The greatest Lions: Mike Gibson
In a series building up to the 2017 tour to New Zealand, we remember some of the greatest players to ever wear the Lions jersey.
So far we have acknowledged the legacies of Willie John McBride, Sir Gareth Edwards, Martin Johnson and Sir Ian McGeechan.
This week our attentions turn to one of the great centres the game has ever seen, an Irishman who commanded respect far from the Emerald Isle and a veteran of five Lions tours. We are of course talking about Mike Gibson.
A lawyer by trade, Gibson took part on the tours in 1966, 1968, 1971, 1974 and 1977, tasting victory in New Zealand on that third and final voyage in the Lions jersey when he cemented his reputation as one of the finest all-round centres to play the sport.
Long before Brian O’Driscoll was being feted as the finest midfielder to come out of Ireland, Gibson had dazzled for both Ireland and the Lions throughout an international career that lasted a remarkable 15 years.
He is also a historial quirk, the first-ever replacement used in a rugby match after coming off the bench in the 1968 series against the Springboks.
Going back to the start, Gibson’s reputation was built around his intelligent reading of the game whether in attack or defence. Before making his Ireland debut he had studied at Cambridge University, as his brother had before him, captaining Cambridge in the Varsity match and then facing New Zealand in 1963.
In his first Test the following year, Ireland won at Twickenham for the first time since 1948. Two years later he was making his first Lions Test appearance in New Zealand, starting all four games.
Another quality element of his game was his ability to play either fly-half or centre to the highest level, starting three Tests in the number ten role two years later when the Lions came away from South Africa having suffered three defeats.
Victory, having gone eight games without one in Lions red, at last came in 1971 on that infamous tour of New Zealand.
Gibson found himself lining up in a midfield alongside the Lions captain John Dawes, with Barry John in his pomp at fly-half pulling the strings to remarkable effect.
For the great All Blacks captain Colin Meads to remark that “Gibson’s presence in the Lions back-line was the most frustrating influence of all” says a fair bit about his impact on the only ever series win for the Lions in New Zealand. The timing of this pass to Gerald Davies was immaculate.
“All my life, I had been brought up with that: you did not expect to beat New Zealand. It was a great feeling,” he told The Irish Times back in 2016.
Ken Kennedy, the former Ireland international, summed Gibson up best.
“Michael was a thinker. He could read the game better than anybody I ever saw. He had the tactical brain to see what needed to be done and the brilliance to carry it out.
“He didn’t drink or smoke and he didn’t go out with the lads. He was the first spark of professionalism. He looked at his diet and he had his own sprint coach. He was before his time.”
Two aspects there stick out, the hiring of a sprint coach being an obvious one. Gibson was never slow, but his diligence to maximise his talent in an age where the concept of a sprint coach would have been entirely alien marks him out as a trailblazer for a game that was in all ways not ready for his approach.
Hence why Gibson’s name so often crops up in discussions over the greatest XV of all time. Gibson exuded creativity in an age of heavy, rain-absorbed rugby balls in contests played out on pitches a world away from the modern day carpets.
His last Lions Test might have been the 14-14 draw at Eden Park in 1971, but Gibson went on two further tours.
In 1974 he watched on as Sir Ian McGeechan and Dick Milliken took over the starting centre roles, offering what support he could off the field and playing his part on the ‘Invincibles’ tour as the Lions left South Africa without a defeat to their name.
At 34 a fifth tour beckoned, back to New Zealand, meaning Gibson shares the record for the most Lions tours of all time with his great compartiot Willie John McBride.
Gibson would go on to play for Ireland until he was 36, bowing out in 1979 as the most-capped player of all time on 81.
How smoothly he would have fitted into the modern game, and how much success he would have tasted, is a fascinating concept to mull over. A visionary, talented centre, Gibson truly did play before his time.