Jamison Gibson-Park

Jamison Gibson-Park spent years as the scrum-half Ireland were not allowed to pick, and then became the one they could not drop.

Born in the Bay of Plenty, he arrived at Leinster in 2016 and waited out the residency rules while Conor Murray held the Test shirt. What he brought when he finally got it was tempo — ball away from the ruck faster than the opposition defence could reset, over and over, until the numbers stopped adding up for them.

That single quality reshaped how Ireland attack. A slow nine lets a defence organise; Gibson-Park removes the pause, and Ireland’s phase play went from methodical to genuinely difficult to live with.

The passing is flat and accurate off both hands, the box kick is competitive rather than merely safe, and his decision-making around the fringes has improved every season he has played Test rugby.

He came to international rugby late, which means the mileage is lower than the birth certificate suggests. It also means the succession question is live: Ireland have no obvious replacement who plays the game at that speed.