Peter Jackson: Barrett the key to guide Leinster to elusive fifth star

As head coach, Leo Cullen will be more aware than anyone of the Barrett factor, especially now that his presence has sent expectation soaring to such levels that the Millennium Stadium could be in need of a new roof after the final there next month.

PULLING THE STRINGS: Jordie Barrett gave Leinster more than simply a performance to match anything from anyone anywhere since the advent of the European Cup 30 years ago. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

In Dublin on Friday night, Jordie Barrett gave Leinster more than simply a performance to match anything from anyone anywhere since the advent of the European Cup 30 years ago.

By keeping the perennial contenders on the straight and narrow towards a fourth successive final, he has given them no excuse. No excuse for failing to win it this time irrespective of the opposition, quite something given that they have found different ways of losing the last three.

To fall short again would be all the harder to bear, almost impossibly so after Leinster’s imperious rout of Glasgow’s URC champions, admittedly missing a fair few heavyweights, hot on the heels of doing likewise to a more than half-decent Harlequins by unheard-of margins: 52-0 and 62-0.

That trite old adage about second being nowhere has never been as relevant to Leinster as it is right now. They will be given no shortage of reminders of what some decorated old coaches from other codes of football had to say on the subject.

As the architect of the Green Bay Packers’ Superbowl triumphs, Vince Lombardi’s dictat ought to have been etched in gold on his tombstone: ‘’There is no room for second place. There is one place in my game and that is first place.’’ 

Bill Shankly, still the most revered of all Liverpool managers, phrased the same message in slightly different words but not less strikingly: ‘’If you are first, you are first. If you are second, you are nowhere.’’ 

Leo Cullen knows the score in that respect. As head coach he will be more aware than anyone of the Barrett factor, especially now that his presence has sent expectation soaring to such levels that the Millennium Stadium could be in need of a new roof after the final there next month.

Leinster’s high-command will be hard pushed over the next few weeks to keep a lid on the hype for which they can blame nobody but their players in general and Barrett in particular. Deep down, he, and the rest, know they will have no excuse for losing the semi-final on home ground against Northampton and none for the final, even if it means the annual rendez-vous with Toulouse.

The only English Premiership club to make it this far, The Saints lost at the same venue in the same stage last year, coming from 3-20 down early in the first half to leave Leinster holding on by three. Barrett was still safely out of their way on the other side of the world.

At least they know what awaits them this time; a Colossus who bestrides The Aviva as if he owns the place, lock, stock and barrel. What can Northampton do about it? They have barely three weeks to find an answer and hope it works.

History may yet judge Barrett not merely as the most complete centre of his generation but of all time. There is simply nothing he cannot do as Ireland discovered at the World Cup when his salvage operations included what almost seemed like a subterranean operation to deny Ronan Kelleher a try in the quarter-final.

As for finishing second, losing the final to New Zealand means Barrett, too, has had quite enough of that, thank you. His parting shot after the Glasgow mis-match said as much: ‘’We’ve got to get better….’’

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Blair Kinghorn could legitimately claim to have made a curious piece of history in the Mediterranean rain yesterday, as the first player to have been stitched up: first, unwittingly, by the referee, then by a doctor.

During a break from making a powerful case to be the Lions’ No. 1 full back for all Hugo Keenan’s high-level consistency, Toulouse’s Scot endured the double blow while appearing on the wing in Toulon. His juggling of a greasy ball which he almost lost three times must have bamboozled Matt Cardey into penalising him for a knock-on.

Kinghorn, suitably bemused, advised the English referee that he had done nothing of the kind. Without a word in his ear from any of the match officials, Cardey stuck by the scrum he awarded Toulon, then promptly pinged Toulouse for collapsing it. Suddenly, Toulon were level again.

Three minutes later, Kinghorn was being treated for a head wound when Cardey inquired as to his to whether he could continue. When the subject of the costly knock-on cropped up, Cardey said: ‘’I’m sorry if I got that wrong.’’ 

