Berrick Barnes

Berrick Stevens Barnes

Personal information
Full name	Berrick Stevens Barnes
Date of birth	28 May 1986 (1986-05-28)
Place of birth	Brisbane, Australia
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	87 kg (13 st 10 lb)
School(s) attended	Ipswich Grammar School
University(s)	Griffith University University of Sydney
Club information
Position(s)	Fly-half / Inside centre
Current club	NSW Waratahs
Senior clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (points)
2005	Brisbane Broncos	09 (4)
Super Rugby **
Provincial sides
2006–2009 2010 - current	Wests Sydney University
Super Rugby
2006–2009 2010–current	Reds Waratahs	45 (105) 0 23 (115)
Representative teams**
2007-current	Australia	037 (83) 7 Tries
* Professional club appearances and points counted for domestic first grade only and correct as of 3 August 2011. ** Representative team caps and points correct as of 3 August 2011.

Berrick Barnes (born 28 May 1986 in Brisbane) is an Australian rugby union footballer with the NSW Waratahs in the Super Rugby competition. His usual position is fly-half or inside centre and he previously played for the Queensland Reds.

Barnes was included in Australia's squad for the 2007 Rugby World Cup and made his debut as a replacement in Australia's opening pool game, against Japan, coming on as a replacement for fly-half Stephen Larkham. He scored his first international try within three minutes of taking the field and followed it with a second in the closing minutes of the game. He started as fly-half in Australia's next two pool games, against Wales and Fiji, scoring a drop goal in each game, before being rested for the final pool game. He returned as the starting fly-half in the quarter-final against England, which Australia lost.

Early life

Barnes was raised in Kingaroy, Queensland. He attended Ipswich Grammar School and Kingaroy State. 

Barnes was a school state champion for his age division in Swimming with his preferred stroke Butterfly. He also excelled in Golf and Cricket.

Barnes began his professional sporting career straight out of school Barnes was scouted by the Brisbane Broncos, Queensland Reds, and Queensland Bulls before settling on the Broncos for the 2004 season. When contracted by the Broncos where he played QLD Cup for the Broncos' feeder club Toowoomba Clydesdales where he played at five-eighth

His junior club was the Kingaroy Red Ants

Barnes made his debut in the National Rugby League competition in 2005, aged 18, coming off the bench in the round 8 game against the Manly Sea Eagles he then went onto make 9 appearances for the Broncos, scoring 1 try

Barnes also played for the Queensland Under 19 Team. 

He also represented Australia as part of the 2004 Junior Kangaroos team, playing the Papua New Guinea Kumuls in Townsville.

After his first run-on start with the Broncos he opted to switch codes to rugby union with the Queensland Reds in the Super Rugby competition.

Rugby union

Super Rugby Career

Barnes played for the Queensland Reds from 2006 to 2009 and made 45 appearances, scoring 6 tries, 18 conversions, 7 penalties, and 6 drop goals.

In 2009 he was captain of the Reds side for the first half of the season whilst James Horwill recovered from injury.

He then joined the Waratahs for the 2010 season. where he has and has made 23 appearances, scoring 1 try, 22 conversions, 19 penalties, and 3 drop goals.

He has since re-signed til the end of 2013.

During the 2011 season Barnes suffered from a condition called "Footballer's Migraine" due to repeated concussions sustained during the Super Rugby season with the Waratahs.

On 14 June 2011, Barnes took indefinite leave from all forms of Rugby to combat his condition.

He returned to Rugby on 23 July 2011 for the Shute Shield side Sydney University

International career

Barnes made his international debut aged 21 in Australia's first pool match of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, against Japan. After only 3 minutes on the field, and with his first touch of the ball, Barnes scored his first Test try. He scored again, five minutes from the end of the game, which Australia won 91–3. After the match, in which he excelled, he said:

The crowd was unbelievable. It felt like a Boxing Day Test. Standing in that tunnel, I've never heard a roar like it. Standing next to the Japanese as we waited to walk out was pretty special. I was giving a few 'yahoos'. The boys gave me a bit about that. I was pumped. I wasn't going to hold it in.

Barnes was originally selected as a replacement for Australia's next game, against Wales at the Millennium Stadium, but when Stephen Larkham injured his knee, Barnes was told on the morning of the game that he would be the starting fly-half. He played the full match and made a significant contribution to Australia's 32–20 victory, setting up a try for Matt Giteau and then scoring a drop goal from 32 metres. He added another drop goal in Australia's next pool game, a 55–12 win over Fiji that assured Australia a place in the quarter-finals. Barnes was rested for the final pool game but returned to the starting line-up for the quarter-final match against England, which resulted in Australia's exit from the tournament. To date, Barnes has scored 2 tries and 2 drop goals in four test appearances.

By 2008, he had become a key member for the Wallabies until a shoulder injury intervened his season in the historical victory over the Springboks in the Tri-Nations.

He was selected on the 2008 Spring Tour side where in the first 8 minutes in the game vs Italy he tore a posterior cruciate ligament in his knee and was sent home.

In 2009 he was named Vice-Captain of the Wallabies side for the upcoming Spring Tour but was sent home after he rolled his ankle at a training session in Tokyo, Japan and sustained a syndesmosis injury

In 2010 he was dropped for the first game of the test season against Fiji however retained the next game against England. He then went onto play the entire Tri Nations series either starting or on the bench.

He was named Co-captain of the Australian Barbarians side against England that played in Perth & Gosford.

He was named captain of the Wallabies on the 2010 Spring Tour for the midweek games against Leicester Tigers & Munster, where his standout performance on that tour was against Italy in Florence where he scored 22 points in that game. Barnes handled the goal-kicking in Florence, in the absence of James O’Connor, kicking eight goals from nine attempts as he showed the benefits of his work with the Wallabies’ South African kicking consultant, ex Springbok Braam van Straaten.

Scorer of the first try of the Robbie Deans Era as coach of the Wallabies, against Ireland in Melbourne in 2008, Barnes has largely been employed as an inside centre at Test level since that time, operating outside Quade Cooper in recent seasons. Barnes had played alongside Cooper at Queensland, prior to his move to the NSW Waratahs last year, and the pair resumed their association during the final Test of the 2010 Spring Tour where they helped to orchestrate the spectacular 59-16 demolition of this year’s Rugby World Cup finalists, France, in Paris.

Now a veteran of two Rugby World Cups, Barnes heads on the Spring Tour as Australia’s main playmaker after injury ruled Quade Cooper out of the tour. Barnes stepped into the role superbly in the Bronze Final against Wales at the 2011 Rugby World Cup; steering Australia astutely during the 21-18 success after a serious knee injury had taken Cooper out of play 21 minutes into the contest. The appearance was one of five Barnes made at the Rugby World Cup, which included the final 28 minutes of the quarter-final against South Africa, and the last 45 minutes of the semi-final against New Zealand; in both instances coming on at inside centre in the place of Pat McCabe. While Barnes could not turn the tide against the All Blacks, his mere presence on the field represented a ‘victory’ after he endured an unsettled Super Rugby season plagued by a condition known as ‘footballer’s migraine. Barnes signed off from the World Cup by slotting his sixth dropped goal, which is the fourth most by an Australian in Tests, just two behind the third-placed Mark Ella. Three of the six have been kicked at Rugby World Cup, two of them against Wales. [4].

External links

• Wallabies profile
• 2007 RWC Profile
• NRL Points
• Super 14 stats
• Waratahs Profile