Magical Gibson-Park guides Leinster to massive rematch with champions La Rochelle
TRICK AND TREAT: Leinster’s Jamison Gibson-Park scores one of his three tries. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
A first-half hat-trick and all-round masterclass from Jamison Gibson-Park set the foundations for a Leinster win in this round of 16 Champions Cup tie and, with it, another date with Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle back in Ballsbridge next weekend.
That will be the fifth meeting of the sides inside three seasons with the French winning a semi-final and then two deciders, both in the dying minutes of the game, before Leinster claimed a cathartic pool stage success in Stade Marcel Deflandre late last year.
Leinster found last year’s quarter-final, against the Tigers, a difficult sell at this same ground with just 27,000 turning up six days after a round of 16 win against Ulster. Next week’s assignment will be appointment viewing and, you would think, should sell itself.
La Rochelle had earlier come through 22-21 in a nail-biting game away to the Stormers in Cape Town having trailed 16-0 shortly after the break. They eventually won after Mannie Libbok missed a tricky conversion in a swirling wind with the last kick of the game.
There were 40,775 fans in the stands in the Aviva, 46 players and a few hundred more people on site between officials, media, caterers, security personnel and the rest, but this will be remembered most for a stunning passage of plays by just one man.
It’s rare that this happens. Team sports demand a collective effort and brilliance. Even moments of individual genius tend to sit within the occasion. Jamison Gibson-Park, who claimed a hat-trick of tries in 17 first-half minutes, was the occasion here.
That’s a hell of a thing.
The Ireland scrum-half more or less bent this knockout clash to his will with his game intelligence, his vision, his execution levels and his finishing. There was a point here where he existed on a different plane to everyone else on the field of play.
Think about that. Leinster had 20 internationals on view here, Grand Slam winners and world-class operators in every line. Leicester had their own Test-class models and, in Handré Pollard and Jasper Wiese, a pair of World Cup winners.
Antoine Dupont’s existence prevents us from declaring Gibson-Park to be the best scrum-half on the planet right now, but it is no exaggeration to say that the man from the Great Barrier Island was Dupontesque at times in his influence and sheer ubiquity.
The thing is, this hadn’t started well for Leinster. Tigers had the first try on the board within five minutes, Pollard touching down after Josh van der Flier fresh-aired a tackle on the rampaging James Cronin and the hosts having conceded three penalty advantages.
Their heads seemed to be still in the sheds. Ross Byrne served up a settler with a penalty to reduce the gap to four points after, who else, but Gibson-Park had scorched the Leicester line to break into the open prairies for the first time.
The first of the scrum-half’s tries came 13 minutes in - unlucky for the visitors - and it came from a pre-planned move off lineout ball with Joe McCarthy making the initial burst into space and finding his No.9 on his shoulder.
Try two was eleven more minutes in the gestation and it owed to a pair of interventions from the man of the moment, the second of them a zipped pass down the blindside to Dan Sheehan who returned the favour after careering down the touchline.
A Pollard penalty in response left it 15-10 to the hosts but real daylight began to emerge when Robbie Henshaw’s pop pass fed a Jamie Osborne break which, in turn, allowed Gibson-Park ghost in off the young centre’s shoulder.
Leinster led 22-10 at the break and, while a yellow for James Lowe and try from Cronin kept it interesting for a bit, there was less chance of anything out of the ordinary happening when Robbie Henshaw returned an intercept half the length of the field for a fourth try.
A Conan score under the posts put 21 points between them before a Rónan Kelleher overthrow at a lineout cleared his jumpers and let Charlie Clare lumber over for a gimme with a handful of minutes to go.
Scorers for Leinster: Tries: Gibson-Park (3), Henshaw, Conan; Pens: R Byrne; Cons: R Byrne (3), H Byrne.
Scorers for Leicester: Tries: Pollard, Cronin, Clare; Pens: Pollard; Cons: Pollard (2)
H Keenan; J Larmour, R Henshaw, J Osborne, J Lowe; R Byrne, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; R Molony, J McCarthy; R Baird, J van der Flier, C Doris.
C Healy for Porter (48); R Kelleher for Sheehan, M Ala’alatoa for Furlong and J Conan for van der Flier (all 53); J Jenkins for McCarthy (62); C Frawley for Keenan (66); H Byrne for R Byrne (68); B Murphy for Gibson-Park (73); A Porter for Healy (80).
J Shillcock; F Steward, D Kelly, S Kata, O Hassell-Collins; H Pollard, J van Poortvliet; J Cronin, J Montoya, D Cole; H Wells, K Hatherall; H Liebenberg, O Cracknell, J Wiese.
F van Wyk for Cronin (52); W Hurd for Cole (57); T Whiteley for Poortvliet and P Cokanasiga for Kelly (both 68); F Carnduff for Hatherall and E Ilione for Cracknell (both 71); C Clare for Montoya and M Brown for Steward (both 74).
C Clare, F van Wyk, W Hurd, F Carnduff, E Ilione, T Whiteley, P Cokanasiga, M Brown.
P Brousset (FFR).
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