Barrett, the man for every occasion

AS a centre-threequarter par excellence, there is nothing Jordie Barrett cannot do. Nobody in his position can truck it up the way he does, make outside breaks, pluck garryowens out of thin air, defend with the scything zeal of a latter-day JPR Williams and kick goals from 50 metres.

The youngest of the All Blacks’ fraternal holy trinity can also go underground by way of rising to the most fraught of occasions, like the one at the Stade de France last October when the bell was about to toll on New Zealand’s World Cup.

The greatest of all quarter-finals demanded that someone came up with something supernatural. Barrett supplied it, his emergence at the exact spot where Ronan Kelleher was about to touch down turning the tide against Ireland.

In that single act of going flat out to prevent the hooker grounding the ball, Barrett effectively cost Ireland not only one pot of gold but two: the William Webb Ellis trophy and a first-prize not far short of £5m.

It seems only right, therefore, that before the year is out Barrett will have joined two-thirds of those in the blue of Leinster whom he helped defeat in the green of Ireland. At 27 he will be the first All Black to join one of Europe’s three major leagues at the zenith of his career.

He could have taken the softer option like brother Beauden and gone to Japan where the rugby fields are paved with gold. “He could’ve earned a lot more money in Japan,’’ says Avan Lee, chief executive of Barrett’s Highlanders. “He wants to be in a really competitive competition and test himself week in, week out.’’

Leinster, who stand to lose a quartet of centres (Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, Ciaran Frawley, Jamie Osborne) for the first three months of next year, will make it a rewarding experience in every sense.