‘When you know people personally, it adds a little bit to the rivalry for sure’

Daire Walsh

It has become a regular occurrence since he made his Ireland debut in October 2020, but Jamison Gibson-Park still gets a great buzz from coming face-to-face with New Zealandin the Test arena.

Having spent his childhood in Great Barrier Island and Gisborne, Gibson-Park went on to represent Taranaki, the Blues and the Hurricanes in New Zealand before being snapped up by Leinster in the summer of 2016. He subsequently qualified to line out for Ireland under the residency rule and picked up a 12th international cap when his adopted nation defeated the All Blacks at the Aviva Stadium in November 2021.

He has since faced his country of birth on four more occasions with the countries registering two wins apiece over this period. An intense rivalry has grown between the two sides in recent years and from Gibson-Park’s perspective, the strong familiarity he has with a number of the All Blacks players has significantly added to it.

“I touched on this, I think in the media, with playing against the other Irish teams in the interpro derbies. Any time I play an interpro or any time I play against these guys, when you know people personally, it adds a little bit to the rivalry for sure,” Gibson-Park explained earlier this week.

“We’re rivals, but at the end of the day it’s footy and we’re humans. It’s great to grab a beer with them afterwards and catch up with a few familiar faces that I would have played against and with over the years.

“It’s certainly a fixture that I really look forward to and I think I can probably speak for a number of the lads who’d probably be in the same position. It’s two pretty awesome teams going at it really and the rivalry over the last few years has been a good one and a tight one.”

While one of Gibson-Park’s six international tries to date for Ireland was against New Zealand, it came in a fixture that was otherwise a disappointment for the Leinster scrumhalf. Despite also being joined on the scoresheet by the Auckland-born Bundee Aki, Ireland suffered a 28-24 defeat to the All Blacks at the quarter-final stage of last year’s Rugby World Cup in France.

Although he has pondered what he could have done differently during the game, Gibson-Park is also aware of how important it is to move forward and concentrate on new challenges.

“It’s one of those things, isn’t it? The bigger the game, the harder it is to shake it and move on. You’re replaying all sorts of different things through your head. Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve, that kind of stuff.

“It’s certainly not an easy process, but you manage to find your way back into it and get back to being process driven and trying to get better again. That would have been my focus, post that.”

Aside from the possibility of facing New Zealand for the sixth time in just three years, there is another reason why Gibson-Park is eager to make the cut in the Aviva next Friday (kick-off 8.10pm).

After playing an integral part in Ireland’s successful Six Nations campaign in the spring, a hamstring injury ruled the 32-year-old out of contention for the two-Test summer tour of South Africa. This means that, if selected next week, Gibson-Park will be making his first international appearance for Andy Farrell’s men in almost eight months.

Despite acknowledging it was tough to miss those compelling summer battles with the world champions, he remained motivated to get back for a busy autumn schedule that will also include games against Argentina, Fiji and Australia.

“I was gutted obviously to be missing that and it’s one of those things with injury. Sometimes it can feel as though you’re so far away. I just had to get back to my process and obviously the first thing was getting the injury right,” Gibson-Park added.

“Once that happened, I was just looking to get back into Leinster and getting stuck in again. Another season rolls around, but just looking forward to getting going again with the Irish set-up.”