Goalkicking and NZ's Problem

Stats: Beauden Barrett is the worst kicker in international rugby
By Sam Hewat

2:29 PM Wednesday Oct 26, 2016

There's not a lot Beauden Barrett can't do.

He scored the most points, gained the most metres, beat the most defenders, set up the most tries, and was second for tries scored during the 2016 Rugby Championship.

Watching him slide through defenders, or take command of his backline troops is like poetry in motion.

But is he the "complete" machine?

There's no doubt Barrett is one of the best attacking players. Perhaps even the undisputed best. But even coach Hansen said the All Blacks had just taken a traditional second receiver role, and moved it one position closer.

Is Barrett really a natural-born first-five? Well there's one argument to suggest he's not - he's the worst goal kicker in international rugby right now.


Statistics gathered by goalkickers.co.za chart the kicks by all players around the world. They rank the kicks based on position, distance, altitude, score difference (to indicate pressure), home/away avantages and more.

It gives players a combined rating based on how many kicks they get, and how difficult they are.

The fact Barrett has the lowest rating of 36 kickers in world rugby in 2016 should tell you something. The average rating (out of 10) for kickers who have had more than 20 kick attempts in 2016 is 5.83.

Barret's rating is 3.910.

And if you want it a little more clearly, he's kicking at just 69.1 per cent.

The top four kickers, all from the Northern Hemisphere, average 84 per cent.

And these stats all come before Barrett's 0 for 4 performance on Saturday night, which would put his kicking percentage at 62.7 per cent.

Goalkickers.co.za also assign "Value Added" to each kickers rating.

This is their descritpion - "Value Added indicates the value added on the scoreboard by the goal kicker relative to other professional goal kickers.

"It is the number of points the kicker scored more than expected given the difficulty of his kicks. The higher the kicker's Value Added the better the performance."

Of the eight kickers who have had 20 attempts or more, six have a positive number. In fact, top kickers Greg Laidlaw from Scotland and Owen Farrell from England add 14 and 12 points to their team respectively.

Bernard Foley is the only other negative to pair with Beauden Barrett. His rating is -2.

And Beauden? Drum roll please...

He's -11.

"A kicker with a negative Value Added actually lost his team points due to poor kicking relative to other professional goal kickers and given the difficulty of his kicks."

Therefore, Barrett is losing, on average, 11 points more than any other kicker in world rugby. All kickers miss some goals, but scaled and combined together, he's losing 11 points that almost every other kicker wouldn't lose.

Well, maybe Barrett's kicks are just harder?

Not the case. His kick difficulty rating is the second lowest of the eight prominent kickers.

This isn't to say Barrett should be dropped, nor does it suggest he isn't one of the best in the world at what he does. But maybe it suggests that he shouldn't be the All Blacks go-to kicker, especially when they travel to the Northern Hemisphere where kicking is such a pivotel aspect.

Other Facts
Barrett hasn't kicked a single kick beyond 30m this year.

He averages just 55.5 per cent from the sidelines.

He has attempted the second most amount of kicks this season with 55. Owen Farrell has just three more with 58.