If there was a Lions tour this year not only would Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe be certainties for the squad but there's every likelihood they'd be Test starters too.
With increased exposure to Test rugby, each has taken their form onto a new level this season, demonstrating that even in their mid-20s gems can be plucked from the New Zealand system and polished into top class international players.
Compared to Lowe and Bundee Aki, Gibson-Park is arguably the least obvious of the trio to have made such spectacular progress. Pitching up in Leinster at 24 six years ago he'd only started seven Super Rugby matches. Only four years ago his selection for Leinster's Euro semi-final against the Scarlets was seriously questioned by at least one former player.
Last week's quarter-final was the 201st representative match of his career, yet only his 92nd start. But now this low mileage 30-year-old has the experience and confidence to go with his innate conditioning, speed and heads-up awareness, and his head-to-head with Antoine Dupont in Leinster's Champions Cup semi-final against Toulouse at the Aviva Stadium (3pm) could be worth the entrance money alone.
“Aw, he’s playing fantastic, isn’t he?” says Lowe. “He is the quickest ‘9’ to the ruck for sure, hands down. I don’t think anyone is going to argue with that. He gets it and he shifts the ball, and when you break down what you want from a ‘9’, that’s the number one thing you want.
“I think he is quicker than [Antoine] Dupont to the ball. I think he’s got a whippier pass, but then you’re comparing apples to pears because Dupont controls the game so well. He is a different beast.
“Jamo, when he came here, was playing second fiddle to Lukey [McGrath] and he was challenged by Stu [Lancaster] and then he got his opportunity for Ireland and was challenged in that environment. He hasn’t stopped getting better.
“His kicking is awesome. He was unlucky with the 50-22 on the weekend. His box-kicking is very, very accurate. He’s a great dude to have in the team. He’s a mongrel. On defence, he fills holes where he needs to. He’s a bit of a Mr Fix-it. He’s a good dude to have on your team.
“When he doesn’t get picked on the team, when he has a bib on in here, man he’s so annoying, because he’s annoyed that he’s not playing. He wants to play every game. But he’s hands down one of the best ‘9s’ that I’ve been fortunate enough to play with and watch grow. Fair dues, I know he doesn’t speak too much to you boys but he’s chatty enough in the changing-room, and that’s for sure.”
First teammates with the New Zealand Maoris in 2014, Lowe and Gibson-Park are kindred Kiwi spirits whose seemingly telepathic understanding has become more fine-tuned in five years together at Leinster.
Skip ball
An example was the mark Lowe made early on last Saturday in Leicester, with Leinster leading 3-0. Gibson-Park immediately spun around to Lowe's outside as the latter tapped and passed, for the scrumhalf to release Hugo Keenan up the touchline.
“Yeah, I guess it’s a very obviously New Zealand thing to do, a quick tap and I know they have got to move back,” says Lowe. “And he’s kind of chirping away the whole time. Any time he might throw a skip ball to me or vice versa, or throw it back on the inside, it’s all communication. I don’t know whether I hear his voice specifically or he hears mine but we just have a trust and understanding that we both want to play front foot football.
"He was like 'tap it and go.' I tapped it, saw a three-on-two and knew if I just squared one dude up, he'll tip it on to Hugo [Keenan] who almost gets run down by a tight-head prop down the sideline. Let's not forget that," says Lowe good-naturedly, in reference to Dan Cole almost tackling Keenan.
One of the many interesting subplots to last Saturday's quarter-final was Chris Ashton's comments as a pundit when Jonny May scored against Ireland at Twickenham in the Autumn Nations Cup, suggesting Lowe looked like he was tugging a tractor and was too big and heavy to play on the wing. Ashton embraced Lowe after the full-time whistle.
“He just apologised,” said Lowe. “He said he was caught in the moment and he obviously didn’t mean it. He said that he enjoys the way I play. He loves how much I’ve grown as a player and that was it. I said ‘Yup, that’s alright.’ But at the end of the day he made his bed and he has got to sleep in it. Ah, fair play, I understand he probably said some things he didn’t quite mean in the heat of the moment. But when you’re on live TV that’s what happens, isn’t it? You’ve got to watch what you say,” said Lowe, laughing.
Next up Toulouse and Lowe believes Leinster can draw encouragement from how Munster troubled them.
“Toulouse’s big threat is with ball in hand and it doesn’t take away their defensive efforts as well. They’ve got some big boys in the loose forwards, their tight five is very heavy, physical.
“They play very good patterns around the ruck. They’ve got Dupont, obviously the best player in the world, running the ship and then you’ve got Ntamack. When he wants the ball out the back, it normally means there is space; his show and goes, putting wingers through holes on the inside.
“There’s a lot to their game to digest but our system doesn’t change because of the personnel on their team. We’re not creating a new defensive structure because of their attacking flair. We’re good at what we do and we know if we stick to that, we’ll put our best foot forward come Saturday.”
