WHEN YOU LOOK at lists of players who have provided the most try assists – the final pass or kick before the score – in any competition, there will generally be plenty of scrum-halves in the mix.
The players wearing number nine are usually among the most creative on the pitch so that shouldn’t be any surprise, while they tend to bloat their numbers by giving the last pass when their teams are battering away at the tryline from close-range.
Being calm in this area is a key skill for any scrum-half. It might seem like simple stuff but number nines have to have a sense of when to leave their forwards at it with their pick and jams, when to deliver short passes to ball-carriers, and when to pull the trigger and move the ball wider.
Jamison Gibson-Park is generally strong in this area of the pitch, often delivering clever passes at the right time or having the sense to allow his forwards to eke their way over.
Like every other scrum-half, the Leinster and Ireland halfback gets the occasional decision wrong too.
Like the one in the 73rd minute against Ulster on New Year’s Day at the RDS. Leinster were trailing by a point and had gone through 18 grueling phases to leave themselves within a couple of metres of the tryline. Then Gibson-Park went for broke.
We can see that Ciarán Frawley in the number 15 shirt beckons for the pass early. We can sense the decision-making spokes turning in Gibson-Park’s head. There’s a pause, then he goes for it and gets picked off by Ulster centre Luke Marshall.
“There’s a lot to weigh up, I suppose,” says Gibson-Park. “I definitely got that one wrong and I have to take responsibility for that, but it was a good learning, for not only me, but for the team – trying to be more accurate in those areas.
“Sometimes being a little bit more patient, I suppose, is probably the right mindset. It’s something we have been working on, certainly me as an individual and as a team as well – trying to be better at taking our opportunities in the 22.”
Gibson-Park reckons Leinster could have continued to carry close to the ruck through their forwards here, attempting to overpower Ulster to make up those final two metres.
As he puts it, sometimes you just have to “bite down on the mouthguard and run into a brick wall.” With all 15 defenders stacked into the defensive line – not having a big backfield to cover – there are times when there isn’t any obvious space.
When you’re inside the opposition 22, it’s always of massive benefit to earn a penalty advantage because it gives you a ‘free shot’ to try something. In the instance above, Leinster didn’t have the advantage.
“Penalty advantage is obviously an area where you might look at throwing that pass or putting that kick in behind,” says Gibson-Park, who starts at scrum-half for Leinster against Stade Français this evening.
He is excellent at using penalty advantage to maximum effect, often moving the ball wider to allow Leinster or Ireland to get outside a narrowed-up defence.
We get one such example below for Ireland’s try against South Africa at the World Cup.
Peter O’Mahony is a more obvious recipient of Gibson-Park’s pass just to the right of the ruck but the Ireland scrum-half instead bullets a pass wider to James Lowe, whose slick catch-pass puts Mack Hansen over to score.
There is penalty advantage playing in this case but Gibson-Park points out that it isn’t a license to make a mindless, mad play. It’s still crucial to be accurate.
“It could be a chance to have a crack with a different shape or something, but not just giving the ball away cheaply, if you get what I mean.
“You see a lot of teams, they get advantage and just go for that kick and it doesn’t work out. So, there’s certainly a bit of a balance to it.”
Gibson-Park’s decision-making all over the pitch is arguably more important than ever this season. Out-half Johnny Sexton, Leinster and Ireland’s greatest decision-maker, has retired and Gibson-Park is now a senior figure for both teams.
He has been cycling through halfback partners in Leinster recently, while it looks like Gibson-Park will try to forge a combination with Jack Crowley for Ireland in the Six Nations. Gibson-Park will be the senior man in that Irish halfback pairing with his 30 caps, while he has 133 for Leinster.
Gibson-Park is quiet and shy by nature but has worked hard to be a more assertive presence in recent years. He has also had to become comfortable with being the front-line scrum-half after the first half of his career involved backing up the likes of Piri Weepu, Bryn Hall, TJ Perenara in New Zealand, then Luke McGrath at Leinster.
But Gibson-Park has been a key figure for Ireland under Andy Farrell and looks like being even more important this year.
He is also now officially an Irish citizen. The Kiwi native and his wife, Patti, were presented with their Irish citizenship at a ceremony in Dublin’s Convention Centre just before Christmas.
It was a special day for them seven years into their time in Ireland, with two of their three kids born on these shores.
“I feel pretty well-rooted here,” says Gibson-Park.
“Rugby is one of those games where you don’t know where you’re going to end up sometimes. You’re signing contracts for two or three years and a lot can change in that time. I’m grateful that I’m still in Leinster and able to do my thing.”
He has had some big highs with province and country already but the disappointment of last year’s World Cup means the fire burns as strongly as ever.
Gibson-Park will turn 32 in February but he doesn’t have as much mileage on the clock as others players his age given how he was often a back-up scrum-half earlier in his career.
He says he’ll “give it a rattle” over the next four years and see if his body can carry him to another World Cup shot with Ireland.
For now, Gibson-Park has plenty on his plate being a key figure in the number nine jersey. His decisions will be important.
