Former All Black boss has a big concern on Jordie Barrett's move to Leinster

06/28/2024 09:56 AM

Relentless.

Leinster Rugby shocked the world a few months back when they announced the signing of All Blacks superstar, Jordie Barrett.

The 27-year-old is regarded as one of the best players in the world and made the surprise decision to join Leinster when triggering his sabbatical.

Usually, players would tend to move to places like Japan where the level of rugby would be less and the pay packet would be much more, but Barrett will instead arrive at Leinster in December.

He’s set to stay until the end of the 2024/25 season but his former boss Ian Foster is concerned about the move, highlighting the intensity and "relentlessness" of games in Europe compared to elsewhere

"It will be interesting what the level of rugby is like for him coming from the end of a big long season and then going into a UK winter," Foster told The Ruck Podcast.

"There's a certain relentlessness about their competitions so the proof will be in the pudding and how effective that is for him.

"He probably won't know for about a year after that because often it takes a while for the body to catch up, so I will be watching that with interest…

"There's a strong pull from the Irish with his background and his family. There's a lot of good golf courses up there, so I think there's a whole lot of motives for him.

"Jordie's often cut his own path a little bit. He came and knocked on our door a couple of years ago and wanted to go and train with the Melbourne Storm in his pre-season for 10 days.

"We thought that was a good idea and he was stimulated by that. He's chasing something up there at Leinster, we'll see how that goes."

The post Former All Black boss has a big concern on Jordie Barrett’s move to Leinster appeared first on RugbyLAD.