‘It’s A Massive Occasion’ – Gibson-Park On The Rematch In Chicago

The Ireland squad assembled on Monday ahead of another big November campaign that kicks off with a trip to Chicago to play New Zealand. That Stateside rematch is followed by three massive Quilter Nations Series games at the Aviva Stadium.

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First up on the agenda were the interprovincial bragging rights from last weekend. It was a slightly different feeling for Jamison Gibson-Park coming in to Ireland camp this week after Leinster’s derby defeat to Munster, but the scrum-half says the ‘stick’ he got was fully deserved.

“It has been the other way around so they’re giving us a a bit of stick but it is fully deserved,” he said. “They were great winners at the weekend and they put out a pretty solid performance and were by far the better team. It was a bit of a reality check for us – we thought we’d prepared well but obviously we didn’t.”

The British & Irish Lions star also apoke about his memories of watching Ireland’s 2016 win in Chicago, the focus now for the national squad with a big month ahead and two years to go to the Rugby World Cup, facing New Zealand, and working with former team-mate Jonathan Sexton as a coach.