IT’S BEEN AN exciting week for Leinster fans, with the good news seemingly never ending on the back of Saturday’s statement 27-point Champions Cup quarter-final defeat of La Rochelle.
On Monday the province confirmed hooker Dan Sheehan was being promoted to his first IRFU central contract, a welcome development that was subsequently blown out of the water by the announcement that All Black Jordie Barrett will be wearing the blue of Leinster next season.
Another Kiwi arrival was confirmed on Tuesday, with Leinster securing the services of former Munster player Tyler Bleyendaal to replace Andrew Goodman as attack coach.
It’s an exciting time not just for the province’s supporters, but also the players, who are now tuning up their charge for a Champions Cup and URC double.
Leo Cullen took a squad to South Africa on Tuesday ahead of back-to-back URC games in the Rainbow Country, but already they have one eye on their Champions Cup semi-final date with Northampton Saints on 4 May.
Most of the province’s frontliners have been afforded the week off, while assistant coaches Jacques Nienaber and Andrew Goodman will make an early return to Dublin, leaving South Africa after Saturday’s game against the Lions to start focusing on the Saints.
Of the current squad, only Cian Healy has previous experience of playing in Croke Park, but many of the squad have taken in a game there.
Scrum-half Jamison-Gibson Park has made it to Croker twice as a supporter, including a memorable trip to see Dublin claim the five-in-a-row in 2019.
“It’s pretty cool to experience that, it was pretty incredible,” says Gibson-Park.
“Looking forward to it, it will be cool. It’s massive. Obviously a bit bigger than the Aviva, but the fans have been amazing really over the last couple of fixtures in the way they have showed up, sold out a game [v La Rochelle] in the matter of a week is pretty impressive, so I know it’s a bit bigger again but hopefully we will get that same following.”
Saturday’s defeat of La Rochelle was Leinster’s most impressive outing of the season, with Gibson-Park continuing his own fine run of form with another eye-catching display. The scrum-half is currently playing some of the best rugby of his career, his name now mentioned alongside Antoine Dupont’s as one of the best nines in the world.
It’s been a remarkable journey for a player who arrived from New Zealand to little fanfare in 2016. It will be a different story for his fellow Kiwi Barrett, who is due to link up with the province in December.
Barrett has established himself as one of the standout talents in world rugby since breaking through at the Hurricanes in 2016, the season after Gibson-Park left the Wellington-based club for Leinster.
“It’s pretty exciting, isn’t it? I would have known Jordie a little bit. I never played with him but I would have played against him and met him a good few times, and played with a couple of his brothers over the years. It’s exciting.
“I was gone [from the Hurricanes] when he came through, so would have only got to know his game from playing against him and watching him obviously. He’s a serious talent.
“I haven’t really seen any of the lads since it came out so there hasn’t been much real chat around it but it’s hugely exciting.
It’s not like he’s at the end of his career, he’s smack bang in the middle of it and flying it so, yeah, he should be a huge addition.
“He’s embedded in the way that they [New Zealand] do things so he may see things differently to us, so it will good to get that different perspective and hopefully grow us as a team.”
Leinster hope Barrett will lift those around him, in a similar way to how Jacques Nienaber has brought new ideas since joining the province from South Africa.
“I think he’s rubbed off on everyone a little bit with that fresh perspective and seeing things that little bit differently, certainly from the defensive side of the game.
“He has certainly helped me massively in only a matter of months so far, so I’m looking forward to the next little while as well. He’s an awesome coach.”
Jamison Gibson-Park was speaking as Bank of Ireland announced new five-year extensions of its sponsorships of the four Irish Rugby provinces, reaffirming its long-standing commitment to the game across all levels in Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster.
