoaga brought from the bench when he was injected early in the second half and the accuracy of his goal kicking has led to the idea being floated he start this week at No 10 with Barrett reverting to fullback.

Barrett has started tests at fullback before and frequently ends them there even if he is wearing No 10. But Hansen says there is no appetite to look at that being an option from the start.

The All Blacks want their best play-maker in his preferred role of first-five and will trust him to keep working on his goal kicking technique to ensure it can become more consistent that it has been.

"Do we want to put both of them in at the same time?," Hansen said of Barrett and Sopoaga. "Not to start we won't no. But having them both on the park at the end of the game is a real possibility because it has happened most of the time."