Stephen Donald has praised Jordie Barrett’s performances for the All Blacks and feels he is among the favourites to win World Rugby’s Player of the Year award.
Barrett has been at the forefront of New Zealand’s onslaught in the international arena in 2026 and started at inside centre in all eight of his country’s Tests played this year.
On Saturday, he delivered another outstanding all-round performance as the All Blacks clinched an emphatic 50-19 win over the Wallabies at Eden Park in Auckland to retain the Bledisloe Cup for the 24th successive year.
While appearing on The Aftermatch podcast, Donald was informed by the show’s host, Kirstie Stanway-Thorne, that several newspapers referred to Barrett as the best player in the world after his Bledisloe Cup display.
She then asked Donald if those publications had been listening to their podcast for the last year, as they have regularly praised Barrett’s performances during that period, and he agreed.
‘Incredible performance again’
“Well, I think that they might be starting to, I guess, say that their sources are the Aftermatch podcast,” he said. “Look, incredible performance again.
“And it’s special to watch, not just the fancy stuff that he does, but it’s how hard he works. We were lucky enough where we did our show from (at Eden Park). We just left our seats there and turned around and watched the game from there.
“He did three tackles in a row in front of us and just went, bang, got up, bang, hit another one and these were all close-quarters tackles. These were all the big forward carries.
“He just stayed there and just whacked them over. He gets up, and he looks exhausted, but he just goes and does it again. He is just cutting people down.
“And that’s obviously one part of his job, but geez, when you think about everything else he adds, Kirstie, his in some form. We say some form, some patch of form, but it’s just continuous.
“I think it’s just him now. It’s just the standard that he plays to now.”
Stanway-Thorne then said Barrett should definitely be in the running for a 2026 World Rugby Player of the Year nomination and should be amongst the favourites to win the award.
Barrett could make history if he wins the award
Donald agreed and said if that happens it would be a momentous occasion as Barrett would emulate his brother, Beauden, who won that award in 2016 and 2017.
“Absolutely. And I was thinking about that before the podcast,” said the former All Blacks fly-half. “I can’t imagine there’s ever been a set of brothers to win World Rugby Player of the Year.
“So that’ll be another first.”
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He said, however, that the younger Barrett can expect stiff competition from Springboks hooker Malcolm Marx, who was crowned World Rugby Player of the Year in 2025.
“If you’re looking at that, I think obviously someone like a Marx will certainly be one of those four,” he said. “And then maybe another South African; take your pick of probably three or four of them.
“I’d say it’s judged from the Northern Hemisphere. So, I would imagine someone will come out of the Six Nations this year because we got to spread the field.”
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