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Murray Kinsella Reports from Ashton Gate A BACK INJURY for Ciarán Frawley meant Jordie Barrett got on for his Leinster debut earlier than might have been the case in Bristol. The New Zealand star replaced the Leinster fullback at half time although he was sent on at inside centre, with Garry Ringrose shifting out to the wing and Robbie Henshaw moving to outside centre as Jimmy O’Brien shifted to fullback.
The sheer size of him is hard to miss in the flesh but the 6ft 5ins centre is about more than physical prowess. The timing of his passing is among his strengths and he delivered a slick one out the back for Sam Prendergast’s first try. Minutes later, Barrett dummied a similar ball to Prendergast and instead darted over for his own score. There were other moments of class from the 27-year-old Kiwi who underlined how big an influence he could have in his seven-month stint with Leinster. Barrett was part of a game-changing impact from the Leinster bench in their 35-12 Champions Cup win over Bristol this evening, with two-time World Cup winner RG Snyman, World Rugby player of the year nominee Caelan Doris, and Ireland cornerstone Andrew Porter also showing their class.“It was great, you know, 40 minutes for him,” said Leinster boss Leo Cullen post-match in Bristol. “Ciarán went off with a knock to his back at half time, so it was amazing experience to be able to bring off the bench. Advertisement “It’s taken a lot of work to get him here, he’s down with one of his brothers downstairs. Not the brothers you’re thinking of, the cricketer, so it’s great having some of his family here.“We weren’t sure how we’d get him up and running, we thought it was sensible to have him on the bench as he figures out a number of things this week and the tail end of last week. “Hopefully he kicks on, goes from strength to strength. When you bring someone in from the outside you just want to make sure they add, so he has an interesting connection to Leinster going back to when he was a youngster. Barrett with Bristol's Pat Lam and Steven Luatua. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO “He had a fascination to here, so we’re lucky to have him and hopefully he’ll be able to have a good run with us.” Cullen was delighted to see Jack Boyle making his Champions Cup debut for Leinster at loosehead prop, with hooker Gus McCarthy doing the same off the bench, while Snyman and Rabah Slimani made their first appearances in this competition for the province. There was also a first Champions Cup start for 21-year-old out-half Sam Prendergast, who scored two tries in a 20-point haul.“Particularly during that period, obviously Bristol were firing plenty of shots, we fired some shots and then it got very messy with the penalties, then we lose two players and we manage that part of the game. “Sam definitely came alive during that period when it was 14-on-14, he scores two of the three tries we did score, so a great outing for him today.” Overall, Cullen was pleased with Leinster’s second-half dominance but he was frustrated with the first half.“The game didn’t have a huge amount of flow in the first half,” said Cullen. “The scrum is probably the big point from the first half and we had two yellow cards as well. “A lot of that pressure when we give away the yellow cards is coming off some of the territory and field position that Bristol are getting from us giving away scrum penalties and it’s unbelievably frustrating. “We talked about it with the referee leading into the game. I talked to someone else in England and Bristol… if you watch their games, there are a lot of scrums that end up on the ground and unfortunately we got on the wrong end on a lot of calls.“I’ll go through the game and I’ll need to look at them again because that led to a lot of pressure on us. “The second half was a totally different game. The referee gets annoyed with both teams and we both lose props so it’s 14-on-14 during that period, and we scored three tries, so was it 21-0 maybe during that period, and we played some really good stuff in that period of the game which was really pleasing. “But yeah we do need to figure out how we need to be better in the first half. It’s early days yet but I’ll have to look back on the game myself.”
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