The making of Wasps' Alfie Barbeary, English rugby's new wonderkid
Wasps have done their utmost to douse the hype surrounding Alfie Barbeary for at least two years now. It is becoming an increasingly difficult task.
In plundering a hat-trick against hapless Leicester Tigers on Wednesday evening at the Ricoh Arena, the 19-year-old became the second man in history to score three tries on their first Premiership start.
The first, back in 2007, was code-hopping wing Lesley Vainikolo. Barbeary will probably end up as a hooker, not that numbers on the back of his shirt are doing a good job of defining him.
Lee Blackett has decided to introduce the prodigious teenager to Wasps’ first-team as a back-rower, which Barbeary seems to be enjoying.
Seven minutes after coming off the bench in a 32-17 win over Worcester three weeks ago, he bounced through five defenders to score. His eye-popping display in the 54-7 thrashing of Tigers included some delicate distribution. Switching positions has never been a problem.
After playing at local club Banbury, where Mark Horrocks and cousin Tommy Gray were influential mentors, Barbeary joined Bloxham School.
“He was scoring tries for fun but, at under-14 level, he was a bit bigger than other people,” explains Andy Goldsmith, the head of rugby at Bloxham School.
“While he stood out then, there wasn’t necessarily a package that you could see developing into a future star. That changed when he reached under-16.
“He played up with the under-18s, getting special permission to play in the front row… and he broke all our try-scoring records, as a fifth-former from the position of hooker.”
The record, of 23 tries, had stood for 32 years before Barbeary overtook that mark in his 13th and final game. But he did not stay still.
“After that, we realised he wouldn’t develop much there as a hooker,” Goldsmith adds. “He would destroy other front rows, but wouldn’t develop as an all-round player.
“I moved him to number eight and made him captain in lower sixth and then, in his final year, I moved him to outside centre.
“I wanted to put him outside his comfort zone, getting him to throw 20-metre passes off both hands and try chips and grubbers to develop his all-round game.”
The subtle, snaking footwork and dummies that accompanied his finishes against Leicester make a lot more sense with that context. Delve into an ocean of YouTube highlights – a byproduct of growing up under the watch of social media – and you will find delicate kicking as well as offloads galore.
Goldsmith would speak to England Under-18 coach Jonathan Pendlebury, then Wasps’ academy manager, about the best way to polish a talent as rare as Barbeary.
“He was so powerful in the front row that other schools were quite intimidated and we didn’t want to put kids in harm’s way… moving him out of there was protecting others as well.
“I don’t think I could say that we were so altruistic that we didn’t mind about winning and losing games, but it was definitely about his development.”
“For most kids, school and university rugby was going to be their limit. Some would play club rugby. With Alfie, there was always a feeling he was going on to bigger things.”
In the England age-group set-up, inimitable Peter Walton was another important voice. Barbeary would have experienced the adapted rules of the Under-16 Wellington Festival, with time limits on set pieces and restrictions on mauling to encourage more passing and higher ball-in-play figures.
Other skilful forwards are coming through as an endorsement of intuitive, open-minded coaching. At hooker alone, 22-year-old Gabriel Oghre is also impressing for Wasps and 20-year-old Will Capon of Bristol Bears has a bright future.
Nick Kennedy, now Saracens’ head of recruitment, coached the England Under-18 side on a three-week tour to South Africa in 2018 and remembers Barbeary being “an absolute stand-out” with “excellent” lineout throwing to complement his power and intelligent angles of running. As Kennedy points out, everyone agreed he was a “superstar in the making”.
Having scored on debuts for England U18, and for Wasps in the Premiership Rugby Cup, he also dotted down in his first outing for England U20. Then came a snag. In his last year at Bloxham, Barbeary travelled to Argentina for the 2019 World Under-20 Championship.
Opinion at the RFU had been split. Some thought the tournament was too soon for him. Five minutes after coming on as replacement with England trailing Ireland 28-26, Barbeary was sent off for flipping John Hodnett at a ruck. His side went on to lose 42-26 and Barbeary was banned for five weeks.
“He held his hands up and admitted he got it wrong straightaway,” Goldsmith remembers. “He came straight back into the fold at Bloxham School and got his head down. His friends at Banbury and Bloxham were his friends before that incident and remained so afterwards.
“Although there was a lot of negativity on social media, and I think he was definitely affected, he grew to ignore that. He will learn from that mistake and I think you’ll see the benefits in years to come.”
Nick and Denise, Barbeary’s parents, head up a strong support network. Charmingly, they were among a number of Wasps fans to beam a photo of themselves on to the big screen at the Ricoh Arena on Wednesday. Even in a game taking place behind closed doors, they were in the stadium and keeping an eye on their son.
Blackett and senior players such as Jimmy Gopperth are doing a fine job of helping youngsters settle at Wasps. The head coach believes Barbeary is a “big project” with a long way to go until becoming the “finished article”. More front-row appearances, where throwing and scrummaging come under scrutiny, will be phased in over the next year.
Amid the understandable efforts to manage expectation, Blackett admitted this week that Barbeary would probably have emerged sooner without some hamstring trouble earlier this season. He made a big impression on loan at Nottingham and has already visited one of Eddie Jones’ England camps.
Barbeary’s dynamism is striking, but even more effective for his balance, evasion, passing ability and sharp instincts.
“We have had big players before, and Alfie had incredible power for someone his size,” Goldsmith finishes.
“His acceleration and footwork were amazing. But there was also his reading of the game that he was just a natural at. There is that clichéd phrase ‘hit spaces not faces’ and you saw that [against Leicester].
“He will hit gap after gap and will very rarely run into a man because he reads the game so well. He always seems to be in the right place at the right time at school. We’re now seeing he can take that up a level.”
Topic: Alfie in The Telegraph. (Read 906 times)
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