LONG READ Jacques Nienaber's Galactico recruits are driving Leinster towards a fifth star

It is not the first time this has happened over the past few years. Leinster are once again ahead of the game, and the dominant province in Ireland is leading the national team around by the nose. While the past two Irish Six Nations campaigns have stalled, landing on snakes halfway through the tournament, the Dubliners are striking out on their own path and have jumped on to the ladder of accelerated improvement once more.

It happened in the earliest stages of Andy Farrell’s tenure, when the teething problems of mid-table mediocrity in the Six Nations took a couple of years to resolve. It wasn’t until 2022 the emerald green profited by a wholesale switch Leinster methodology, with 11 or 12 men from the East coast province regularly selected to the national team.

Now telltale signs of the same pattern are beginning to repeat themselves. The attacking and defensive outlooks have moved on in Dublin, but it has yet to be incorporated at national level. Ex-Leinster and Ireland hooker-turned pundit Bernard Jackman recently explored the background in his column for The Irish Independent:

“[Leinster] needed a radical change of approach following the disappointments in Europe since 2018, but it looks like the penny has finally dropped. You have to give credit to those in charge for grasping the nettle. There is no silverware to show for it yet, but they look in rude health on the field and off it.

“The first noticeable change was in their foreign player recruitment, which began before they lost to Toulouse in last year’s final. Signing three world-class players of the quality of [tighthead prop] Rabah Slimani, [second row] RG Snyman and [centre/full-back] Jordie Barrett was a statement of intent. They haven’t signed any player of that quality in a decade, and to get three together was a serious flex of their muscles.

“To replace one world-class coach in Stuart Lancaster, they went and got one of, if not the best coach in the world in Jacques Nienaber. They were incredibly brave and ambitious. If you bring someone as good as Nienaber in, then you have to let him do his thing.

“I do not think the way Leinster play has helped Ireland, but I think that is an issue for Ireland. Nienaber is here to deliver silverware, just as he has done for the Springboks with two World Cups and a [British & Irish] Lions series.

“Leinster brought a line speed and desire to hurt in the tackle that they [Harlequins, in the Champions Cup round of 16] don’t normally experience, and will not want to face again for a long time.”

How have these seismic changes manifested at the raw statistical level? At the pool stage of this season’s Champions Cup, Leinster conceded the fewest points [an average of 13.5 per game] and only seven tries in four matches. Their progress in the knockout stages has been even more spectacular. While scoring overall has exploded in the quarter-finals and round of 16, with 794 points at average of 33 points conceded per team per game, Leinster’s portion of that has shrunk to nothing. Not just a virtual nothing, but an actual big fat zero against two sides renowned for their attacking prowess, Harlequins and Glasgow.

The developments on attack have been more subtle, but no less significant. Take a look at the following table, culled from the pool stages of the past two Champions Cups.

As Nienaber’s philosophy has been cemented in, the amount of ruck-building has dropped by an average of 16 rucks per game, while the emphasis on the offload and keeping play fluid has shot up, and conversely increased the quantity of lightning-quick ball at the breakdown Leinster have been able to produce.

The ratio of offloading to ruck-building in those last two games against Quins and Warriors has been off the charts: from one offload per 16 rucks in 2023-24, halved to one in eight at the equivalent pool stage this season, then halved again, to a crazy 1:4 in the knockouts so far. Leinster made no fewer than 52 offloads in contact against Quins and Glasgow. That figure is colossal. To put it in a national context, Ireland still rolled in at one offload per 17 rucks at the 2025 Six Nations, and the picture was looking the same as Leinster 2023-24.

The two prime targets of Leinster’s international recruitment programme, Springbok Snyman and All Black Barrett, also happen to be among the key off-loaders at the club: they led the way with four offloads apiece in the quarter-final versus Glasgow. That is no coincidence.

The flow of significant IP is a two-way street. While Snyman and Barrett have brought their offloading nous to Leinster on attack, Jordie will be returning to New Zealand with invaluable knowledge about Nienaber’s blitz defence. No team in New Zealand, let alone the All Blacks, runs such a system at present, and it has made Barrett not only a more effective defender – but a true monster on D.

In last weekend’s tilt against the Warriors, Barrett had three breakdown turnovers, two forced fumbles in the tackle, another two turnovers achieved as part of the choke tackle, and two indirect turnovers created immediately for others on the next play. Nine turnovers represent incredible production at this level.

Nienaber’s system encourages the second five eighth to drive upfield quickly and make tackles on his own terms, and for those who doubted Barrett’s physicality it comes as a salutary reminder. He appeared to positively relish the mano-a-mano challenges the system creates for him.

That is no ordinary mortal picking up off the back of the Glasgow scrum in the first example, it is 6ft 2ins and almost 130kg of explosive Tongan Sione Vailanu, Glasgow’s single most powerful ball-carrier, but he is dumped on his backside in no uncertain terms by the youngest of the Barrett clan.

The second clip is a perfect illustration of how Nienaber’s system promotes aggressive tackles. Even though the ruck is set in midfield and play could go to either side of it, early recognition by the interior defenders allows Barrett and co to get off the line early and shut the play down a full 10m behind the site of the previous ruck. Once again, it is a big man who is on receiving end of the ‘ragdoll’ treatment – 6ft 4ins and 103kg of Scotland international Stafford McDowall.

The final instance shows how the quick outside rush funnels play back to the inside and into Jordie’s ‘office’, with Tom Jordan the victim and the ball dislodged in the tackle. Where Barrett might have been content to slide over and follow the wide ball movement in New Zealand, in Ireland he is expected to be ‘the man’ and make the dominant play.

His physical strength to hold the ball-carrier up off the ground and force turnover became a factor in the third quarter.

This is Barrett playing to his full stature, as [typically] the biggest and the strongest of the backs on the field, on either side. It is impossible to bypass the 12’s role as an auxiliary forward in the modern game, not least at the breakdown.

In that first clip it is the best of all possible worlds for the new iteration of Leinster, with Barrett winning a turnover as clean as a whistle before delivering an offload to Josh van der Flier to fan the flames of the counter-attack.

Jordie has also shaped parts of his game with ball in hand to promote the winning of turnover ball by others, in the following example via his kicking game.

Leinster are quite happy to spread the kicking among four backs – Jamison Gibson-Park [4], his half-back partner Sam Prendergast [7], left wing James Lowe [3] and Barrett himself [4] – and in this case his pinpoint diagonal allows the Dubliners to achieve a numbers advantage in ‘coffin corner’ with right wing Tommy O’Brien completing the pilfer. If the ‘defensive assist’ was an acknowledged statistical category, that kick would surely qualify.

The changes made at Leinster under the auspices of world champion Nienaber have yet to be recognised by Ireland, but right now the game balance is more efficient and productive at provincial level than it is on the tier above. Defence is more aggressive and generates more turnovers, while the attack has been trimmed down to feature more offloading and far fewer rucks.

The international recruitment has been key to the process, plucking Snyman from Munster and Barrett from New Zealand on a six-month sabbatical. Both men are tall physical specimens who excel at the offload, while Barrett’s defensive yield has rocketed with so much traffic funnelled in his direction by Nienaber’s system. It may just provide the edge the Dubliners need to sew a coveted fifth star on the blue-and-gold jersey, after the agonisingly close ‘final calls’ of the past three seasons.