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'Hugely revitalising': Former All Black excited by Jordie Barrett's Leinster stint
By Henry Lee
While most All Blacks are hitting the beaches, on the boat fishing, and enjoying some quiet time before the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season kicks off, Jordie Barrett is in the midst of a United Rugby Championship season for Irish heavyweights Leinster.
The 27-year-old has enjoyed some early success in his first few appearances for the side, scoring on his debut off the bench against Bristol.
Barrett, who will miss Super Rugby Pacific with the Hurricanes, will be available for Scott Robertson in July when France come to New Zealand.
Former All Black and current Sky Sports commentator Justin Marshall believes Barrett will gain valuable playing time and experience in Ireland.
“It'll be hugely revitalising for him. He'll be learning new skills, no doubt about it, defensively, he'll be defending in a different way,” Marshall said on the DSPN Sports Podcast with Martin Devlin.
“He will be experiencing something he's never had in his rugby career. He'll be really refreshed by it.”
Barrett has lots of international talent and quality around him at Leinster. Tadhg Furlong, Jamison Gibson-Park, Caelan Doris, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe, RG Snyman, and Josh van der Flier are all part of a glittering squad.
Marshall is confident Barrett will improve overseas.
“I think we will get a much better Jordie Barrett for it," he said.
“The fact he's putting a different jersey on in a different environment, in a different country, with a different crowd and teammates that he's never played with before.
“There'll be a different mindset in how they use their twelves over there. So he will get a massive opportunity to look at the game from a different perspective. I think that's healthy."
When players move overseas, there’s often a question mark regarding how they are going to fit back into the All Blacks system.
Barrett is available for most of the All Blacks' 2025 campaign, but having played a lot of rugby in 2024 and early this year, Marshall hopes his load will be managed.
“And then hopefully he gets to slide back into the New Zealand system, not feeling tired, but feeling really enthusiastic about what he can bring in terms of the development of this game like he could become a much better player for what he's experiencing, and as long as he's looked after, which I'm sure he will be.”
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its important for there to be public pressure on world rugby regarding its extremely inconsistent approach to sanctions (eg. why Russia but not US or Israel?)
this seems like a decent forum for that, just a shame the anti-russia mob don't seem willing to discuss facts!
Go to commentsI think we're going to see a recovery, finally, after the post-COVID period. Premiership Rugby has never been more accessible, and more competitive. Every match is on some form of television, whether TNT Sports or Discovery+ streaming. You have a situation in which every single point counts, which means every single try counts, every PK, every conversion kick. It's crazy.
I will say, I'd love a switch to the Top 14 standard, in which you get an attacking bonus for winning by 3 or more tries, rather than a try bonus that you get for 4 or more tries no matter how many you allow. But other than that, it's perfect as far as game play goes.
The other big items to solve, the need to settle the Championship and bring back the consistent relegation threat to make the bottom of the table more exciting. I'd also like to see the teams qualifying for the Champions Cup trimmed to either 6 or even 5. You do those two things, we'll never have a single dead rubber match. Barely do now but sometimes, round 17 and 18 they pop up. Those two changes though, and they'll be eliminated entirely, the league will be perfect.
Lastly, something I'd push for big is a more reasonable TV deal in the United States. Right now, for those unaware, the Premiership is on an obscure rugby only app called The Rugby Network which is owned by Major League Rugby. It can be a bit glitchy and has a very limited audience. EPCR competitions are on FloRugby, another obscure app that's also very overpriced and unreliable.
Leverage the relationship with WarnerDiscovery (who own TNT Sports). to get Premiership Rugby on the TNT and TBS networks, as well as their Max streaming service in the US. Give to them first at a discount if need be. Tough to find very recent figures but based on what I can find, about 25% of English declare an interest in following rugby union as spectators. This means, if just about 4% of Americans take an interest in rugby, you have a market as big as the one rugby union currently captures in England. I think that's doable.
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