Super Rugby U19 series: Waratahs teen Jack Barrett’s passion for rugby, being a future Wallaby

He’s the country music loving son of an miner from the outback earmarked as a future Wallaby. Now this teens love of the “dark arts” is helping him turn heads in the Super Rugby U19 series.

Prop Jack Barrett is a man on a mission.

Teenager Jack Barrett loves country music, cooking and sitting down to work out new ways to be sneaky in rugby.

Ways to surprise his opposition, ways to befuddle and bemuse them and ways to let his body and mind help the NSW Waratahs to success.

The young prop’s passion for the game has already seen him identified as one of the sports rising stars and a future Wallaby.

But first he has to think of new “crafty” ways to help the Waratahs win the 2023 Super Rugby under 19s series which heads into the fifth round of competition this weekend.

“I just love being a prop, the scrimmage, love getting over a team, love giving us forward momentum,’’ he said.

Waratahs player Jack Barrett celebrating after scoring in last year’s series.

“I just love the whole process, there’s so much you can do.

“It’s a lot of dark arts, they say. A lot of different things you can try to do, different movements to get over and try and get under.

“Little sneaky things. I like to think about that before games, at training, at home, new ways of being sneaky and crafty, new things I can do to help.

“But I also just like to put my head down and get my body to do the talking.’’

Barrett, now based in Coogee after graduating from Joeys, Hunters Hills, grew up in the small outback town of Lightning Ridge, the son of an opal miner and schoolteacher.

There he played rugby league first but said his passion for rugby ignited at an early age.

“We lived just out of town and are only 3000 people, so they really only had league teams out there,’’ Barrett said.

“So I started playing rugby league at five and it was good fun but as soon as I played my first game of union I just loved it. There was so many things to do … the scrums, the line outs, I just loved it.

Jack Barrett is a star in the making.

“I always had dreams of playing rugby and when I got into the Waratahs 16s I thought I might have a chance. I just worked work harder and harder and made it to the under 18s, the under 19s and then the Junior Wallabies.

“It’s all about rugby for me at the moment.

“I love the freedom on the field to go hard for 80 minutes, to put your heart out there and then get to celebrate the wins and other things with your teammates. There’s nothing better.“

Barrett, who shares a flat with Randwick Rugby’s Irish Shute Shield player Cronan Gleeson, said his dream is to make the Wallabies in the future.

“My dad is an opal miner and I used to help when I was young but I didn’t really like it,’’ he said. “I did like being underground though. It’s just you and dirt.

“But I always had dreams of playing rugby, to go out for the Tahs in Super Rugby and then the Wallabies one day. To run out on the field in the green and gold jersey, I visualise that.

“It’s all I want to do.’’

Barrett and his U19 teammates take on Western Force in a must-win match at Forshaw Park on Sunday.

The U19’s lost to the Brumbies in round one but the the U16s Tahs team are undefeated.