An Irish Pippen to France's Jordan: Why battle of two imperious 9's needs to be savoured

With so much on the line, Jamison Gibson-Park and Antoine Dupont will face off on a Test stage for the first time in three years 

EARLY DAYS: France’s Antoine Dupont and Jamison Gibson-Park of Ireland meet in the 2021 Six Nations clash at the Aviva, a rare Test-stage clash. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

Jamison Gibson-Park’s days of being second-best are all but over. If Antoine Dupont will be the most talented scrum-half – and player in general - on show at the Aviva Stadium this Saturday then his Ireland counterpart has stepped out of the shadows in every other respect.

This is a man who managed just half-a-dozen starts across two years at the Blues. Whose 15 appearances in one season at the Hurricanes all came via the bench. And a player who spent his early years in Ireland behind Luke McGrath in the queue at Leinster.

Gibson-Park was eligible just in time for the 2019 World Cup in Japan, but wasn’t considered for the role as bolter. The Kiwi had missed the back end of the previous season with a hamstring tear and joked subsequently that he wasn’t exactly Joe Schmidt’s kind of player.

It’s easy to forget now too that Andy Farrell didn’t immediately turn to him when his time in charge of Ireland kicked in with the 2020 Six Nations. Conor Murray was still the man in possession, and John Cooney was his understudy in the opening three rounds.

It was only that autumn, when the Covid-interrupted Championship resumed, that Gibson-Park got his foot in the door. And it was only in round four of the 2021 Six Nations when the then 29-year old was selected ahead of a fit Murray for the first time.

From there to here, the rise has been stratospheric.

“He’s flying it, isn’t he? He’s class,” said Murray. “He’s a gent on and off the pitch and it has been a pleasure working with him and learning so much from him, the way he sees the game. He’s one of those lads I talk about leading the team.

“He has grown into one of the best players around at the minute in the last three or four years. Unbelievably humble. The chats we have as nines together, he is really open in terms of sharing his thoughts. I get on really well with him.” 

Gibson-Park made a leap of faith in leaving New Zealand but the greatest distance covered wasn’t physical, it was mental. Former Leinster senior coach Stuart Lancaster said once that he had arrived in Ireland with the mindset of a number two.

The one-time England coach saw at the time what few people other than Farrell could make out. Not least was the speed and width of his pass, but also an X-factor that meant he offered something that none of the other Irish scrum-halves could boast.

Just as notable was Lancaster’s praise then for his box-kicking. This, let’s not forget, is a player who only last month remarked that he “couldn’t kick snow off a rope” when he first arrived in Dublin to start his new life back in 2016.

“I have massive respect for him moving over here, making this place his home and with his family,” said Murray, whose long stint as first-choice he ended. “They’re incredibly proud of what he is doing at the minute. He is a huge influence on this squad.

“You want more game time but I have been on that side of the fence too where I felt I was playing well and got the minutes. I have an appreciation for it. He’s playing so well that you need to be on your game too when you come in.” 

There is nobody in world rugby who provides Dupont’s suite of options. Just look back at the French destruction of Italy in Rome in the last round and watch how his running threat buys him so much room from a fearful defence every time and opens the door for others.

Dupont is unique. His opposite number is the Pippen to his Jordan.

Gibson-Park brings what Farrell once described as his own “off-the-cuff type feel” to the game. Brian O’Driscoll couldn’t stop waxing lyrical about him last week, his list of superlatives so long he could rarely find time to finish a sentence.

Where to start? It’s not just in the obvious. O’Driscoll zeroed in on a kick game that can relieve so much pressure with exits from ‘22’ and set up tries like the bat down from James Lowe for Jamie Osborne against Wales.

And add to that his defensive reads, as evidenced by that mazy covering run away to Scotland in round two when he tracked the home team’s counter-attack the length of the Murrayfield pitch before taking Blair Kinghorn to ground with a last-ditch tackle.

“I've always said that Leinster have been very lucky to have him and Luke McGrath, one of the best defensive readers, but Gibson-Park has gone to the next level of seeing where the issue is going to lie moments ahead of it transpiring,” said O’Driscoll. “That's the secret sauce of No. 9s. Dupont has that capacity, to see it before everybody else.” 

Dupont got the better of things the last time these two shared the same field when Toulouse edged Leinster to the Champions Cup title after extra-time in London last year, but this will be their first time together on the Test stage since 2022.

There was no Dupont when Ireland strolled to victory in Marseille 13 months ago, and no Gibson-Park when France came out second-best in a classic in Dublin the season prior to that. Head-to-heads like this are rare. Enjoy.