LONG READ Barrett and Prendergast put Leinster European rivals on notice

“I just wanted to be part of these big European games, and to rub shoulders with some great men.”

As Jordie Barrett addressed his new Leinster team-mates, in the away dressing room at Ashton Gate, one was reminded of the guy’s sheer size. A little over 16 stone (102kg) and coming in at 6ft 5in (1.96m), Barrett is a unit.

Had someone told you, prior to 2008, that an All Blacks superstar was saying such words about Leinster Rugby, you’d need a whole glob of gaps to be filled in. Big European games and great men? Leinster must have really done something right.

The RugbyPass Top 100 men’s players was released this week, and Leinster ended up with 13 inclusions. Toulouse (11) were the next closest, with Leicester, Benetton and Stormers all next best, on four apiece. Eleven of those 13 Leinster players on the list are Ireland internationals, with newcomers Barrett and RG Snyman rounding it out.

Leinster had eight of that ‘Top 100’ involved in their opening Champions Cup game of the season, last Sunday. Bristol Bears put it up to the four-time European champions. They were clinging on, at one stage, with 13 men on the pitch and another two stewing in the sin-bin. Four second-half tries did for Pat Lam’s side, with one score epitomising just how dangerous Leinster can be.

In the space of 12 minutes, early in the second half, Leinster ran in four tries and ballooned the score from 7-7 to 35-7. Their third try in that sequence started with a lineout throw in their own half and ended, 26 seconds later, with Sam Prendergast dotting down. Here are the players that touched the ball in those 26 seconds:

• Ronan Kelleher
• Jack Conan
• Jamison Gibson-Park (twice)
• Sam Prendergast (twice)
• Caelan Doris (twice)
• Jordie Barrett
• Garry Ringrose
• RG Snyman
• Andrew Porter

On the left-hand side of the pitch, Kelleher found Conan with his throw. Within four passes, the ball was over on the right wing. Ringrose carried, Gibson-Park found Doris and the Ireland captain slipped a pass back inside for a charging Porter. Snyman was in support and took the offload before careening 30 metres as desperate tacklers smacked the turf. Prendergast ran a lovely support line, took Snyman’s pass at full pelt and handed off Rich Lane before breezing home for the bonus-point try.

One had to feel for Bristol during this ruthless Leinster barrage. They are the envy of every club side in world rugby, including the two sides that bested them in the past three Champions Cup finals, Toulouse and La Rochelle. This was a match-day 23 still without Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, James Lowe, Hugo Keenan, Ryan Baird and Jamie Osborne, yet they dismantled the Premiership’s second-placed side on their own patch.

What may have pleased Jacques Nienaber and Leo Cullen more than the excellent Barrett and Snyman cameos is the infusion of new blood. Prendergast finished the Autumn Nations Series in Ireland’s No.10 jersey but Sunday was his first Champions Cup start for Leinster.

Barrett played the second 40 minutes against Pat Lam’s side, and needed only 15 to register his first assist and try.

Loosehead Jack Boyle made his competition debut and acquitted himself well in his 54 minutes on the pitch. Then you had Gus McCarthy, who started the season as Leinster’s fifth-choice hooker and ended November with two tries and three assists in his first two Test outings. Prendergast and McCarthy are 21, while Boyle is 22.

Barrett played the second 40 minutes against Pat Lam’s side, and needed only 15 to register his first assist and try. Prendergast got him immediately into the action with a restart pump into the Bears’ 22. Rich Lane fielded the ball before Barrett tagged in and brought him to ground. He was away.

On 46 minutes, referee Pierre Brousset sent Porter and Bristol’s Max Lahiff to the bin for the repeated sins of their front-row brethren. Barrett had made two decent carries and tackles, by then. His potential in this Leinster backline was soon apparent as he seamlessly slotted into a well-worked set-play off an attacking scrum.

Gibson-Park found Barrett for what looked to be a crash-ball carry. Instead, Barrett held onto the ball long enough for dummy runner Robbie Henshaw to take out Joe Jenkins. A beat later, Barrett pulled the ball back to Prendergast before hurtling into Bernhard Janse van Rensburg, taking another defender out of the equation. That left Gabriel Ibitoye with a decision to make, as Jordan Larmour sped around on his outside shoulder. A drifting Ibitoye gave Prendergast all the space he needed to spear through before faking a pass outside and taking the ball to the line himself for a wonderful score.

Two minutes after that score, Barrett was over for his first Leinster try. From close range, he feigned a pull-back to Prendergast before going alone and diving over.

“It doesn’t happen too often,” Barrett joked about his early scoring prowess. “I might be setting some unrealistic expectations, going forward.”

For most of the last two Champions Cup campaigns, Leinster handed Ross Byrne the 10 jersey. The 29-year-old, a long-time understudy to Johnny Sexton, started all 12 games in the competition when he was fit and available. Following the Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa and an encouraging start to his Test career, Leinster are now looking at Prendergast in the main playmaker role. Barrett has been encouraged by what he has seen so far.

“Sammy is a good kid, for a start,” says Barrett. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders and his feet on the ground. He’s a confident young man with all his best years ahead of him.

“Admittedly he’s not a finished product right now, no-one ever is at his age, but he’s going to keep growing, keep learning, keep doing good things, keep making mistakes, and that’s important for his growth as well.

“Look, there’s some great young 10s in Ireland, at the moment. I’ve seen Ciarán Frawley here, in this environment, and there’s Jack Crowley, as well, at Munster. I feel like that should be celebrated. You’re in good hands.”

My team-mates are great blokes who have helped me across the 13 days, reaching out on and off the field, making the transition seamless. It’s been great and I’m so grateful for it.

The Kiwi was “rapt” when he learned Leinster were also acquiring Tyler Bleyendaal from the Hurricanes, to join their coaching staff. The former Munster out-half made a decent start to his coaching career, in Super Rugby, and has already made a positive impact on Leinster’s attack, which he inherited from Ireland-bound Andrew Goodman.

Barrett is only at Leinster until the end of the season and will be hoping to prove one of the puzzle pieces hitherto missing for the province to claim their fifth star above the crest. He has been in Dublin just over two weeks and is grateful for his new team-mates for taking so much time out to help him understand the Leinster DNA, and how they want to play the game.

“They take a lot of pride in the club and what it stands for and obviously my team-mates are great blokes who have helped me across the 13 days, reaching out on and off the field, making the transition seamless. It’s been great and I’m so grateful for it.”

Barrett and Snyman are two significant weapons in Leinster’s teeming arsenal, but do not underplay the emergence of the likes of Prendergast, Boyle, McCarthy and Osborne.