WHILE TOMORROW night’s European Champions Cup quarter-final against Glasgow Warriors at the Aviva Stadium is his main focus for now, Jordie Barrett is planning to keep a close eye on a fellow New Zealander at The Masters golf tournament in Augusta this weekend.

Amongst a packed field, Auckland native Ryan Fox is hoping to leave a lasting impression in the US city over the next four days. On the professional golf circuit since 2012, Fox is the son of former All Blacks star Grant Fox — who kicked 17 points from fly-half when New Zealand defeated France in the 1987 Rugby World Cup final.

Having previously played alongside him at a charity golf event in Auckland in December 2022, Barrett more recently saw Fox in the flesh during the WM Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona. The 28-year-old Kiwi has visited the golf courses at Portmarnock and Druids Glen since signing for Leinster last December, and — once time allows for it — he will be glued to a TV screen to see how Fox progresses in Augusta.

“I’ll be watching plenty [of the Masters]. We’ve a Friday game, so it’ll free up the weekend. Focus is purely on trying to get a result, beat Glasgow and then sit down and watch some of it. Ryan Fox has his PGA Tour card, and he’s in the Masters again,” Barrett remarked at a Leinster media briefing in UCD on Monday.

“I’d the opportunity to go to Phoenix about six weeks ago now and walked around the TPC there and followed Ryan Fox for a few days. It’s nice, he’s flying the flag for New Zealand golf at the moment.

“There’s actually a lot of other good New Zealand golfers doing well. So, in some ways, it’s like you guys have Rory [McIlroy], and hopefully, he can have a good one this weekend.”

Despite coming over to these shores with an impressive reputation, Barrett found himself having to settle for a spot amongst the replacements when Leinster comprehensively defeated Harlequins in a Champions Cup Round of 16 encounter in Croke Park last Saturday.

His only previous outing off the bench for Leinster came in his debut against Bristol Bears in the pool stages of Europe at Ashton Gate on 8 December. He went on to start subsequent Champions Cup victories over Clermont Auvergne, La Rochelle and Bath, and will be hoping to be restored to the starting 15 when Glasgow pay a visit to Ballsbridge tomorrow.

Yet, even though he got just 30 minutes of game time in GAA HQ last weekend, Barrett insisted he didn’t find it difficult to miss out on a starting berth.

“It’s certainly not difficult. If I get any opportunity to play, whether it’s starting or on the bench or adding value somewhere else, the game now demands 23 players and the wider squad to prepare them for the weekend. If your job is to come on and change a game, to add some value, or to put a game away, that’s your job for that week.

“If your job is to start, obviously you want to start and play well and put the team in a good position so they can come on and play well. So, I know it sounds very cliché, but it takes 23.

“I had conversations with Leo before even coming over here, the role could change week to week. There are world-class players here, so I’m just hoping I stay fit and healthy, and whatever opportunity I get, I’ll take with two hands.”

Having previously spent the entirety of his playing career in his native New Zealand, Barrett took on a whole new challenge when he joined Leinster on a short-term deal at the tail end of 2024. While he hasn’t been overly surprised by anything he has encountered since signing up with Leo Cullen’s squad, he admitted the move to these shores has taken him out of his comfort zone to a certain extent.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, so you see the European games on telly and the sun’s out. Even the later kick-offs, eight o’clock, there will still be a bit of light this weekend. Only through chatting to people and sharing their experiences from guys that have come up here before, you only really know what it is about,” Barrett added.

“Nothing has taken me by surprise, but I have certainly enjoyed it. It is a great change of scene, and it was important. I think I got myself out of probably a comfort zone. People and coaches and a country you’re familiar with.

“Just test yourself somewhere else, and I guess test yourself when you are uncomfortable. It’s been great, I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s getting to the business end now where we just have to bring our best stuff every single week. It’s so exciting.”

Daire Walsh

GIVEN HOW HIS time with the province has gone to date, it comes as little surprise to hear South African international RG Snyman was more than happy to sign a recent contract extension with Leinster.

Despite only making 20 appearances across a four-year stint at Munster that was severely curtailed by injury, the two-time Rugby World Cup winner has already lined out for the eastern province on 15 occasions since joining from their arch rivals on a one-year deal ahead of the 2024/25 season.

As he has remained injury-free up to this point, Leinster were understandably eager to retain Snyman’s services beyond the conclusion of their current campaigns in the United Rugby Championship and the European Champions Cup.

The towering Springbok was keen to remain in the Blues’ set-up himself and on the morning of 27 March, news officially came through that he had penned a new contract that will keep him in Dublin until the summer of 2026 at the very least.

