Why Rieko Ioane’s sabbatical shift to Leinster isn’t the win-win it seems: Gregor Paul

Rieko Ioane thanks fans after winning the quarter-final against Ireland in Paris. Photo / Photosport

THREE KEY FACTS

• Rieko Ioane will replicate Jordie Barrett’s six-month stint at Leinster.
• Barrett will return after playing 16 consecutive months, raising concerns about player welfare.
• Leinster benefits more from these deals, causing disruptions to Super Rugby Pacific and All Blacks’ management.

No sport knows how to spin the narrative after the fact better than rugby, and the wheels of retrospectively making something sound like a good idea when it maybe isn’t, are now in motion over Rieko Ioane’s sabbatical shift to Leinster.

It’s a good move, says the establishment – just as it did when Jordie Barrett made the same announcement a year ago – one that will broaden Ioane’s skill-sets, experiences and horizons.

And look at Barrett – he’s playing the house down in Dublin and has made himself a core part of a team that is on track to win the United Rugby Championship and potentially the European Champions Cup.

He’s going to come home enriched by the experience – financially, culturally and professionally – and New Zealand will have a better player, all thanks to Leinster.

On the strength of the Barrett scenario, why wouldn’t New Zealand celebrate Ioane embarking on the same journey to enjoy the same developmental uplift?

The answer to why not lies in the darker side of this narrative, which no one in the establishment wants to acknowledge.

Barrett will be coming home a more confident player, certainly better equipped to adapt his game to different scenarios.

But he’s also coming home – probably just two weeks before the first All Blacks test of the year as the URC final is scheduled for June 14 – having played for 16 consecutive months.

He’s going to be in the All Blacks squad to play France (and if not, that is another cost of players taking sabbaticals that they have to miss critical tests when they return) and while he may have his game-time managed, he’s going to be playing until late November, which means he will have gone two full seasons without a significant break.

And this is why, when Barrett’s plan to take a sabbatical in Ireland was first run by All Blacks coach Scott Robertson, he wasn’t keen on the idea.

Robertson was concerned not so much about the volume of rugby Barrett would endure – as Leinster had a detailed programme on the number of games he would play – but the physical intensity of those games and the difficulties the All Blacks coaching team would then have in managing their vice-captain once he returned to New Zealand.

Barrett is tough and resilient, so he’ll probably manage to get through the rest of this season without too many signs of fatigue, but the issue with this sits with it being contrary to all the best-practice player welfare/management principles that have been established.

Everyone agrees that players need 12 weeks off between seasons – and this is why those who tour the Northern Hemisphere with the All Blacks in November are on managed plans when they return to Super Rugby Pacific, because they have typically only had about eight or nine weeks off.

Allowing Barrett and Ioane to play two years without a proper break somewhat diminishes the credibility of claims about player welfare being a high priority.

But perhaps the bigger problem with Leinster now seemingly having a permanent desire to recruit All Blacks midfielders for the back half of their season, is that the Irish are getting significantly more from this arrangement than New Zealand.

Part of the attraction for Leinster is that three of their midfielders regularly play for Ireland and so are heavily managed between February and April around the Six Nations.

Having a world-class All Black to step in for them makes sense, but it does mean that while the likes of Garry Ringrose, Jamie Osborne and Robbie Henshaw are kept fresh for Ireland, Barrett and now Ioane will be doing a lot of heavy lifting, as it were.

And that can’t be good for the All Blacks – allowing Ireland to use New Zealand’s best talent to keep their stars on well-managed programmes?

Then there is also the marketing imbalance that these sabbaticals cause. Next year, Leinster will have an incredible marketing opportunity built around Ioane’s previous escapades with Irish legend Johnny Sexton.

While they are using Ioane’s image and history to sell tickets and merchandise, the Blues are given nothing in compensation.

It’s not as if there are any Irish players coming down here with valuable back stories and high profiles, and so the Blues not only lose access to one of their most marketable players, but the one-way traffic flow deepens the perception that Super Rugby is the poor relation – the weaker club competition.

The real story is that these European ventures are not the win-win scenario that they are being sold as and that they come with a much higher cost than is realised.

The argument that they are a better alternative to losing the likes of Barrett and Ioane to longer overseas deals is now questionable.

These deals are disruptive to Super Rugby clubs and damaging to the competition’s brand, they leave the All Blacks having to carefully manage tired and battered athletes and they crush the credibility of arguments around best practice player welfare.

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.