Gibson leads battle to cure Bristol's infuriating malaise

All Black believes West Country club are a match for Europe's leading teams if baffling inconsistency can be eradicated

It is difficult to overstate the difference between Daryl Gibson's current sporting existence as an expensively imported and massively influential centre at Bristol, and his previous life as a home-grown and only marginally less significant midfielder with the Canterbury Crusaders and the All Blacks. In New Zealand, consistency is everything and a bit more: the best players hit the button every minute of every week, come rain or shine, hell or high water. At Bristol, no one manages to do anything the same way twice in a month of Sundays.

Take the last fortnight. On 4 January, the West Countrymen whipped up the M4 for a Premiership game at Harlequins and performed with all the authority of Woody Allen in the sack. "We lost 12 out of 20 line-outs and we scrummed pretty poorly," groaned Gibson. "We were terrible, really."

Eight days later, the same players found themselves on a brick-hard, snow-covered surface deep in the Auvergne, with the class acts of Montferrand preening themselves on the other side of the half-way line. A 40-point pasting of the kind inflicted on the vast majority of previous visitors to Stade Marcel-Michelin seemed a distinct possibility. Instead, Bristol scored three tries out of nowhere and secured a victory that kept them alive and kicking in the Heineken Cup.

"I would describe that as a performance for ourselves as players, and for the wonderful supporters who kept faith with us and made the trip to France," said Gibson as he prepared for tomorrow's do-or-die Heineken game with Leinster. "We eliminated all the problems that affected us at Harlequins; our set-pieces were good, our line-out functioned well. We defended strongly – no loss of concentration, no panic – and during the spells in which we worked ourselves on to the front foot and played some rugby of our own, we took our chances as they arose. I was proud to be a part of it. Very proud, in fact," he underlines.

Given his experience with Canterbury, the modern-day Auckland of the New Zealand domestic scene and the most successful Super 12 franchise of them all, the 27-year-old is as handily placed as anyone to unravel the great mystery of Bristol RFC: the depressing inability of a genuinely grand club to find a winning formula that holds good for longer than the occasional week. Gibson won 19 All Black caps, played a full Tri-Nations series in 1999, featured in the World Cup later that year and was still in the Test frame last season. He knows how many beans make five.

He has an answer, of sorts, although ultimately, the interminable and impenetrable Bristol malaise leaves him as confused as the next man.

"We are capable of beating any side in the Premiership, maybe most of the sides in Europe, when we're on our game," he said. Then he tapped his forehead. "There are also occasions, too many of them, when we get it wrong up top. Every player has to look at his own game, analyse his attitude and address the problems that affect him.

"We're big enough to admit that we have problems, and that's a start: if we weren't doing that, we'd continue to drift from this high to that low. But the next step, the step that will make us a strong side rather than a weak one, is the important one. Good teams perform nine times out of 10, if not 10 times out of 10. Twice a month isn't where it's at."

To his credit, Gibson practises what he preaches and has done ever since he pitched up at the Memorial Ground. (True union folk in this neck of the woods flatly refuse to use the term "Memorial Stadium", as Bristol Rovers rechristened the venue after purchasing it, for next to nothing, from the rugby club in the mid-1990s).

Before his arrival, Bristol were bottom of the Premiership after losing their first three matches, two of them at home. They also lost at Gloucester when Gibson made his debut, although they might have made a better fist of it had the new recruit lasted longer than 18 minutes.

Since then, though, there has been a good deal of sweetness and light: a memorable victory over Leicester, an epoch-ending win at Bath, a conclusive trumping of Sale, a double over Montferrand.

"I really can't find fault with the bloke," said Phil Adams, the Bristol team manager, this week. Adams could find fault with most people during his playing days, as those who found themselves on the rough end of the big second row's temper will confirm, but he holds Gibson in the highest esteem. "Daryl is a model professional – and in rugby, genuine professionals are hard to come by, because the vast majority are still learning what professionalism means," he continued. "He does everything right, from cleaning out the changing rooms when it's his turn to setting an example on the pitch. He's a diamond, believe me."

Praise indeed, and it begs an obvious question: if Gibson is as good as he seems, why in the name of all that is holy is he not back home in Christchurch preparing for a second World Cup adventure with his beloved All Blacks?

"It was a big call," he agreed. "But Aaron Mauger had come through as Canterbury's first choice at second five-eighth (the New Zealand terminology for inside centre) and I couldn't see much immediate prospect of getting past him. I also couldn't see me playing for another provincial team – I found the very thought of it upsetting – so I figured that, after 10 years there, I was ready to try something new.

"Bristol had been in touch as early as last January. They said Jason Little would probably be retiring, and wondered if I fancied a look. But you hear all sorts of things from all sorts of people in this game, and I didn't think much more about it.

"Then they contacted me again and I thought: 'OK, the Premiership sounds fun and the Heineken Cup is a fantastic concept. Why not?' And I'm loving it, because it's so different. In France last week I got to play in snow, on an iced-up pitch. That was a first, for sure."

So Gibson is reunited with the notoriously unforgiving Peter Thorburn, the former All Black selector who now coaches Bristol. "I can't remember if Peter picked me for the Test squad or dropped me from it," he laughed, "and I haven't plucked up the courage to ask because I might remind him of something.

Just at the moment, it is Thorburn who needs a few friends, having received both barrels from his employer, the chairman and owner Malcolm Pearce, after the deeply damaging Powergen Cup defeat by Rotherham, for which Gibson was rested, and the amateur hour at Harlequins.

His countryman is not afraid to speak up on the subject. "A good deal of negative publicity has been bandied around lately, and it doesn't help the cause," said Gibson. "Peter built his reputation in New Zealand as a technical analyst and adviser of the highest calibre, and his knowledge of the game is outstanding."

It was a comment shot through with meaning – tough, honest, straight to the point. Very All Black, very Daryl Gibson. Thorburn could not have a better man in his corner.