![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/P06-260304-317.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIreland scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park\u2019s decisionmaking and quickfire passing reminds his former teammate Mike Ross of France\u2019s tradition of having a \u201cpetit general\u201d on the field. <\/p>\n
New Zealand-born Gibson-Park, perhaps stung by being on the replacements bench for the Six Nations match against Italy, turned in a man of the match performance in the 42-21 hammering of England last month.<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old\u2019s display had a positive impact on fly-half Jack Crowley, who had come in for Sam Prendergast.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: AFP<\/p>\n
\u201cAny out-half benefits from service and decision making,\u201d Ross said. \u201cIt takes a load off your own decisionmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe French have had at nine a \u2018petit general\u2019 for a long time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Ross, a former prop who was capped 61 times and was a member of two Six Nations-winning teams, said Gibson-Park has few peers at the moment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would put only [Antoine] Dupont ahead of him,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis clarity and decisions makes playing for the other players easy to do… What I want as a forward is to be bullied by my scrum-half. I would say to them \u2018I\u2019ll let you do my thinking for me if I get you the ball\u2019,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Ross does not know whether being benched against Italy, after starting in the humbling 36-14 loss against France the week before, was coach Andy Farrell wanting to \u201crest Gibson-Park\u201d or give him a \u201ckick in the ass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ross, who won two European Cups with Leinster before hanging up his boots in 2017, said Gibson-Park, much as any professional player, would have been bristling watching Craig Casey start the match. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo player wants to give his opponent a chance in the jersey,\u201d Ross said. \u201cI think watching someone in your jersey, as you see it, you do not want to give him another chance in the jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson-Park, who should win his 50th cap against Wales in Dublin on Friday, qualified to play for Ireland in 2019 but was first selected by Andy Farrell in October 2020 for the remaining Six Nations matches.<\/p>\n
They had been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, beginning his battle with Conor Murray to become the first choice scrum-half.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Gibson-Park had broken up the legendary half-back pairing of Murray and fly-half Johnny Sexton. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a different style of player to Murray,\u201d said Ross. \u201cConor was a very physical scrum-half, almost like an auxiliary back row at times and one of the best in the world in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJamison is best at moving the ball quickly, choosing the right options, deadly round the side of the ruck,\u201d he said. \u201cJamison is more of a scamperer, but it\u2019s good to have the two styles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson-Park is a far cry from the man who Ross first met in 2016 when he arrived at Leinster.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very laid back, he would walk round in long baggy clothes,\u201d said Ross.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at his background, he grew up on the Great Barrier Island and he was a decent surfer by all accounts. He walked around like a surfer,\u201d he said. \u201cAlthough it took him a while to come out of his shell, he was very comfortable in his own skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
His laid-back attitude blends well with his humility, Ross said. <\/p>\n
The first thing he did on being interviewed as man of the match after the England game was not to point to his own performance in the match, but to congratulate English captain Maro Itoje on his 100th cap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty phenomenal feat. He\u2019s a great bloke and a great player,\u201d Gibson-Park said.<\/p>\n
All of Gibson-Park\u2019s teammates would probably echo those sentiments about their \u201cpetit general.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park\u2019s decisionmaking and quickfire passing reminds his former teammate Mike Ross of France\u2019s tradition of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,28604,28603],"class_list":["post-516441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-28603"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}