NZ Barbarians U18 v Australia: a second St Paul's stream finds its crowd
The under-18 replay is now keeping company with Scott Barrett's big hit and a full 2018 Bledisloe Test, and its comments turn to Australia's rugby league pull.
All BlacksStory of Why this story? The video is running at 26,919 views a day, 20 times its usual pace (1,349).
LIVE STREAM: NZ Barbarians U18 v Australia Under 18 (2026)
The New Zealand Barbarians under-18 side met Australia Under 18 at St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton on Wednesday afternoon. It was the same ground that staged NZ Schools against Australia Schools, as we reported here. The replay had sat on the All Blacks channel as a waiting link since September 21. Now it is drawing about twenty times its usual daily views and has passed 40,000 in total.
That puts a teenage fixture, with no famous names in its title, among videos made to draw a big audience. The channel spent the same days on a Trans-Tasman theme. There was a full replay of the 2018 Bledisloe Cup opener in Sydney, the night Kieran Read returned as captain, and a countdown of the deadliest All Black try scorers against Australia. The busiest of the lot was Scott Barrett's monster hit on the Wallabies. The Hamilton stream is not far behind it.
The small comment section reads like a post-match debrief. Most of it goes over the Barbarians' afternoon, with talk of hard-running Australian forwards early in the game. One viewer raises a familiar question in Australian rugby: whether the country's best under-18s are lost to the NRL as soon as they leave school. Another simply wonders whether this was a glimpse of the future.
The channel as a whole is running above its usual daily pace, and the two school-age matches from one Waikato ground are part of that.
Published on Trari
What viewers say
Is this a sign of the future - l wonder!!
@HughClare-TalbotSee it on YouTubeIsn't the problem for the Aussies that the better u18's sign with the NRL, as soon as they leave school.
@neill392See it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
Is this your channel?
Share the story with your audience: in a community post, in your channel's description or on your socials. The text and the badge are ready.
You may use the picture, the badge, and link it to this story.
- Channel
- All Blacks
- Subscribers
- 1,410,000
- Channel views, pace per day
- 433,629 (on a normal day: 342,943)
- Video published
- September 21, 2026
- Video views so far
- 40,411 (10 days online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 26,919 (on a normal day: 3,906)
The numbers
The figures show an under-18 replay suddenly running far ahead of its own normal pace, on a channel already busier than usual.
💡 Test your knowledge
Which Super Rugby team calls Hamilton home?
The Chiefs are the Waikato-based Super Rugby franchise and play their home games in Hamilton.
