Currently occupying 11th spot in the URC table, Connacht’s sole victory on the road to date was against Ospreys in Swansea a little over a fortnight on from that reversal to Leinster. Yet the westerners have had some joy in this fixture during the recent past – most notably in a Pro14 clash at the beginning of 2021 – and this is keeping Gibson-Park and his colleagues on red alert.

“I think across the park there are some serious threats. Guys like Mack Hansen, Jack Carty in the backs alone and the two 9s [Kieran Marmion and Caolin Blade] are very sharp. Across the backs anyway, they’ve got some unbelievable talent,” Gibson-Park explained.

“Like we touched on earlier, they’ve had some success against us in the past so they’ll be full of confidence. These fixtures for them, coming to Dublin, getting a shot at us, they always tend to lift their game a bit. There are a good few ex-Leinster lads tied up in their squad. They’ll be fired up for the New Year’s Day fixture for sure.”

As Gibson-Park alludes to, Connacht significantly bolstered their playing resources with the recruitment of Peter Dooley, Josh Murphy, Adam Byrne and David Hawkshaw from Leinster in the off-season. Additionally, Jack Aungier, Oisin Dowling and Tom Daly are also part of the furniture down in the west having previously played for the Blues at senior level.

This helps to heighten the sense of familiarity that is already a feature of interprovincial showcases and with Gibson-Park also counting some of the Connacht side as his international team-mates, it is a game that he has had marked in his diary for a considerable period of time.

“There is always a bit of toing and froing on the pitch, maybe a bit of banter during the week between the lads. It’s always good. I enjoy playing in this fixture, especially when you know a few lads well. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

While he featured prominently for Ireland in their unbeaten march through the Autumn Nations Series, Gibson-Park’s Leinster appearances have been fleeting thus far in the current campaign. A bout of illness and a hamstring injury kept him out of action prior to the international break and it wasn’t until the showdown with Ulster in the RDS at the start of this month that he made his seasonal provincial bow.

He also featured against Racing 92 and Gloucester in the Heineken Champions Cup, before being afforded a rest for Leinster’s one-point success over arch rivals Munster at Thomond Park on St Stephen’s Day. Despite missing out on a game that he has embraced since joining Leinster from the Hurricanes in 2016, Gibson-Park was understandably delighted to see the Blues overcoming a 14-6 deficit and the sin-binning of Max Deegan early in the second half to eventually record a 10th consecutive league win for this term.

“At that stage, it looked like it was going to be an uphill battle, but fair play to the lads they swung the momentum massively in the ten minutes [that Deegan was sin-binned] and that was the changing of the game. It was pretty impressive from the lads for sure.”

In particular, Gibson-Park cited the role played by his half-back compatriot Ross Byrne – deputising once again for absent team captain Jonathan Sexton – in getting Leinster over the line in a fiery festive tussle.

“There are some pretty good leaders out there, Ross Byrne in particular has come a very long way in that part of the game. His game understanding is right up there with the best. Kudos to him and the lads for getting us out of a hole.

“I think it has always been there with Ross. It’s one of those things that rugby is never the perfect sport. There is always learnings and he is one guy that has taken a lot of learnings out of the past few years and come on leaps and bounds. He’s been a big leader in the squad,” Gibson-Park added.