Evergreen Gibson-Park bending rather than breaking to rugby's demands

Jamison Gibson-Park during Leinster Rugby squad training at UCD. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Jamison Gibson-Park is sitting back in a chair in Leinster’s boardroom shooting the breeze and absent-mindedly prodding and poking the index finger on his left hand. Or, to be more precise, the splint that covers most of it.

Mallet finger, where the digit is bent out of shape, is a common affliction in sports. Gibson-Park’s is straight as a dye when the support comes off but then bends back into a claw after training. It’s been that way for a few months now.

This aside, the Leinster, Ireland and British and Irish Lions scrum-half is doing just fine. 

He’s 33 years of age now and maturing like a fine wine as he turns into 2026 and starts to rediscover some of the form that has made him one of the world’s best.

More than a few heads were turned when Josh van der Flier, both of them just a year younger, fired up the jets and took off down the right wing in the 68th and 70th minutes last weekend to register two tries on the counter against La Rochelle.

The man closest to them as they scored both times? Well, you can probably guess.

“I can say I [feel] better now than in my mid-20s, definitely, just with how things have gone and the amount of footy I'm playing, as well as getting to know your body and how a week runs. All that kind of stuff, which talks to experience a little bit, but I feel great.” 

His form, but his own admission, isn’t quite at its majestic peak, but there is so much to the scrum-half’s game that he is almost always adding value, and not always at the base of the ruck or when launching those box kicks.

Gibson-Park has filled in elsewhere around the back line with club and country and he has been a regular feature out wide for the province lately as they look to their scramble defence to plug holes in the front line.

Time and again – too many times, some would say – he has been the last line of defence wide on the wing, the little Dutch boy plugging the dam with his fingers, as he faces up to a dangerous overlap sweeping his way.

“It's kind of the efforts we've been making for each other, right? And it's something we're obviously coached to do. But we didn't think we'd be making that many of them on the weekend. But just the way it kind of turned out, and it probably won us the game.” 

He’s the first to point out that he wasn’t alone is frantically stemming a tide that, he pointed out, was all the greater for the manner in which La Rochelle have embraced a more expansive attacking game in the last two weeks.

Their ability to stretch teams in that way is down in no small part to their enviously talented 23-year old scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec whose long passes and smooth service on such a big day were a delight to watch at the Aviva Stadium.

“He's always been highly touted really, hasn't he? It's just unfortunate where he sits in that position with Dupont leading the charge and then Lucu is class as well. So it's tough for him to get a run of games at international level but I know what he's capable of at the club level.

“He's pretty impressive to watch.” 

Predicting who Bayonne will use at scrum-half, or the rest of their line-up, this weekend ahead of the province’s final pool game is another matter, but it won’t be the veteran Maxime Machenaud who is a long-term absentee.

Herschel Jantjies, capped 24 times by the Springboks, is one option. The others are Baptiste Germain, once of Toulouse, Bordeaux-Bègles and Biarritz, and 19-year old Baptiste Tilloles who has been given some exposure in Europe this season.

Whatever the personnel, this is a very different ask of Leinster after the “relief” of a tight win against Ronan O’Gara’s visitors to Dublin last weekend and the rewards for another five match points could be huge in terms of knockout home advantage.

“It's something we've spoken about, for sure. Coming into this block was about doing our best to get ten points one way or another. We’re halfway there. It's big. I don't think any of us have played in Bayonne before, besides the World Cup [warm-up game] we played there.

"But against Bayone is a different kettle of fish. They haven’t lost there in a couple of years in the Top 14. They're very strong at home. They obviously don't have much to play for in the pool, but we think they'll be fired up for sure.”