No less than the void left by Ian Madigan, the retirements of Eoin Reddan and Isaac Boss at Leinster has also left a vacuum at scrumhalf, and while these are early days, Jamison Gibson-Park is looking like a shrewd piece of business.
The ex-Blues and Hurricanes number nine says the transition has been pretty seamless so far and that’s how it’s looked on the pitch. After a couple of sprightly cameos off the bench, he marked his full competitive debut at Murrayfield last Friday with his first try for his new province in a strong all-round performance.
“He did really well and he brings that different element from southern hemisphere rugby, from Super Rugby,” said backs coach Girvan Dempsey.
“He brings that experience from the Hurricanes and brings some new ideas. He’s a quiet guy, but he’s got great ideas and he’s more than capable of sharing them. You look at his play last week, I thought he played really well, really quick and he showed a good variance to his game and took his try well.”
Wealth of experience
Indeed, although only 24, Gibson-Park has a fair wealth of experience from 32 games with his province Taranaki as well as 42 games in Super Rugby.
Accordingly, he brought authority to his game at the base against Edinburgh, maintaining a good tempo to Leinster’s game throughout and adding a strong running game, with four carries for a gain of 42m.
“It’s been pretty good, I’ve been here for five weeks. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, a lot of stuff to sort, then the rugby side of things as well. It’s been pretty crazy, but it’s gone well,” said the easy-going Kiwi at Leinster’s media day in their UCD base yesterday.
“It has been pretty seamless for me so far. Obviously, Stuart [Lancaster] coming in has added a wealth of experience. He’s been awesome for us this last couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to working with him and the rest of the management team moving forward.”
“Everyone speaks about the difference between the two hemispheres. But, I reckon there isn’t a massive difference, to be honest, from what I can see so far. Moving forward, I might pick a few things out as I learn more.”
As well as the former Munster centre-cum-backs coach Jason Holland, on the coaching staff at the Hurricanes, Gibson-Park was able to sound out Leinster’s Kiwi contingent, including his one-time Taranaki team-mate Michael Bent. So when Leinster came calling, it was not a difficult decision.
“One thing is probably the depth of talent in New Zealand. There’s some very good halfbacks coming through the system. When an opportunity like this comes up you have to consider it, especially as a number nine. At times it can be difficult to [get a] place in the overseas market, so when it came up it was a no brainer.”
Residency eligibility
Becoming eligible for Ireland through the residency ruling is clearly within his ambit, but for the moment, understandably, he merely wants to declare his focus on playing for Leinster.
At the top of the number nine pecking order in New Zealand is, of course, Aaron Smith, whose status as the world’s best scrumhalf has only been enhanced by the even greater responsibility Smith has assumed since the All Blacks retained the World Cup. Warren Gatland reckons he is now their most influential player.
“Aw, he’s class. For me, he is easily the best number nine in the world,” he said. “Any team he plays on, he’s so influential. When he’s not playing, the team just doesn’t function properly. He brought a whole new dimension to the halfback position, which is positive. At one stage, it was moving towards the bigger guys and a running game. He’s brought it back to giving guys like myself, the smaller guys, a chance.
“He is the full package. He’s unbelievable. He started off slow. Then, he took off and he is pretty much the full package. You won’t see anyone pass the ball like him for a very long time. He is very, very impressive.”
