Super Rugby career

Barnes played for the Queensland Reds from 2006 to 2009. He made 45 appearances and scored 105 points, including 6 tries, for the Reds in Super Rugby.^[11][12] In 2009 he was captain of the Reds side for the first half of the season while James Horwill recovered from injury.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010 Barnes joined the NSW Waratahs, and later signed on until the end of 2013.^[13][14] He made 43 appearances, and scored 194 points including 4 tries for the Waratahs in Super Rugby.^[11] In 2011, he suffered from "Footballer's Migraine" and took three months off from the game, from June 2011.^[15][16]

Barnes retired from rugby in April 2020.^[17]

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 three 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,^[18] 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.^[19]

The following week, for Australia's next World Cup match against Wales at the Millennium Stadium, Barnes was originally selected as a replacement. Stephen Larkham injured his knee, however, and Barnes was told on the morning of the game that he would be the starting fly-half.^[20] 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 field 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 in Marseille, where Australia exited the tournament.^[1]

By 2008, Barnes had become a key member for the Wallabies. He scored the first try of the Robbie Deans era as coach of the Wallabies, against Ireland in Melbourne.^[1] A shoulder injury in the historical victory over the Springboks in the Tri-Nations disrupted his season,^[1] but he was selected for the 2008 Spring Tour. Unfortunately, in the first 8 minutes in the game against Italy he tore a posterior cruciate ligament in his knee and was sent home.^[21] The following year, Barnes was named vice-captain of the Wallabies for the 2009 Spring Tour but was sent home after he rolled his ankle at a training session in Tokyo, Japan and sustained a syndesmosis injury.^[22]

In 2010, Barnes missed selection for the first Test of the season against Fiji but played in the next match against England. He then went on to play the entire Tri Nations series, either starting or on the bench.^[1] Barnes was named co-captain of the Australian Barbarians side against England that played in Perth and Gosford.^[1] He captained the mid-week Wallabies team on the 2010 Spring Tour for the matches against Leicester Tigers and 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.^[23] In the final Test of the 2010 Spring Tour, Barnes, playing at inside centre, linked with fly-half Quade Cooper to help orchestrate a spectacular 59-16 demolition of France, in Paris.^[1]

Barnes made five appearances at the 2011 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.^[1] He stepped into the fly-half role after Quade Cooper was injured 21 minutes into Australia's Bronze medal playoff against Wales, and steered Australia astutely to a 21–18 win.^[1]