Jamison Gibson-Park backs Tyler Bleyendaal to make an impact at Leinster

Jamison Gibson-Park of Leinster on his way to scoring his side's second try during the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final match between Leinster and La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Jamison Gibson-Park may be set to start working with the fourth different backs coach of his Leinster career when Tyler Bleyendaal arrives at the province this summer but he is not expecting any upheaval to the attacking gameplan currently being implemented by Andrew Goodman.

The New Zealand-born, Ireland scrum-half first played under Girvan Dempsey when he joined Leinster in 2016 from this season’s unbeaten Super Rugby Pacific league leaders the Hurricanes.

Now Bleyendaal has been recruited from the same franchise to replace Ireland-bound Goodman, who in turn succeeds Mike Catt following the summer Test series in South Africa.

Gibson-Park, 32 and just a year younger than Bleyendaal, has also worked under Felipe Contepomi across his 137-cap Leinster career but he believes there has been continuity throughout, the next assistant coach brought in by Leo Cullen picking up where his predecessor left off.

"I was one year with kind of the back end of Girvan Dempsey, obviously Felipe and now onto Goody, and Stu (Lancaster) was there the whole time and would have had a bit to do with the attack as well,” Gibson-Park said yesterday at the announcement of Bank of Ireland’s five-year extension of its sponsorship agreements with all four Irish provinces.

“I think it's a matter of layering. A lot of the stuff that Felipe brought us in one area, Goody then came in and stacked a few layers on it so it's more like that than a fresh start.”

Of the impending arrival of Bleyendaal, Gibson-Park said: "I've only heard good things. He's seems to be a serious coach, Canes are flying at the moment so yeah, hopefully he can bring a bit of that with him.

Bank of Ireland announced new five-year extensions of its sponsorships of the four Irish Rugby provinces. Pic Credit: Dan Sheridan, Inpho.

“I've only heard good things, and even chatting to a few lads who played with Tyler, he always had a coach's brain, even throughout his playing career, so yeah, I'm looking forward to playing with him.” 

Gibson-Park is hoping both Bleyendaal and fellow Hurricane Jordie Barrett, the All Blacks back set to join next December for what is left of the 2025-26 can have the same positive impact on Leinster’s play that incoming senior coach Jacques Nienaber has already had since his arrival following South Africa’s World Cup winning campaign.

“Yeah, I think he's rubbed off on everyone a little bit with that fresh perspective and seeing things that little bit differently, certainly from the defensive side of the game,” the scrum-half said of Nienaber.

"So he has certainly helped me massively in only a matter of months so far, so I'm looking forward to the next little while as well. He's an awesome coach."