Kinghorn went off for stitching, returning twelve minutes later with the score unchanged. He did so straight after Thomas Ramos missed a 77th minute shot at goal only for the game’s most lethal place-kicker to get his radar back on track to win it with the last kick of the game.

The goal, his 138th of the season, ensured that justice was done for the defending champions and, in a roundabout way, for Kinghorn. After the basketball frolics of the previous round, the duel proved the perfect antidote to all that you-score-we-score stuff. It was all the more engrossing for that without ever getting remotely close to being a classic.

Neutrals will be happy that their wish for a repeat of last year’s Toulouse-Leinster final is a step closer to being granted. Former Ireland hooker Ben Jackman was happy, too, telling Premier Sport viewers that Toulon had ‘parked the bus.’ They were happy to rely on Melvyn Jaminet’s long-range missiles as their sole source of points. Why the organisers decree that extra time be played irrespective of one side outscoring the other on tries, only they know…

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This time last year, a teenaged Henry Pollock went to Dublin wearing fancy dress as just another face in the crowd of Northampton fans whose team went to within a goal of taking Leinster into extra-time. Now the next big thing in the English game can barely wait for the chance to go one better at the Aviva in the semi-final.

Two tries in next to no time on debut for England last month and four more in three matches since then for his club have made Pollock all the rage at Franklin’s Gardens and beyond. He talks a good game, too amid increasing noise over his making the Lions tour despite serious competition in the openside flanker role from serious hitters like Josh van der Flier, Tom Curry and Jac Morgan.

According to his team-mate, England stand-off Fin Smith, Pollock ‘gets asked every morning if he has heard from Andy Farrell yet. The piss-taking is through the roof at the minute. So is his personality.’ ‘No matter how teams target him or whoever much we take the piss, he just seems to get better. He has been put on mute on multiple occasions.’ His exuberance is not to everyone’s taste. One England team-mate, Leicester scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet, was reported to have told him: ‘’That’s enough, Pollock.’’ Whenever and wherever possible, Pollock will wave to the crowd before dotting the ball down as he did against Castres, oblivious to any hang-ups about tempting fate. For an English game sorely in need of young players with the charisma to rejuvenate attendances, Henry Pollock is manna from heaven.

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It may sound horribly hollow by Munster standards but they could find an achieved of sorts among the debris of their knock-out on the banks of the Garonne. Who else would dare throw Bordeaux a heap of easy ball from a dysfunctional line-out and still score four tries?

In doing so they were aided-and-abetted by two strange decisions. With two Munster players in the bin and the remainder stretched to the limit, Bordeaux chose to take three points instead of seven by kicking for goal instead of going for a tap or a scrum.

Two minutes later, Nika Amashukeli, quite possibly the best referee in the game, surprised everyone, including those on manouevres with the Red Army, by awarding Munster a penalty try, at best highly debatable.

In next to no time, Bordeaux saw their lead cut from 25 points to 11. It would have been closer still but for Maxime Lucu’s crucial tackle on Thaakir Abrahams.

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According to some experts, a yellow card costs the offending team seven points. In that even Connacht would like to know why a red card, as shown to Racing’s Fijian centre Wame Naituvi 20 minutes into their Challenge Cup quarter-final, failed to clear their way into the semi-finals.

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Best piece of punditry, ex-Scotland flanker John Barclay on Premier Sports describing Jordie Barrett carrying Glasgow’s Adam Hastings into touch:

‘’It looks like Jordie taking the bins out first thing in the morning.’’ 

Team of the weekend:

15 Thomas Ramos (Toulouse), 14 Tommy Freeman (Northampton), 13 Garry Ringrose (Leinster), 12 Jordie Barrett (Leinster), 11 Blair Kinghorn (Toulouse), 10 Sam Prendergast (Leinster), 9 Maxime Lucu (Bordeaux); 1 Emmanuel Iyogun (Northampton), 2 Maxime Lamothe (Bordeaux), 3 Tadhg Furlong (Leinster), 4 Emanual Meafou (Toulouse), 5 RG Snyman (Leinster), 6 Max Deegan (Leinster), 7 Henry Pollock (Northampton), 8 Alexandre Roumat (Toulouse).