Building a career beyond Munster: Ballincollig’s Eoghan Barrett celebrating first Top 14 try

Then 18, Barrett left Cork for Pau shortly after completing his Leaving Cert

AN IRISHMAN ABROAD: Eoghan Barrett admits there were times when he questioned if he could make his Pau adventure work. ‘When I moved over at 18 years of age and saw the quality of players that were playing at the time — and look at the quality of players that are here still, now, it’s hard to believe I’m playing alongside them,’ he says. Picture: Alex Caparros/Getty Images

Eoghan Barrett’s well-taken try for Pau on Sunday — his first score in his second Top 14 start — is the latest chapter in an overnight success story that has been three years in the making.

The 20-year-old winger, in the last six months of a three-year academy contract at the French club, latched on to a perfectly weighted kick to race under the posts.

Ultimately, it was in a losing cause, as opponents Clermont won a high-scoring encounter at an empty Stade du Hameau 31-42. Though the defeat was hard to take at the time, Barrett will remember that match as the one in which he opened his try-scoring account in the French top-flight.

Two-and-a-half years ago, an 18-year-old Barrett left Cork for the rugby-mad town in the foothills of the Pyrenees shortly after completing his Leaving Cert on the promise of a shot with the French side’s academy.

“There wasn’t a place at the Munster Academy for me, from what I could tell,” the former Ireland U19 flyer said. “I didn’t really have much information, but from what I could see, there wasn’t a place there.”

At the time, ex-Munster backrow James Coughlan was involved with the Pau academy set-up, having been brought to the club by Simon Mannix.

“[He] got wind that myself and Ben Roche were not going to be in the Munster set-up, so he got on to our parents and we were given the opportunity to come out here,” Barrett said.

“We were lucky that James went to Christian Brothers’ College in Cork, like the two of us did, so he would have had a few contacts there.

“I presume that’s how it went about — that we were two players who had the capabilities of progressing and we got the opportunity to move out to Pau when we were 18.”

The Pau adventure did not work out for Roche and he left the club after a year. But Barrett has taken his opportunity and — literally — run with it. He admitted, though, there were times he was not convinced he could make it.

“When I moved over at 18 years of age and saw the quality of players that were playing at the time — and look at the quality of players that are here still, now, it’s hard to believe I’m playing alongside them.

“It was something that I felt, someday, might come — but there were days where you didn’t think it would come.”

That it has, he has put down to the quality of coaching at the club.

“In the last month, where I’ve started to get a chance and play in the Top 14, it’s been really encouraging. It just goes to show the hard work that the trainers in Pau have put into us, especially in the academy, and helping us with our skillset.

“My first year with Pau, James was academy director and he was assisted by Paddy Sullivan. Both helped me a lot. I probably wasn’t the best with my skills and it’s something I’ve worked a lot on over the past three years, something that I’ve improved a lot on. The coaching in the academy really helps you to adjust to make it into the senior setup.”

He clearly learned quickly. “I did one full year with the academy. In that year, I probably trained with the first team for three weeks towards the end of the season.

“Then I was told I would be training full time with the first team. That was a big step up.

“In the academy competition, we were playing against Montpellier, Toulouse’s academy week-in week-out. To play games on such a regular basis against top-quality academy sides, against guys who were getting runs in the Top 14, who were playing in the Challenge Cup, in the Champions Cup, was really beneficial.”

It’s almost a year ago to the day that Ballincollig boy Barrett scored his first senior try for Pau — a spectacular 80m effort in a Challenge Cup game. He now has three touchdowns in five first-team outings. And he’s got a real taste for it. He wants more.

“I signed for three years and I’ve six months left on that contract. I’m waiting to see what happens. I’d be very hopeful to stay here — I really enjoy my rugby here, and I’m looking to develop my career here, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the coming six months because with Covid you don’t know what could happen, things change on a daily basis. I’m hoping my performances over the past couple of weeks will earn me the right to a spot here — but we’ll just have to see where the future takes us.”

It’s a dream tempered with realistic down-to-earth point-of-view, and one backed up in response to a question about a possible return to Munster. “Jeez, yeah — if an offer came from back home, I’d be very interested, but I would look at what’s best for my career and what’s best going forward.

“You have to be realistic. With Covid you don’t know what’s going to happen and you take any opportunities that come your way. But at the moment I’m very happy where I am and very happy with how my rugby’s going.”