“I’ve had a great season so far in terms of having fun, getting back fit, getting playing. Getting some good minutes going and I really enjoy the environment. I feel like this is where my game will continue to improve and continue to go ahead. I’m very, very happy to stay on,” Snyman acknowledged at a Leinster media briefing on Monday.

“They’ve been looking after me very well. Honestly, just being in the team every week, being out at training, being able to get out on the field every weekend is [great]. It’s a little bit of a change of pace I guess for me, but it’s brilliant. I’m really having fun. That’s why it made the decision for me quite easy.”

When it was initially revealed in December 2023 that he was going to be making the switch from Munster, there was an expectation Snyman would only be spending a single season at Leinster. This now won’t prove to be the case, but the 30-year-old lock insisted he wasn’t thinking beyond the current term when he did opt for a move to Leo Cullen’s side.

“To be honest, I was only focused on this season and this year and whatever happens, happens. I guess it also gets you in a little bit of a different mindset. You kind of throw everything you have at it. So I’d like to continue doing the same.”

Along with Rabah Slimani and Jordie Barrett, Snyman was one of three overseas signings made by Leinster for the new season.

While he did play once before against Slimani in an autumn international encounter between South Africa and France in Saint-Denis on 10 November, 2018, Snyman has enjoyed more recent battles with Barrett in the Test arena.

In 2023 alone, they clashed on no fewer than three occasions in showdowns featuring their respective nations of South Africa and New Zealand – a Rugby Championship encounter in Auckland, a World Cup warm-up at Twickenham Stadium and a tension-filled World Cup final in Stade de France.

Having been on the opposite side to Barrett as part of one of international rugby’s most enduring rivalries, Snyman is finding it fascinating to now be in the same environment as the versatile Kiwi.

“It’s obviously interesting to get to know somebody a little bit on a deeper level off the field. Because usually you’re kind of rivals and enemies. It has certainly been a great opportunity to get to know Jordie a little bit better.

“Because it is a whole different mindset here when it comes to rugby than what I do and what guys do here. It’s interesting talking about that and learning a little bit from each other as well. It has definitely been good and having a couple of beers together after games and stuff, it has been very good.”

In his final appearance for the province at Thomond Park on 15 June of last year, Snyman was unable to prevent Munster from losing out to eventual champions Glasgow Warriors in a United Rugby Championship semi-final. Previous to that, he started in the second row when the Red Army defeated Glasgow Warriors at the quarter-final stage of their successful URC campaign of 2022/23.

He is now set to feature in the colours of his current employers against the same opposition in another knockout bout on Friday – this time in the last-eight of the European Champions Cup at the Aviva Stadium.

“Glasgow’s a very good side, very well coached. I think the things they do on attack, there’s not many other teams that can replicate that or even come close to that. We are definitely looking at that this week and we need to be on our best foot come Friday. Making sure we get everything right in the prep this week,” Snyman added.

Daire Walsh

IT MAY NOT have been the rigorous examination they were preparing themselves for, but assistant coach Tyler Bleyendaal doesn’t believe the one-sided nature of last Saturday’s win over Harlequins at Croke Park will leave Leinster at a disadvantage.

After scoring 10 tries over the course of the action, the eastern province sauntered to a 62-0 triumph over ‘Quins at the Round of 16 stage of the Champions Cup in GAA HQ.

There might be a sense that Leinster could have done with a tougher assignment ahead of this Friday’s Champions Cup quarter-final clash in the Aviva Stadium against Glasgow Warriors – who progressed to the last-eight with an impressive 43-19 win over Leicester Tigers.

Yet in addition to expressing his satisfaction with how the game unfolded in Croke Park, Bleyendaal stressed that what happened last Saturday was always unlikely to have a massive bearing on what followed it.

“I don’t think it matters. You can have arguments for both ways. If you had a really tough match, then you might feel differently about it, but we had good transfer from some of the stuff we trained and we got that in the match. I think Glasgow will be a different challenge regardless of how that match went,” Bleyendaal explained at a Leinster media briefing yesterday.

“We turn the page pretty quick really and get into our preparation. That’s just what it is, I think. It was a real grind at that start of the match, wasn’t it [when Harlequins applied some early pressure]? We did well to push through that.

“I liked the way we kicked on towards the end of the match as well. I feel like the game lost a bit of air just before half-time there, but we got it going in the second half and then I thought we finished strongly. Which is what you want when your bench comes on, which is great.”

After previously spending close to four years as part of the backroom team at Super Rugby outfit the Hurricanes, former Munster back Bleyendaal joined the Leinster set-up last summer as a replacement for his fellow New Zealander (and current Ireland assistant coach) Andrew Goodman.

In each of the three seasons that preceded his appointment, the eastern province suffered defeat at the semi-final and final stages of the United Rugby Championship and the Investec Champions Cup respectively.

