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. In 2010, he 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. Barnes was named co-captain of the Australian Barbarians side against England that played in Perth and Gosford. 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. 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. 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. 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.