Jamison Gibson-Park: Lions 'mateship' only adds to England-Ireland rivalry

Ireland scrum-half Gibson-Park said he loves coming up against players like England counterpart Alex Mitchell

Jamison Gibson-Park isn't accustomed to being kept in reserve, as he was for Ireland's Six Nations game against Italy. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

Finlay Bealham and Ellis Genge mined a podcast out of their British and Irish Lions tour bromance. Johnny Sexton got on great guns with Henry Pollock “in a weird kind of way”, and Joe McCarthy clicked with the English flanker as well.

Friendships are inevitable when players from the four ‘home countries’ come together for weeks on end on the far side of the world. The question is just how these bonds reframe old rivalries this week when Ireland and England meet at Twickenham in the Six Nations.

Jamison Gibson-Park feels it just adds to an already spicy menu.

“There's a little bit of mateship created between us and to me that adds to a rivalry. Like, when I think about interpros in Ireland, they're some of my favourite games to play because you know the lads. I've spoken about it before but it's kind of like a brotherly kind of rivalry.

“We played with these guys for two months during the summer and got to know them pretty well, some great fellas, so to me that adds to the challenge and to the rivalry, and I love that kind of stuff. So it's gonna be hard, but I look forward to it.” 

Gibson-Park aside, Andy Farrell had England’s Alex Mitchell, Ben White of Scotland and Tomos Williams of Wales to choose from at scrum-half, the last of those falling foul to injury against Western Force in what was the first game on Australian soil.

Mitchell was back-up to Gibson-Park in all three of the Lions Tests last year, but he only managed a total of 15 minutes total between the first and third meetings with the Wallabies. The Irish nine played all 80 in the second tie.

Still, Gibson-Park knows the abilities the Northampton Saints player brings to the table, not just from that tour Down Under, but as a result of Leinster’s shock Champions Cup semi-final loss to the Prem side last season.

“He's a great player, isn't he? He adds a lot to their game, I feel. His biggest strength is his running game and getting on the ball.

“So, yeah, he certainly possesses a good few weapons with that side of his game, but he's pretty consistent with his box kicking as well. So he's a pretty well-rounded kind of player and one I love to come up against.” 

Gibson-Park isn’t accustomed to being kept in reserve. Leinster and Ireland’s first option for so long now, he has probably been one of the first names on both teamsheets given his outsized influence on how the sides play their games.

That changed last week when, for the first time in 16 Test and two years, he was relegated to the reserves with Munster’s Craig Casey preferred to start. It didn’t go great for Casey, but Gibson-Park admits that the selection lit a fire in him.

“Yeah, it probably does. I'm a competitive guy and so these kinds of things happen and I go and try to find a bit of feedback and then go out and train and compete. It's always been my mindset and it will remain the same until I'm done.” 

Now 33, he brought all that experience to bear when coming off the bench after 53 minutes in that win against Italy. It was the second week in a row where Ireland’s bench kickstarted an improvement but there is frustration that their best work is still coming in patches.

Nobody in camp is saying that Ireland are hitting any straps. There is an understanding that performance levels need to spike in London against an England side that saw its 12-match winning run end in Murrayfield.

That loss to the Scots has cooled a lot of talk about Steve Borthwick’s side but they conceded one penalty to a charge-down and another to a spill by Genge. Add in the half-hour Henry Arundell spent off the pitch and they were their own worst enemies.

Ireland fell foul to rugby’s vagaries last week too, when Casey left the field with a broken nose and a yellow card after Lorenzo Cannone barrelled in to the Irish defender who did nothing other than stand still.

Gibson-Park had sympathy for his teammate. Rugby, he said, is a contact sport that is always going to leave players in compromised positions and the rule of thumb for players now is that they have to be seen to crouch now. Casey didn’t.

“Yeah, I think that's the main thing, isn't it? You've got to be seen to be level-changing somewhere, whether it's the hips or the knees, or both. But yeah, it's tough.”