While the disappointment of not picking up major silverware in the past three years hasn’t been spoken about at great length since he arrived at the province, Bleyendaal acknowledged there is a determination amongst this Leinster group to finally get over the line in the current term – particularly when it comes to Europe’s top-tier competition.

“Definitely the determination is there. We’re not dwelling on the past, but we have acknowledged it. That we want to do better in this competition [Champions Cup]. It’s just one week at a time. It comes back to that, which is a bit of a cliché, but you can’t look ahead of Glasgow at the moment.

“We’re then just focusing on the process. We get in on Monday, we put the plan in place, try to freshen up the bodies. It’s a short turnaround for both teams and it’s going to be a good competition on Friday night.”

Whereas head coach Leo Cullen remained in South Africa for Leinster’s United Rugby Championship meeting with the Sharks in Durban last Saturday week – seven days on from facing the Bulls in Pretoria – Bleyendaal returned to the province’s UCD base along with Jacques Nienaber and Robin McBryde to oversee training with a different group.

This cohort largely consisted of those who featured against Harlequins in Croke Park and while Max Deegan and Ross Byrne both made appearances off the bench at Jones’ Road, the remaining 21 players who saw game time in a 10-7 win at the expense of the Sharks weren’t included in Leinster’s most recent match day squad.

However, given there is such a short turnaround from the Harlequins game, some of those who helped the province to round off their mini tour of South Africa in a successful fashion could force their way into the reckoning this Friday.

“The guys that played over in South Africa definitely put their hands up for selection and that’s the competition in the squad. Whatever match you’re playing in, you’re trying to perform as an individual, but also as a group. Everyone wants to play at the top level or in the big knockout games, so there’s definitely competition for positions for this game,” Bleyendaal added.

Daire Walsh

HE HAS BEEN operating in the world of professional rugby for well over a decade at this stage, but Ireland and Leinster scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park isn’t the only member of his household who understands what it is like to be an elite sportsperson.

An Oceania champion in 2013, Gibson-Park’s wife Patti was due to represent New Zealand in Judo at the following year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow before ultimately being forced to withdraw because of health issues. Before then, Patti had been ranked second in the Commonwealth in the 52kg weight division of Judo.

Initially introduced to it as a youngster in Gisborne – where Gibson-Park moved to from Great Barrier Island at the age of 10 – Patti has spent time away from the martial art combat sport in more recent times to place her focus on family life. Yet now that their children Isabella, Iris and Jai are getting that bit older, Gibson-Park revealed that his other half is looking to get back into the competitive arena.

“She represented New Zealand, she has done a bit of stuff at international level. She’s kind of getting back into it. She did end up qualifying for the Commonwealth Games, but she didn’t end up going. So she’s pretty keen to give it another crack. The kids are kind of at the age where she feels like she’s got a bit of time back,” Gibson-Park explained at a Leinster media briefing on Monday.

“They’re over the baby age and they’re all into school and creche. So she has a bit of time to get after something herself. There’s a 10-year period of pretty much being a full-time Mum, so she’s looking forward to getting into something herself.

“She’s a little bit older, on the older side compared to a lot of the opposition, but she’s going to give it a crack over the next couple of years and see how she gets on.”

It remains to be seen if Patti ends up back at the international grade of her chosen sport, though Gibson-Park did suggest she might consider pushing on for Irish national level.

Of course, Gibson-Park has just come off the back of donning the green jersey himself as he started all five games that Ireland played in the 2025 edition of the Six Nations. Having fallen short in a bid to claim the third Championship title of his career – albeit victories over England, Scotland and Wales ensures that he has three Triple Crowns to his name – the 33-year-old is now eager for a switch back to provincial mode.

However, he did have some time off and watched on from afar as another group of Leinster players claimed five points across their United Rugby Championship bouts with the Bulls and the Sharks in South Africa.

While they returned to Leinster training last week, Gibson-Park and the majority of the province’s international contingent also recently spent time at a retreat in Wicklow with renowned sports psychologist Ronan Conway.

“It [the retreat] was our first time back together as a Leinster squad, minus obviously the lads who were in South Africa. It touched on a little bit of goal-setting and that kind of thing. Some stuff rugby related, some not. It was awesome down there with Ronan Conway. It was a great first session to get the lads together, and outside of UCD. Which was great as well.”

After already facing Bristol Bears and Bath in this season’s competition, Gibson-Park and Leinster will encounter another English side in the form of Harlequins in a European Champions Cup Round of 16 affair at Croke Park tomorrow [KO 3pm, RTÉ 2].

In spite of their mixed results to date in the current season – eight wins, one draw and eight losses across Premiership Rugby and Europe’s top-tier – ‘Quins did make it as far as the last-four of the Champions Cup in the 2023/24 campaign. Whereas the London-based outfit lost out to eventual winners Toulouse, Leinster defeated Northampton Saints in the competition’s other semi-final in Croke Park.

