BRISTOL director of rugby Pat Lam believes in-form winger Gabriel Ibitoye is capable of playing at the next level.
Lam watched on as the 26-year-old ran riot in the final quarter of last weekend’s win at Exeter Chiefs, claiming a hat-trick of tries to secure a famous 40-35 victory at Sandy Park.
Ibitoye’s try heroics in just eight minutes helped seal a fabulous fightback from the Bears, who had trailed by 20 points entering into the final quarter – and extended their winning run on the road to eight successive games in the Premiership.
Naturally, Lam was quick to talk up the performance of the former Harlequins flyer who, it seems, is building on what was an impressive campaign last term, where he topped many of the top flight’s individual statistics, including metres made, most offloads and defenders beaten.
“What I’m really pleased with about Gabriel Ibitoye is, I believe he’s good enough to play at the next level,” said Lam. “There are areas of his game, which if you think about high balls for example, he’s brilliant at catching high balls.
“If five balls go up in the air, he’ll catch four and miss one, so that’s just mental. We’ve addressed that with him and he still puts in the work. Sean Marsden has done a lot of good work with his high ball skills and he hasn’t dropped one.
“His fundamentals as a winger are great, then on top of that we get the Gabs Ibitoye, who’s brilliant, his work-rate is right up there and he’s one of the fittest guys in the league. Now, it’s about him staying in the game and he’s been doing that very, very well so far this year.”
As a teenager, Ibitoye was part of the England Under-20s squad that won the Six Nations title in 2017 – and a year later was called up by then head coach Eddie Jones to his senior squad as an apprentice.
That is the closest Ibitoye has been to the full international fold, but like all players he is hugely ambitious and hopes his club form will at least put him into the thinking of current head coach Steve Borthwick moving forward.
His four tries so far this campaign put him joint second on the Premiership’s running tally, and he sits second to only Exeter’s Immanuel Feyi-Waboso for metres made (310) across the league’s opening four games.
“Looking at England, Steve definitely wants something from his wingers,” said Ibitoye, who is behind Feyi-Waboso, Tommy Freeman, Ollie Sleightholme and Tom Roebuck in the pecking order. “I think I am different as a total package. The wingers he’s got in there are class, but I know I might have to be less risky on the field and not take as many risky decisions. I’m just playing what I see, so for me it’s not that risky because in the week I practise a lot.
“When I first joined Quins I was doing it and it wasn’t coming off, but I’ve stuck at it and now passes are starting to go to hand and my team-mates know what I’m going to bring on the training field and match days.”
But Ibitoye is open to change and says he would adapt to fit within an international side.
“I would change it if I was in the set up and the coach said I want these two, three things from you, then I would try and deliver on that,” he continued. “Ultimately, the coach is trying to bring together a 15 or 23 in a short amount of time, so it’s not about me, it’s about the weekend. If he asked me to come in and do these things, then I would do it.”
