LIONS LACKING A SNARL
Gatland must tackle his team’s alarming form or face trouble
“Enough of the straw-clutching, the seeking out of sympathy”
IF Saturday is a portent of what is to come on this New Zealand tour then look away now, it’s going to be a grim five weeks. Warren Gatland has been at pains in stating the tour is all about the Test series, that twists and turns in a half-dozen dress rehearsals will be irrelevant come June 24 when the All Blacks are the Auckland opposition. That sentiment is hubris, though, commentary wildly at odds with some of his other remarks.
Engineering harmony among his bloated Lions squad of 41 is the point of the early-weeks exercise. However, rather than acknowledge Saturday’s wretched experience in Whangarei achieved nothing but already ruin the Test selection chances of quite a few of those involved and gain kudos for being honest in saying so, his jet-lag excuses grated, wilfully turning a complete blind eye to an embarrassing 80 minutes that teetered on the brink of humiliation.
It was last Wednesday that we were confidently told jet-lag wouldn’t be used as a reason for any non-performance. After all, hadn’t the tourists flown halfway around the world in luxury at the behest of one of their sponsors and hadn’t they even broken up the long haul by overnighting in Melbourne on advice of their top-ofthe-range sports medics.
Yet, there we were, listening to stories three days after about how sleeping patterns had yet to settle, about how the sleeping tablet is a most requested medicinal aid when the fact of the matter was the famed reputation of the red jersey was sullied by the majority of those who wore it from the start on Saturday night.
Enough of the straw-clutching. Enough of seeking out of sympathy for the hardship of having to start this first tour match just 79 hours after landing in New Zealand. The sobering reality is these well-remunerated, long-time pampered rugby professionals were facing a rag-ball assortment of semi-pros and amateurs that had only spent a week together, less time than this particular Lions XV had in unison.
Gatland had stated his tour opening starters were a combination chosen by accident, not design, that 13 had been present at both pre-departure preparatory weeks in Wales and Ireland, a posse added to by the addition of Johnny Sexton and Alun Wyn Jones for the second week, a pair with none-tooshabby CVs.
However, the level of performance collectively produced despite that time in each other’s company was more in keeping with a weekend social side, not reflective of the pedigree of a XV containing one third-time tourist, five second-time tourists, four national team captains, four players with 10 Lions Test caps between them and 14 who share a colossal 617 Test starts between them for England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
That they were made to look so very ordinary against an opposition largely backboned by the likes of a painter, a gym owner, a builder, a nurse and various others who get up on Monday mornings and put on a very different set of work clothes, was jarring for a travelling party aiming to upset the All Blacks.
History tells us the tour openers of 2009 and 2013 provided five starters three weeks later for the Test series openers, but you’d be hard pressed to identity that healthy a number who will be running out at Eden Park 19 days from now, such was the poverty of general play outside their scrum. Only Toby Faletau and Ross Moriarty genuinely stood out.
Time is the enemy. Gatland has promised a start to all 41 players across the opening three games, vowing to change the entire 15 to face the Blues this Wednesday. Having also admitted that he wants to be starting the majority of his likely Test XV in the fifth tour match against the Maori on Saturday week, second chances appear thin on the ground for quite a few Whangarei wasters.
Take Johnny Sexton, whose bumbling in tandem with nondescript Greig Laidlaw was up there with the misfortune of the infamous Irish Development XV that started its disastrous trip under Brian Ashton in the same Northland city 20 years ago.
Sexton will defiantly tell you otherwise, that his form all season hasn’t been too flaky, but he is looking a shadow of his usual good self, his awful, unassured display at Toll Stadium a carry-over from the shambles of Leinster’s home league semi-final elimination rather than any glimpse he can resurrect the heroics of 2013 when he was the playmaking heart and soul of the Lions’ series win in Australia.
His only consolation was seeing replacement Owen Farrell, the favourite to be the starting Test No10, shoddily hit the upright with the straight-forward penalty that would have given these pussycats some breathing space coming down the finishing straight.
Instead, they were left clinging on anxiously to a six-point lead secured by an early 10-point second-half surge. This following a dismal first half where they trailed by four at the interval after butchering a succession of try-scoring chances that amateurishly went untaken due to lack of clinical finishing rather than any great Barbarians defence.
If tiredness was the alleged mitigation for a team of all-stars failing to execute simple rugby basics and give this tour a sense it has identified a playing-style blueprint to be successful, the truth is it doesn’t get any easier.
They now negotiate a mind-bending five-match schedule in five different cities against far tougher opponents in a 14-day spell before the decks are cleared for the Test opener versus the All Blacks.
That, unfortunately, doesn’t sound a legitimate cure for opening night lethargy.