{"id":606186,"date":"2026-05-27T07:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/606186\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T07:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T07:28:16","slug":"jordie-barrett-hints-at-future-leinster-reunion-and-verdict-on-champions-cup-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/606186\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordie Barrett hints at future Leinster reunion and verdict on Champions Cup defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Jordie Barrett is open to a possible return to Leinster and has weighed in on the Irish club\u2019s latest Investec Champions Cup disappointment.<\/p>\n

Leinster fell to a crushing 41-19 defeat at the hands of Bordeaux in the final of the competition in Bilbao at the weekend, with the Irish giants failing to win their first title since 2018.<\/p>\n

Since beating Racing 92 eight years ago, Leo Cullen\u2019s men have finished as runners-up on five occasions and were knocked out at the semi-final stages last season during Barrett\u2019s short-term stint at the side.<\/p>\n

Champions Cup was \u2018tough to watch\u2019<\/p>\n

A fifth Champions Cup<\/a> title continues to elude Leinster<\/a>, whose former player tuned in during the early hours of Sunday morning in New Zealand<\/a> to see the game unfold and was left gutted for his ex-teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty intrigued. Salesi Rayasi is a good mate of mine, and then a lot of good Leinster mates and Reiko Ioane,\u201d Barrett<\/a> told the KOKO Show.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIt was a tough one to watch, actually, for both sides. Five European losses in a row, they mustn\u2019t know where to look by now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was gutted for them because I was over there last year when we lost a semi-final against Northampton, who were flying at the time, and now the French teams have won the last six.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to be good enough to beat a Top 14 side now if you want to win it but sure they definitely have the group there. Like, unbelievable boys, and I thought I was coached really well last year by the Leinster coaches. I\u2019m not sure whether it was the heat of Bilbao and the Irish boys weren\u2019t used to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democracy v Aristocracy: The facet that defined the Investec Champions Cup Final and why the \u2018same problem\u2019 will appear for Ireland<\/a><\/p>\n

Still, the All Black was impressed that Leinster continue to be able to reach the latter stages of the competition season after season despite not having the finishing touches, and he suggested that perhaps he should return to the club to have another crack.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams will have a championship window, and then that\u2019ll close over a couple of years,\u201d he said. \u201cLeinster still always seem to be doing the right thing by getting there and probably just need a little bit of luck to get one or two.<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine that all they need is to get one, and the second will come. I couldn\u2019t do it last year, so I might have to try to go back and win one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Barrett\u2019s potential Leinster return and chasing two titles<\/p>\n

Pressed as to whether he would consider leaving New Zealand shores later in his career, Barrett did not shy away from the question, having enjoyed his time at the Irish province. He further delved into the challenges that Leinster face.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, potentially. Like, I loved my time in Dublin, great boys, and that\u2019s certainly something I\u2019ll look at trying to do potentially in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

All Blacks snub lands top coaching job after New Zealand club fails to lure Andy Farrell\u2019s assistant home<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEuropean rugby is amazing, and the other thing with Leinster, last year we were juggling trying to win a URC, which we were able to do for the first time in seven or eight years, which was awesome, as well as managing a squad to win the European Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing the Leinster boys have to juggle is the 22 or 23 international players. So, trying to manage those boys week to week in the URC, but then trying to target the European final as well. There\u2019s a lot of moving parts, but I certainly enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fun weeks were actually playing with a few of the academy boys and some club players and just trying to graft out a win on a cold night against Connacht, but then also enjoyable in those big European games as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Ex-Ireland player explains why \u2018supporter animosity\u2019 at Leinster hasn\u2019t reached \u2018tipping point\u2019 but feels Ciaran Frawley \u2018punishment didn\u2019t match the crime\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordie Barrett is open to a possible return to Leinster and has weighed in on the Irish club\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[348,120846,51765,65320,620,50,5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-606186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-home-page","tag-investec-champions-cup","tag-jordie-barrett","tag-leinster","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}