All Blacks v Ireland: Jordie Barrett’s Leinster stint gives All Blacks inside edge on Ireland – Gregor Paul

By Gregor Paul in Chicago

THE FACTS

• Jordie Barrett will have picked up invaluable inside information while on his six-month sabbatical to Leinster in Ireland.
• But Barrett has looked a little fatigued and lacking in zip since he returned to the All Blacks.
• His sabbatical raises questions over whether he’s played too much rugby.

New Zealand Rugby feels it’s had payback already from Jordie Barrett’s six-month sabbatical to Leinster earlier this year.

The ruling body feels the main benefit from that arrangement was that in return for allowing Barrett to spend half a season in Dublin, he committed to NZR for four years and will be eligible for the All Blacks until at least the end of 2028.

But that assessment remains questionable, because the so-called sabbatical agreement came at a considerable cost.

Firstly, the Hurricanes had to get through this year without Barrett.

That maybe sounds like a minor imposition, but it impacts marketing plans, season ticket sales, squad contracting (having cover for when he’s not there but a place for him when he returns in 2026), and inflicts an element of reputation damage on Super Rugby Pacific as skipping the competition is sold as a “reward” for long-service.

There has been a high-performance cost to it, too, as for all the talk that his workload was well managed in Ireland, Barrett has looked a little fatigued and lacking in zip since he returned to the All Blacks in July.

He hasn’t been much off, but enough for his influence to have been less than it was in either 2023 and 2024 when he was such an integral and dynamic part of the All Blacks attack and defence.

His time in Ireland, he says, grew him as a person and player, which will undoubtedly be true, but it also denied him an off-season, and he’s effectively been playing for two years straight now without a medically significant break.

It’s hard to shake the feeling that the All Blacks won’t get the best version of Barrett until he’s had an extended break over the New Zealand summer and an opportunity to refresh.

He’s contributed this year with some astute decision-making and his playmaker’s touch, but when he’s at his best, his defence is destructive and his running more direct – factors which haven’t been as obvious this year.

It remains questionable whether his sabbatical has delivered the benefit New Zealand Rugby (NZR) says it has, but there is a major opportunity for Barrett’s time in Ireland to be utilised this week and put to good effect.

Maybe the real benefit of Barrett’s sabbatical was the intel he would have been able to garner about Ireland’s leading lights – many of whom play for Leinster.

Spending hours on the training ground and seeing how Ireland’s players react to pressure, the mentality they take into big games and the relationships between each other, has given Barrett a thick dossier of useful information for this weekend’s clash at Soldier Field in Chicago.

He must have picked up invaluable information about individuals’ strengths and weaknesses – intelligence that he can share with his All Blacks colleagues and coaching staff, and intelligence that might make all the difference to the result.

Some may, rightly, question the value of this sort of intelligence and remain sceptical about how it can be practically used.

But the 2023 World Cup quarter-final between the All Blacks and Ireland provided definitive proof just how important micro details can be on the biggest occasions.

New Zealand had Joe Schmidt in their coaching ranks back then – the man who effectively spearheaded Ireland’s journey from nearly men to genuine contenders.

Many of the Irish team that played in Paris had been integral to Schmidt’s tenure, and he remains in close contact with 2023 skipper and playmaker, Johnny Sexton.

Having lost a series to Ireland in July 2022, the All Blacks won the quarter-final because they were so much better equipped to read Ireland’s attack and shut it down – and they seemingly were able to anticipate where the ball was going.

The influence Schmidt had in preparing the team was undeniable, and while Barrett is not in possession of the same depth of information as Schmidt had, All Blacks coach Scott Robertson did acknowledge that they have been making use of the second five-eighths’ inside knowledge this week.

“He’s got a coach’s eye,” Robertson said of Barrett.

“He understands detail really well. He puts in where he needs to. Not too much.

“Part of their identity that we need to understand and how they are going to play.”

If having had a fox in the henhouse, as it were, becomes a recognised factor in an All Blacks win this weekend, NZR will surely welcome that, as their sabbatical programme needs justification to be continued.

While New Zealand enables its top talent to disappear offshore six months, it kills any prospect of Super Rugby being able to build an effective draft system where the biggest names potentially move around – and the best Kiwi talent enjoys a season or two with an Australian club while remaining eligible for the All Blacks.

And has been seen with Barrett, it’s just not good practice to sanction individuals playing two years consecutively without a recognised or significant off-season.