There have probably been so many coaches that have helped guide Jordie Barrett’s career that Hollywoodbets Sharks coach John Plumtree would be embarrassed for the All Black to be described as a prodigy of his but nonetheless he is one of those who has mentored the Leinster centre.
Barrett played for a long time under Plumtree when he was first assistant to Chris Boyd at Hurricanes and then when he was head coach, so knows better than most just what it is that makes Barrett such a key and important member of any team he plays in.
He knows just what a huge threat Barrett is to the Sharks’ ambitions in Saturday’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with the Irish juggernaut at Hollywoodbets Kings Park.
So it might have been with a hint of seriousness that he joked on Thursday that he hopes Barrett has returned to Ireland to help with Leinster’s preparations for next Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup round of 16 clash with Harlequins.
“I was chatting to Jason Holland (former Hurricanes coach who is currently assistant at All Blacks) this morning and we were talking about just how good Jordie is,” said Plumtree.
“I thought he was huge against the Bulls. He has softer touches to his game, the ability to put players around him into space that few other players do, but he is also physically strong and powerful. I also know full well how competitive he is. He is an absolute beast in the collision area and his work rate is immense.
“His play in the midfield last week was immense, he was hugely influential, and his work rate was immense. It was hotter than expected apparently but the work he got through around the part was unreal.
“He is a massive player for them and a big threat and I wouldn’t mind if Jordie has gone back to Ireland actually,” added the Sharks coach with half a grin.
IN THE DARK OVER WHO WILL PLAY FOR LEINSTER
Plumtree said he isn’t actually sure who Leinster are going to field against the Sharks and is as in the dark as everyone else is over visiting coach Leo Cullen’s plans.
The just retired Ireland veteran front-ranker Cian Healy was photographed in training this week, and it is understood there might have been some other Ireland international reinforcements sent to Durban subsequent to last week’s loss to the Bulls.
But while it may be interesting to the rest of us, and make a difference, the uncertainty hasn’t made too much difference to Plumtree and his team in their approach to the game. For Plumtree, who let’s not forget was part of the Irish system as Ireland assistant coach to Joe Schmidt back in 2014, reckons Leinster are a well drilled team regardless of the individuals who wear the jersey on match day.
It's been three years since Aphelele Fassi did *𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 against Leinster 😤⚡️
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) March 25, 2025
📺 They take on the Sharks on Saturday night with kick-off at 19:15. pic.twitter.com/ZzOviNhHz0
“I have no more idea than you do about what team they are likely to field against us but we know their game model, we know they will come up with certain tricks to get an edge on us,” he said.
“We can’t predict who they will play but just as important is that we know how they play. We know how they attack, we know how they defend and what pressure points will come our way and also where we can potentially put them under pressure.
"Having said all of that, I am a big believer in focusing on ourselves. We are going to have to be much better than we were last week against Zebre.”
EXPECTING AERIAL ASSAULT
After his team struggled with their aerial game against Zebre, and with Aphelele Fassi still missing from the No 15 jersey, Plumtree is convinced that his team will have to withstand a sustained aerial assault on Saturday.
“They will go to the air, where we really struggled last week. We won just two of our contestable kicks against Zebre. If we are going to go up, we need to win at least half of them, if not more. We do have one of the best in the world playing for us in that regard in the form of Makazole Mapimpi.
In fairness Makazole hasn’t played much rugby over the past few weeks because of his suspension but he has trained well during the week and has last week’s game behind him now.
“We have also moved Ethan Hooker back to the wing. He can contest there, he is a big lad who is good at that. It will also be good to see how Yaw Penxe (moved from wing) goes at fullback. It is not his normal position but I think there is an opportunity for him to play there in the future. Our aerial game definitely needs to be better than it has been.”
Plumtree said the message to the team this week was to be tighter and more controlled than against Zebre, where they kept the Italian team in the game by gifting them scraps of possession with loose play that Zebre generally seized upon with alacrity.
“When we looked back on that game again from a skill set point of view, we saw that we kicked poorly, there were too many turnovers and we thus gave Zebre too many opportunities to attack us while our defence was unstructured.
"And the very good players they have at the back hurt us. We have to fix that up because we are playing a much better team this weekend.
“To win against Leinster we need to control large parts of the game. If we give away turn-over ball on transition when we are not connected we will be in trouble. Last week we were guilty of not connecting quickly enough off transition and there was some really poor decision making. We were often too loose in the offload.
“So the idea is to tighten up this week. Fortunately I thought our forwards produced their best performance of the season last week… I guess the big one is that every part of the game against a side like Leinster is contested. There are no gimmes. The Bulls got on top of them in the scrums.
"But the lineouts, breakdown and attack tested every part of the game. It is going to be a big challenge for us. We simply must not allow them to dominate facets of the game where they can get on top of us.”