A BACK INJURY for Ciarán Frawley meant Jordie Barrett got on for his Leinster debut earlier than might have been the case in Bristol.
The New Zealand star replaced the Leinster fullback at half time although he was sent on at inside centre, with Garry Ringrose shifting out to the wing and Robbie Henshaw moving to outside centre as Jimmy O’Brien shifted to fullback.
Within minutes, Barrett was making his presence felt.
The sheer size of him is hard to miss in the flesh but the 6ft 5ins centre is about more than physical prowess. The timing of his passing is among his strengths and he delivered a slick one out the back for Sam Prendergast’s first try. Minutes later, Barrett dummied a similar ball to Prendergast and instead darted over for his own score.
There were other moments of class from the 27-year-old Kiwi who underlined how big an influence he could have in his seven-month stint with Leinster.
Barrett was part of a game-changing impact from the Leinster bench in their 35-12 Champions Cup win over Bristol this evening, with two-time World Cup winner RG Snyman, World Rugby player of the year nominee Caelan Doris, and Ireland cornerstone Andrew Porter also showing their class.
One of Barrett’s brothers, Blake, was in Bristol to see his debut.
“It was great, you know, 40 minutes for him,” said Leinster boss Leo Cullen post-match in Bristol.
“Ciarán went off with a knock to his back at half time, so it was amazing experience to be able to bring off the bench.
“It’s taken a lot of work to get him here, he’s down with one of his brothers downstairs. Not the brothers you’re thinking of, the cricketer, so it’s great having some of his family here.
“He’ll play a big part over the course of the season. Quality person, quality player.
“We weren’t sure how we’d get him up and running, we thought it was sensible to have him on the bench as he figures out a number of things this week and the tail end of last week.
“Hopefully he kicks on, goes from strength to strength. When you bring someone in from the outside you just want to make sure they add, so he has an interesting connection to Leinster going back to when he was a youngster.
“He had a fascination to here, so we’re lucky to have him and hopefully he’ll be able to have a good run with us.”
Cullen was delighted to see Jack Boyle making his Champions Cup debut for Leinster at loosehead prop, with hooker Gus McCarthy doing the same off the bench, while Snyman and Rabah Slimani made their first appearances in this competition for the province.
There was also a first Champions Cup start for 21-year-old out-half Sam Prendergast, who scored two tries in a 20-point haul.
“Listen, great, he scores two tries and takes them unbelievably well,” said Cullen.
“Particularly during that period, obviously Bristol were firing plenty of shots, we fired some shots and then it got very messy with the penalties, then we lose two players and we manage that part of the game.
“Sam definitely came alive during that period when it was 14-on-14, he scores two of the three tries we did score, so a great outing for him today.”
Overall, Cullen was pleased with Leinster’s second-half dominance but he was frustrated with the first half.
He pointed to the scrum as a particular source of annoyance.
“The game didn’t have a huge amount of flow in the first half,” said Cullen. “The scrum is probably the big point from the first half and we had two yellow cards as well.
“A lot of that pressure when we give away the yellow cards is coming off some of the territory and field position that Bristol are getting from us giving away scrum penalties and it’s unbelievably frustrating.
“We talked about it with the referee leading into the game. I talked to someone else in England and Bristol… if you watch their games, there are a lot of scrums that end up on the ground and unfortunately we got on the wrong end on a lot of calls.
“I’ll go through the game and I’ll need to look at them again because that led to a lot of pressure on us.
“The second half was a totally different game. The referee gets annoyed with both teams and we both lose props so it’s 14-on-14 during that period, and we scored three tries, so was it 21-0 maybe during that period, and we played some really good stuff in that period of the game which was really pleasing.
“But yeah we do need to figure out how we need to be better in the first half. It’s early days yet but I’ll have to look back on the game myself.”
Amazing to have Jordie on board! Class act, one of the best players in the world, nice guy who will be a fan favourite, and he is a squad player who will help younger players, great addition to Leinster!
For all those wondering where he’d fit in, this is exactly where.
Keenan, Ringrose, Henshaw, Frawley, O’Brien are all very injury prone. Having a quality player that can come on and slot in anywhere in the backline is huge
Bristol are a pub team, much bigger tests await. But, boy, Jordie looks every inch a Leinster player.
@Aidan Farrell: calling them a pub team is an insult to the entire English premiership. You’ll probably sign is as RaynRidge now to back yourself up.
@Aidan Farrell: Ray is aiden the dominant twin or is one going to consume the other eventually?
@John Clifford: ive said aiden as well lol
@Aidan Farrell: So australia who beat england in there own backyard are a pub team as well i saw u say earlier rays twin
@Kevin Dillon: exactly
@Kevin Dillon: Mr pub team has been muted since yesterday!
Very impressive to just slot into that system in one half. He looked very comfortable from what I could see , never looked out of sorts. Great player who will add great impact to the attack.
Ref was very poor, didn’t help the flow of the game the weather was always going to impact this game but the REF’S part was more of a setback to what should of been a fast moving game…. As I thought the bench would make a big difference for Leinster …, bringing on Barret, Doris, Porter and not to mention the big man Snyman…. What and impact that had on the overall game….
бу
@Den: you know a ref’s had an absolute shocker when even Leo’s mentioning it. The man refuses to talk about officials even when they’ve handed the opposition games
@teuO6nLS: he was literally guessing at scrums. I remember he called one against Slimani for boring in after the Bristol loosehead was actually lying on the ground – where the hell was Slimani to go? Unfortunately the French system seems to produce these type of spoofer refs every now and again
Interesting that Barrett didn’t come on at full back. Moved 3 players to play him inside centre. Has he specified that that’s where he plays
@James Murphy: qe didn’t need a 3rd outhalf in the squad, we should have had a wing or fullback on the bench.
@chris mcdonnell: I know it is always good to try new things, but have you ever seen a squad picked with a wing on the bench? Leinster have players that can move relatively seamlessly from centre to wing or wing to FB. The game went very well for Sam, but what if it hadn’t? It is nice to have a lad who has guided Leinster through many tricky pool games in the past. You can say what you want about Ross in terms of his limitations when it comes to the business end, but you cannot take that away from him. Next week, the selection might be more standard, but there were alot of moving parts this week with injuries and debuts.
@chris mcdonnell: probably would have gone for Tector or even Penney
@chris mcdonnell: very few teams go with wingers on the bench, it’s a waste because it’s an easy position to slot someone else into if needed. It’s the least attritional position on the field. Look how ringtose, jgp, henshaw have all filled in required. Always need an out half on the bench. Even South Africa know this
@James Murphy: interesting alright. Although it could be just where he has trained up to this point, which is obviously a short space of time. He might need to go to fullback will all the injuries there. Also, Ringrose was much better at 13 even though he can do a job on the wing.
How good was Prendergast.
Barret a different level and will start at 12 in the big games.