HE MAY ONLY have him on board for the latter part of next season, but Leinster head coach Leo Cullen believes All Blacks star Jordie Barrett could potentially have a long-term impact on the way the Leinster squad goes about their business.

When the Wicklow man captained the eastern province to a second consecutive Heineken Cup title at Twickenham Stadium back in May 2012, Brad Thorn was his second-row partner for their 42-14 final victory over Ulster. A Rugby World Cup winner with New Zealand in the previous year, the towering Kiwi lock had only arrived at Leinster two months earlier – and made just eight appearances in the blue jersey – but left quite an impression on his playing colleagues.

Barrett’s stay in Dublin is going to be slightly longer than that of Thorn (he begins his stint with Leinster in December of this year and will remain in their ranks until the end of the 2024/25 season), but the 27-year-old’s time in the province will be fleeting nonetheless. Given what he is capable of bringing both on and off the pitch, Cullen is hopeful Barrett can have a similar effect to that of his former team-mate.

“Some of the language some of the players even use to this day, it would come from Brad Thorn. He was a great influence on the group. It was only ten to 12 weeks he was here for. I think that’s an important piece if you can get the right person in. They can add not just in the short-term, but in the longer term,” Cullen remarked in a remote media briefing from South Africa yesterday.

“All the academy players are based in the building with us, they’re changing in the same dressing room. They see the guys who have gone on to play with Ireland, but just to get a slightly different perspective, it is quite a nice thing to the group.

“It’s a short stint. It’s maybe not perfect because there is a bit of adaptation that needs to go on. He’s a player that hopefully, from a supporter point of view, they’re excited to see. He’s a top quality All Black who has 50 or 60 caps. Hopefully there is a bit of excitement.”

Since the recruitment of Barrett was announced at the start of last week, there has been considerable debate about the fact that having up to 10 of their players on central contracts with the IRFU next season – from a total of just 13 – makes it more feasible for Leinster to draft in high-profile figures such as Barrett, even if it is only a short-term measure.

While he hasn’t thought a huge amount about Barrett’s arrival to these shores from a wider context, Cullen stressed that developing future stars for the Irish national team remains the primary objective of the province.

“We want to be able to produce players primarily to play for Ireland. That’s the model in this country and that’s the system the way it is. We want our guys to go on and represent Ireland and we want to be able to give everything they have when they do represent Ireland. That’s what we’ll continue to do.

“Probably where I started off in my role in coaching, particularly when I was a forwards coach initially, I was like ‘alright, how do we look at building a pack of forwards that are not just representing Leinster, but they’re also all representing Ireland as well’. That is something I’ve tried to focus on personally since I’ve been in this role. That’s what we’ll continue to do.”

After beginning their mini tour of South Africa with a comprehensive United Rugby Championship defeat to the Lions in Johannesburg last Saturday, Leinster will be hoping for a much better performance and result against the Stormers in Cape Town Stadium this weekend.

During their previous visit to South Africa in April 2023, Leinster revealed that Jacques Nienaber was going to join the province as a senior coach in the aftermath of last year’s World Cup finals in France.

A similar piece of business was conducted in advance of their latest overseas journey with last Tuesday’s news that former Munster fly-half Tyler Bleyendaal is going to take over from Andrew Goodman as Leinster assistant coach from the 2024/25 season onwards.

Since being forced to retire from professional rugby in May 2020 due to a persistent neck injury, Bleyendaal has established himself in the coaching world with Super Rugby outfit Hurricanes (for whom the aforementioned Barrett currently plays) as well as the Tongan national team.

Goodman is set to depart the province to take over from Mike Catt as the attack specialist within Andy Farrell’s national coaching team later this year and Cullen is pleased Bleyendaal is the man who is going to fill the void left by his fellow New Zealander.

“Hurricanes are a team I’ve obviously watched quite a bit and you start thinking who is doing what out there. You start to get a bit of feedback from different people who’ve come across him [Bleyendaal],” Cullen added.

“He was coaching at the World Cup with Tonga as well, so he’s got that experience of being away coaching at a World Cup. Playing against Ireland and South Africa, and Scotland being the other one. For someone who is still very, very young, plus he’s got a relationship with Jacques previously when Jacques was coaching with Munster. Again, that’s important, that we have the right fit.”

Daire Walsh