A hat-trick of tries from James Lowe had the eastern province in a strong position at GAA HQ, before converted scores by George Hendy and Tom Seabrook meant Leo Cullen’s men were made to work for a 20-17 success. Ahead of his third appearance in Croker this weekend – he also featured for the province there against Munster in the URC last October – Gibson-Park feels there are some lessons from that Northampton game they can bring into their duel with Harlequins.

“We were lucky to get away with it, I suppose, that day. We made it very tough on ourselves and there will be some learnings from that. Probably a similar team. ‘Quins have some incredible players and they like to throw the ball around. We’ll certainly have to have our wits about us, but it will be awesome to be back in Croke Park,” Gibson-Park added.

Daire Walsh

IN CONTRAST TO their recent visits to the venue, the Leinster squad appear to be opting for a more reserved build-up to a European Champions Cup Round of 16 bout against Harlequins in Croke Park this Saturday.

15 years on from their famous Heineken Cup semi-final win over Munster, the eastern province returned to GAA HQ on 4 May, 2024 for a penultimate round clash with Northampton Saints in Europe’s top-tier. Ireland international Dan Sheehan started for Leinster in this 20-17 victory, but was still recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury when the Blues faced the aforementioned Munster on Jones’ Road in the United Rugby Championship last October.

Whereas the Leinster players got a sense of the stadium’s history in advance of these fixtures, their forthcoming duel with Harlequins is mainly being viewed as just another game by Sheehan and his team-mates. Yet a large crowd is expected to pass through the Croke Park turnstiles this weekend and that is more than enough reason for the Dubliner to be excited about their latest journey to the north side of the city.

“I remember for the Northampton game we would have talked about the history of it and we would have delved a bit more deep into what it means to play in Croke Park and the history behind it. I think a lot of the lads and I think probably everyone has played there now,” Sheehan explained at a Leinster media briefing earlier this week.

“In some ways it’s just another game and I think lads are used to it, but it’s an opportunity to play in front of, I think it’s 60,000 plus supporters at the minute. Which is crazy. I think we’ll just sort of focus on that side of things with the amount of people that have shown up to support us and build on the momentum of last week [the province’s URC triumph against the Sharks].”

Of course, Saturday’s fixture has its own interesting history attached to it thanks to the infamous ‘Bloodgate’ incident from the clash between the two teams in the 2009 Heineken Cup quarter-final at Twickenham Stoop – which directly preceded that last-four encounter between Leinster and Munster in Croke Park.

While Sheehan has some awareness of that showdown with Harlequins, he was only 10 years old when the game took place and acknowledged he didn’t ‘remember it happening at the time’. In fact, despite facing them in pre-season friendlies in 2021 and 2022, Leinster haven’t played ‘Quins in a competitive game since a Champions Cup pool stage encounter at the Aviva Stadium on 13 December 2014.

Therefore, when it comes to their analysis for this weekend, Sheehan and the eastern province are focusing on how the English Premiership outfit have fared in the present term.

“We played them in a pre-season I remember, two or three seasons ago. It was probably one of my first games involved in the senior team. I’ve actually been enjoying the prep this week because they’re quite an enjoyable team to watch. Really nice attacking shape, score some really nice tries, good starter plays.

“My mindset this week is the squad that has played this season. They have some key players. Marcus Smith, [Alex] Dombrandt, [Chandler] Cunningham-South. These are big players for them. That’s all I’ve looked into, to be honest. Which I think is the way it should be.”

When you consider he didn’t miss a single game for Ireland during the recently completed Six Nations Championship – coming off the bench in the opening two rounds before starting the remaining three – it is easy to forget Sheehan has only played once for Leinster during the current season.

Having worked his way back from an ACL injury sooner than many had anticipated, Sheehan started a URC encounter against the Stormers in the Aviva on 25 January of this year and helped himself to a brace of tries in an eventual 36-12 win for Leinster.

He went on from there to score five tries in as many appearances for Ireland in the spring international window and having missed out on so much of their campaign to date, Sheehan is eager to make the biggest possible impact on his return to provincial duty.

“It was obviously nice to get that Stormers game before the Six Nations. Obviously, they are different styles and trying to go back into our system you can’t replicate it really at training a whole lot. It’s nice for me to get back playing in a blue jersey again,” Sheehan added.

“I’ve obviously missed a lot of the season with Leinster, so I feel I need to contribute as much as I can. Get back to where I was, which I think is nearly there. It’s a massive motivation for me to contribute to the group this season and to do everything I can to help the lads around me or to show up on the big day.”

Daire Walsh