Leinster's Leo Cullen not concerned about unease over Jordie Barrett signing
NOT CONCERNED: Head coach Leo Cullen during a Leinster Rugby squad training session at Fourways High School in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Leo Cullen isn’t heeding the noise around Leinster’s short-term capture of Jordie Barrett next season and is concentrating instead on the core business of producing players who can play for the province and for Ireland.
If that sounds like having a cake and eating it then that’s hardly the concern of a man thousands of miles removed from any hubbub as he concentrates on this Saturday’s URC clash with the Stormers in Cape Town.
News that Barrett would be pitching up in Dublin on a truncated contract in December followed the bombshell from late last year that RG Snyman would be switching Munster red for Leinster blue this summer.
Add in the fact that Leinster players make up the lion’s share of those on IRFU central contracts - a reality that reduces the province’s spend on salaries - and it has fostered claims that the pitch is leaning too far in their favour.
“Listen, I haven't really thought a huge about it, to be honest,” said Cullen from the team base in Johannesburg.
“We want to be able to produce players 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 them to be able to give everything they have when they do represent Ireland, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.
“When I started off in coaching, particularly when I was a forwards coach initially, I looked at a pack of forwards that represented Leinster and also represented Ireland as well. That’s something I’ve focused on since I’ve been in this role. That’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Leinster have also announced the arrival in the off-season of former Munster out-half Tyler Bleyendaal as a replacement attack coach for Andrew Goodman who is poised to take up the same role with Andy Farrell’s Ireland.
Cullen talked up Bleyendaal’s knowledge of Irish rugby through that stint down south, the extra motivation that comes with an injury-plagued career, and his work at a Hurricanes team that remains undefeated through eight rounds of Super Rugby.
The Christchurch native added to his coaching CV with Tonga at the World Cup and, at 33, he brings a younger sheen to a coaching team that is headed by a 46-year old and has some notable fifty-somethings in its ranks.
Barrett is a “marquee player” who he feels will excite supporters at a time when Leinster will have so many more seats to fill at the Aviva Stadium: they will spend the bones of next season there while the RDS is being redeveloped.
The 27-year old has been capped 57 times by the All Blacks, he brings a big game on both sides of the ball and a versatility across the back line that appeals to Cullen as he deals with so many front-line players moving between provincial and national duties.
The hope is that Barrett’s influence can outlast his brief stay, as was the case in 2012 when another Kiwi legend, Brad Thorn, put in a hugely positive three-month stint in Dublin that ended with a Heineken Cup win.
“Brad was even shorter again, he only arrived post-Six Nations. Some of the language some of the players use to this day, it would come from Brad. He was a great influence on the group, and it was only ten to 12 weeks he was here for.
“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 team. Especially when you bring in… All the academy players are based in the building with us, they’re changing in the same dressing room.
“It’s that daily interaction, the habits. They see the guys who have gone on to play with Ireland, but just to get a slightly different perspective. It’s quite a nice thing for the group, just that little bit of gold dust that gets added to everybody, particularly the young players.”
More gold dust may be available to them for the Champions Cup semi-final against Northampton Saints in early May with Cullen “hopeful” that Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan will be back fit for that one.
Jimmy O’Brien’s neck issue is more of an issue.
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