The New Zealand out-half’s 30 point tally in the All Blacks’ 40-12 win over Australia earned the Kiwi’s the Bledisloe Cup for the 16th successive time, but the headlines were mostly about the individual in the No 10 shirt.

His third try took him level with Dan Carter’s All Blacks try scoring record and his fourth took him one clear – with Argentina and South Africa lying nervously in wait.

In scoring four, he became the first No 10 in test rugby history to score so many in one match – with 17 others stuck on three.

He became the first Kiwi to score four tries in a Bledisloe Cup game, and the 30 point haul overtook Andrew Mehrtens’ 29 from 1999 – when every score came from the out-half’s boot.

The stats are almost as breathtaking as the highlights from Saturday’s test, and that’s before Steve Hansen’s post-match comments that Barrett is not yet ‘the finished article’.

To most people, that performance and those stats would make a clear case to place Barrett at the top of the sport’s No 10 pyramid, but not to everyone.

And one man who knows more than most about being a world class out half is World Rugby Hall of Fame player, and former Leinster No 10, Felipe Contepomi.

Earlier this month he said Leinster had the world’s best out-half and he repeated the claim yesterday as the province counted down the days to their Guinness PRO14 opener against Cardiff this Friday night.

Sexton won’t be there (Ross Byrne is likely to start) but if Leinster and Ireland are to come anywhere close to last season’s success he will be.

Contepomi, the man who Sexton famously replaced in the 2009 Heineken Cup semi-final against Munster, had an early sighting of the now 33year-old who has gone on to lead Leinster, Ireland and the Lions to success since taking the No 10 shirt from the Argentinian.

Watching Barrett at the weekend did not make Contepomi question Sexton’s place in the pantheon of rugby greats, it made him think how much greater he could be.

With Johnny and Beauden Barrett – you can pick who you want, but I’d like to see Johnny in a black jersey and see what he can do and then we could compare, you know?” he said.

“I think that Johnny has done really well, Ireland is probably the second best in the world nowadays and a lot of that has to do with how Johnny conducts that team.

“It’s hard to compare two players when you are behind a team like the All Blacks. Beauden Barrett is magnificent, but he has some attributes that Johnny doesn’t and Johnny has some attributes that Beauden doesn’t.

“It’s ‘take your pick’ of whatever style of rugby you want to play, but they are at the moment the best out-halves in the world.”

Looking at the stats highlights how different those attributes are and also how different the Ireland and New Zealand environments are.

Barrett first: of his 525 points, in 66 tests, just 129 have come from penalty kicks. 246 have come from conversions, while 150 from tries.

Sexton’s tally could hardly be more different, in fact you’d almost think they played different positions. Just 50 of Sexton’s 719 points are thanks to tries, with 180 from conversions.

A mammoth 477 come from penalties. Then there’s the occasionally important drop goal (zero for Barrett, in case you wondered).

Just how Sexton would fit in with the more faster, attack-minded, dominant All Blacks – where penalties are rarely required and kicking is less employed, is a question to keep a late bar open even later, but he’d doubtless thrive.

Sexton’s rise was seen at first hand by the Argentinian almost a decade ago, and even then he was in no doubt the Dubliner would be a success.

“It’s not that you expect it, but when I was here you could see that he was going to make it,” he said.