HE WAS ON these shores recently to help New Zealand overcome the challenge of Ireland in their opening game of this year’s Autumn Nations Series and Leinster head coach Leo Cullen has now confirmed that Jordie Barrett is set to link up with the province’s squad later this week.

When the versatile 27-year-old signed a new contract extension with the New Zealand Rugby Union back in April, he elected to exercise an option that would allow him to play overseas for a certain period of time. Given he had previously spent 15 months as a child with his family in Oldcastle, Co. Meath, Barrett was drawn towards a move to Leinster and he subsequently agreed a deal that will keep him with the eastern province until the end of the current season.

While a knee injury saw him being withdrawn 36 minutes into their one-point defeat at the hands of France on 16 November – eight days on from lining out at inside centre in the All Blacks’ 23-13 victory over Ireland at the Aviva Stadium – Cullen revealed he doesn’t expect this to be a serious injury.

“He’s in this week. He’s making his way from wherever he is in Europe at the moment. Some final bits he had to tie off with the NZRU. His injury is not too bad. He was a little nervous, but he had a scan so that’s what we want. Get him in the door and let’s see how he looks running around.”

Even though it is highly unlikely Barrett will feature for Leinster at Kingspan Stadium on Friday night, Cullen is set to welcome back a host of names for their latest United Rugby Championship clash with interprovincial rivals Ulster. In addition to Lee Barron and John McKee – who will both be vying for a spot at hooker against Richie Murphy’s side – the experienced triumvirate of Jack Conan, Jimmy O’Brien and Jordan Larmour have also resumed full training after recovering from recent injuries.

Despite a number of Leinster’s senior squad having seen game time in the ongoing Interprovincial ‘A’ Championship, Friday will see the Blues’ first team returning to competitive action for the first time since their URC win at home to Emirates Lions on 26 October.

Whereas in previous seasons Ireland might have concluded their Autumn Nations Series campaign by this point, Andy Farrell’s international side have a 150th anniversary Test to look forward to against Australia this Saturday. This means Cullen will be without a number of key figures in Belfast on Friday (17 Leinster players have featured for Ireland thus far in November), but he is nevertheless focused on pushing forward with those that are currently at his disposal.

“It’s tight this year versus what it would have been in previous years. Listen, the 150th anniversary only happens once. We understand the importance of the tests. It’s a big game for us here. It’s a round seven game, it’s against Ulster. We’d have slightly more players in camp than them.

“Listen, we just get on with it. It’s going to be a good challenge. We’ve been waiting for this URC for a while. We’ve had two ‘A’ games, but lots of senior players have game time. Three players making their debuts. We’ll try to manage the players.”

Across six games to date in the United Rugby Championship – which has seen Leinster accumulating 29 points from a possible 30 – Cullen has used a grand total of 47 players. 21-year-old hooker Gus McCarthy has featured in five of those games and despite only making his Leinster senior debut as recently as April of this year against the Stormers, the former Blackrock College student has already made an impact within the international test arena.

Last Saturday saw McCarthy making his senior debut for Ireland in a comfortable win over Fiji at the Aviva Stadium – as part of a front-row that also included Andrew Porter and Finlay Bealham – and he rounded off an accomplished performance by grabbing a second half try.

Cullen (who recently signed a new contract that will keep him as Leinster head coach until 2027) is understandably pleased with the progress being made by McCarthy and believes he can be an inspiration to the other young hopefuls that are currently part of the Leinster set-up.

“That’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s over to the players. With Gus, even if you watch back our pre-season games, he had a good pre-season. He just takes to it really easily. Every week he was getting better and better. That’s why he started round one this season, because it was off the back of a couple of really good pre-season games,” Cullen added.

“He went well and obviously he’s kicked on since then again. Which is great to see, I thought he was excellent at the weekend. It’s what you want. Again, for all the young guys, it’s over to them when they get their opportunity. Making sure that they’re ready for it. If they go well, they’ll get picked again, but that sounds easy doesn’t it?”