Leinster still waiting for Rieko Ioane to replicate the Jordie Barrett effect
Rieko Ioane hasn't made the same impact Jordie Barrett did early in his Leinster career. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
The All Blacks are in turmoil, Leinster are in Champions Cup action in France, and Jordie Barrett is utterly removed from both worlds this weekend as he chases wickets and sixes at the Hot Springs Spas T20 Black Clash spectacle in Tauranga’s Oval Bay.
This annual meeting of Team Rugby and Team Cricket has been happening since 2019 and Barrett has pedigree. There are clips online of him busting bails, smacking shots to the boundary and taking a catch deep in the field.
The 28-year old was playing a high grade of cricket with central Districts as late as U19s, and spending more time in the nets than on the rugby field during his first year at Lincoln University, until a call-up for the U20 Rugby World Cup changed his trajectory.
Leinster fans won’t be surprised.
Barrett could do almost anything during his short stint with the province last year. If it will be remembered for the awful decision to start him on the bench for the Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton then that just goes to show how good he had been.
It was always going to be a hard act to follow.
Rieko Ioane is five games into his own brief chapter with the club and, while the pre-arrival chatter about his public spats with Johnny Sexton have quieted, then a similar lack of conversation about his input so far suggest something of a muted impact.
“He's been great. When he came in, we just would have asked him to be himself and he's done that” said Jamison Gibson-Park. “He's having the craic with the lads and all that kind of thing, which is hugely important, and he's loving his footy as well. Yeah, it's been nice.”
Ioane has been perfectly fine, but he hasn’t pulled up anything like the same trees having started four games at outside-centre and come off the bench another day to slot in to the same role. Barrett was already playing with house money by this stage.
The latter’s debut off the bench away to Bristol was a game-changer that night at Ashton Gate and, if Ioane’s performances so far should be judged in the context of a Leinster team stuttering while winning, then Barrett was not some luxuriant cherry on top.
He was outstanding in overcoming a stubborn Clermont Auvergne second time out when Leinster had just eight points to spare, brilliant when beating Connacht by the same margin, and very good in a grind of a two-point win away to La Rochelle.
On it went, including this time last year when he shone in pulling clear of Bath in round four of the pool stages. He played full-back and he played inside-centre in that game, flitting between the two without a shred of difficulty.
Fast forward to the here and now and Ioane is listed among the replacements for Leinster’s closing pool game away to Bayonne but any temptation to make a straight compare and contrast on such simplistic terms alone should be avoided.
The reality is more convoluted, of course. Robbie Henshaw hasn’t played a whole pile in the last month but impressed last week against La Rochelle and Tommy O’Brien and JJ Kenny are blazing trails on their respective wings right now.
Leo Cullen has been rotating ad nauseum lately – witness Harry Byrne starting at No.10 instead of Sam Prendergast again - but Ioane’s omission this weekend likely wouldn’t be setting social media on fire if the stakes were bigger.
Attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal has been asked about his fellow Kiwi more than once in the last handful of months. He has stressed some of the “world class” work done off the ball and how the player or the team aren’t looking to force anything.
Bleyendaal did admit that it was up to the brains trust to “work out how to get him involved with the things that he’s great at”. This is, after all, a man who has scored 38 tries in 88 appearances for New Zealand but arrived here with his form in some limbo.
Luck plays its part too.
He started off with 20 minutes against Harlequins and the steepest arc of his learning curve coincided with slogs of games against Leicester in Welford Road. Ulster, Munster in Thomond Park and then the scrappy win over La Rochelle.
The one game he didn’t play a part in was Connacht when Leinster let loose with 52 points but there remains plenty of time and opportunity for Ioane to make his imprint on the club and the season before he returns home.
Leinster have ten more rounds of URC to go, the possibility of three knockout ties if they can reach a final, and as many as four more Champions Cup outings after this Bayonne appointment if they can find their collective groove.
Ioane could yet play a big part in that.
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