This takes us to Exhibit B - the promotional narrative to explain Barrett’s decision as one made to enhance his rugby skillset through exposure to the Irish way of doing things.
Ireland, it would therefore seem, have been given NZR’s seal of approval - been deemed a place worthy to send leading All Blacks.
The story here is that Barrett will come back from Ireland a better player.
But once the new Super Rugby Pacific CEO starts in his role - it is a he - any attempt to persuade New Zealand Rugby (NZR) to open All Blacks eligibility to include anyone playing in the competition will be rejected.
NZR doesn’t believe Australia’s high-performance system is good enough to house New Zealand’s best talent on either sabbatical or longer-term contracts and so the idea of introducing a Super draft, whereby the best Kiwis could find themselves playing in Sydney or Brisbane, will never be agreed to by the national body.
Leinster can get all the benefits of having a high-profile All Black - use his image to sell tickets, promote games and also milk his IP - but it’s a hard “no” for Australian teams being able to do the same with, say, Damian McKenzie or Rieko Ioane, despite the fact this would be the most fan-centric move Super Rugby Pacific could ever make.
Just to defy logic on yet one more front, NZR argues that it needs to retain its All Blacks selection policy of only allowing players contracted domestically to be eligible, to protect the credibility and integrity of the Super competition.
How does letting Barrett play in Ireland - and his brother Beauden, as well as Ardie Savea and Sam Cane play in Japan - protect and promote the domestic game and Super Rugby?
Exhibit C is that these sabbatical deals - which allow senior players to skip a season of Super - are again sold to everyone as carrying the additional benefit of creating an opportunity for an emerging local player.
Yet, talk to Super Rugby clubs and they say they are already struggling to fill their 38-man rosters with the right calibre of players.
They all say that not everyone in their squad is at the appropriate level to play Super Rugby and it therefore has to be asked why New Zealand lets its top players drive up the standards and commercial value of the Japanese league and now the United Rugby Championship and European Champions Cup, but it doesn’t encourage, support or actively enable its own clubs to make similar investments in overseas superstars.
If Barrett is going to come back from Ireland a better player - which is true he will, because Leinster are arguably the best club in the world - then surely it would be of equal benefit if a few leading Irishmen were recruited to impart their wisdom to New Zealand’s cohort of emerging talent?
Why not use some of Silver Lake’s money to enable Super Rugby Pacific clubs to recruit one international superstar each and accept that the game here would benefit as much as any other leading nation does from overseas recruitment.
Exhibit D - why will it be okay for Savea, Barrett and Cane to be picked by the All Blacks this year after playing a club season in Japan, but if they went back for a second season in 2025, they would no longer be eligible for international rugby?
It’s hard not to pity the new CEO of Super Rugby Pacific as he tries to get his head around all this and then, no doubt, fail to persuade anyone at NZR to change what is clearly a Mr Potato Head situation where rules are stuck madly wherever it suits.
Give the new man a few months and he’ll be broken - fully resigned to the fact New Zealand’s top echelon of talent are enabled to do whatever suits them.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and has written several books about sport.
