Leicester’s Jack van Poortvliet is relishing the chance to renew his rivalry with Jamison Gibson-Park. The scrum-halves will line up opposite each other again on Friday when the Tigers visit Dublin to face Leinster in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup.
Both started last month’s Six Nations encounter when Ireland secured their fourth grand slam by beating England. With the bulk of that side consisting of Leinster players Van Poortvliet knows Leicester’s challenge will not be dissimilar.
“He’s a world-class scrum-half who’s really dictated the speed and the quality with which Ireland have attacked over recent years,” Van Poortvliet said of the New Zealand-born Gibson-Park.
“He’s brilliant at keeping defences honest. He’ll get on the ball, he’ll always look down short sides … he’s a world-class athlete and he’s blessed to be behind a brilliant pack that gets them go-forward and speed of ball.”
The Tigers head coach, Richard Wigglesworth, makes four changes for the match at the Aviva Stadium: Mike Brown starts at full-back, with England’s Freddie Steward shifting to the wing. The South African Jasper Wiese comes in at No 8 after a bullocking try against Edinburgh last Friday.
Olly Cracknell drops to the bench for Wiese, while in the front row Joe Heyes replaces Dan Cole. Dan Kelly starts at inside centre, replacing Jimmy Gopperth, with Harry Potter selected at outside centre for the injured Guy Porter.
Leinster, for whom Johnny Sexton is absent because of a groin injury, make two changes from last week’s win against Ulster: the No 8 Caelan Doris has recovered from illness and comes in for Josh van der Flier, who rolled an ankle. The centre Garry Ringrose, who suffered a brain injury during the Six Nations, starts in place of Jordan Larmour having observed return-to-play protocols.
Leicester were comprehensively defeated at Welford Road by Leinster at this stage of the competition last season and Van Poortvliet acknowledged playing the four-times champions in Dublin will be even more demanding.
“It is an incredibly difficult challenge with the quality of side they are,” said the 21-year-old. “But we are excited. We have got a chance to go to an incredible stadium on a Friday night in a European quarter-final to have a free shot. We know what a world-class outfit they are with incredible players and the team they have built over the last few years, we are extremely excited.”
Van Poortvliet was first picked by Eddie Jones for last summer’s tour to Australia and believes the tumultuous experiences of the national squad in recent months have been a useful learning process. “In the short time I’ve been at England I’ve experienced a lot of highs and lows,” he said.
“I think I’ve learned how to deal with lots of things. I’ve had probably quite a broad scale of experiences in a short time … I’ve been, maybe in a weird way, lucky to experience a lot of different scenarios so early.”
Leicester’s assignment is one of the most difficult in world rugby, let alone in Europe. If the Tigers are to roar into the semi-finals he will need to put those learnings with England to good use.
