He is a versatile player.
Following the announcement that All Black Rieko Ioane will be joining Leinster after next season’s Autumn Nations Series, question marks have been raised over the need for such a signing, given Leinster’s depth at centre.
With both Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose over 30-years-old, next season would seem like a prime time to transition Jamie Osborne into a starting berth at inside centre.
The presence of Ioane will make this tougher on the 23-year-old, but, as Leo Cullen’s comments suggest, the All Black may not play most of his rugby for the Blues in the midfield.
Leinster’s head coach said: “He is an exciting, versatile outside back who will bring pace, rugby skills and experience to Leinster.”
To some, outside back includes outside centre, which is Ioane’s most played position, as well wing/fullback, to others it is just wing/fullback.
But the key word is versatile, and with Leinster’s lack of top-tier depth on the wing, this is where we may see Ioane in the big games.
According to all.rugby, the New Zealander has started 64% of games at 13, 28% at 11, 4% at 12, and 4% at 14.
With James Lowe exclusively a No 11, Ioane could play on the right wing, and will undoubtedly have the skill to do so despite having only started a small portion of his games at 14.
This could lead to a possible backline of Jamison Gibson-Park, Sam Prendergast, James Lowe, Jamie Osborne, Garry Ringrose, Rieko Ioane, Hugo Keenan.
With the other three provinces all having imported back-three players on their books, in Santi Cordero (Connacht), Thaakir Abrahams (Munster), and Werner Kok (Ulster), it may have been harder to convince the IRFU to sign off on another foreign import at wing.
But because Ioane is coming in as a centre in place of Jordie Barrett, this is not an issue, even though wing could be where spends most of his time.
