Time for Saints to be true to themselves

THE contest between the 9-10 pairings of Leinster’s Jamison Gibson-Park and Ross Byrne and Northampton’s Alex Mitchell and Fin Smith will be critical to the outcome of the European Cup semi-final at Croke Park on Saturday.

Gibson-Park is the Kiwi Irishman who has had a fantastic career since making Dublin his home and taking over from the Munster, Ireland, and Lions scrum-half Conor Murray. That was some achievement given Murray’s all-round class and reputation as one of the best box-kickers in the game.

Anyone succeeding a player of Murray’s quality has to be top-notch, and Gibson-Park has added his own touch, bringing a new dimension to Leinster and Ireland. He has a number of points of difference, and the one that strikes you first is his speed from breakdown to breakdown. On top of that there is his outstanding support running, which sees him finish tries, as well as creating them for others – and it shows just how high he sets the bar in terms of fitness.

Like all the best scrum-halves Gibson-Park is the link between an opportunity and his side taking it. He is so quick off the mark that when he sees an opportunity, he seizes it. If you look at the best international nines, Gibson-Park ranks very highly – and his track record of being inspirational for both Leinster and Ireland explains why Northampton have to play right on top of him if they want to reach their first European Cup final since 2011.

There is not a great deal of difference between the way that Leinster and Ireland play, making them an extension of each other. This is not surprising given that 15 of the Irish starting 23 against England in the recent Six Nations were from Leinster.

Fly-half Ross Byrne is another of them, but he has flown under the radar more than most of his international team-mates as the understudy to Johnny Sexton. However, since Sexton retired at the end of last season, Byrne has emerged as a safe pair of hands, establishing himself as a 10 who makes very few mistakes.