ABs show level playing field only happens at World Cups
Fatigue is the key factor on end-of-season tours in both hemispheres.
The Lions had better win the first test with the All Blacks at Eden Park on June 24 next year.
Because if they don’t, look out for a three-zip whitewash.
The harsh reality is that clashing global seasons, and the player exhaustion that comes with the current programmes, mean a level playing field for test rugby only comes every four years, at the World Cup.
The lip smacking in the north over the Irish loss, and scrappy wins over Ireland and France, for the All Blacks is understandable. When 32 games with the All Blacks have passed for just one northern win, who in Europe wouldn’t be tempted to reach in the cliche´ draw for the old ‘‘gap closed’’, ‘‘end of an era’’, and ‘‘aura fades’’ lines?
The fact is that teams from Europe who come here for tests in June are exhausted, and so, it was clear last month, were the All Blacks.
There’s been plenty of angst over the Lions’ itinerary here being so brutal, and that’s a fair call, with games against four Super Rugby teams and the Maori All Blacks, before the first test.
But I’d suggest even tougher is the fact the start of the tour is jammed so hard against the end of the British season.
How hard? The most extreme example is that the English club premiership final is the weekend before the Lions’ opening game, in Whangarei, against a Barbarians team selected from non-super rugby players.
And those Lions not in the English final won’t have been unwinding, resting, and recuperating from a northern season that started eight long, bruising months before.
They’ll be in camp with the Lions, where coach Warren Gatland and his staff will be trying to stoke fires that will surely have started to run a little low. The fact is that teams from Europe who come here for tests in June are exhausted, and so, it was clear last month, were the All Blacks.
Stuttering in the All Black machine on the end of year tour sparked some bizarre reconsideration by critics, ranging from slagging Kieran Read’s leadership, a call for new All Black selectors, to tagging Beauden Barrett as erratic. The commentators don’t seem to have taken in the most important factor. A lot of the players are physically and mentally stuffed.
In fairness, many New Zealanders, and I’d have to put my own hand up here, didn’t place much emphasis on the same overwork when Wales got worse and worse on their June tour here, until, after two battling losses, they were whipped 46-6, six tries to none, in the third test in Dunedin.
It was the same in 2014 with England in June. Two nail-biters, then a 23 point All Black win in the third test. It was even worse for Ireland in 2012. From just a three point loss for them in the second test, to a 60-point humiliation in the third.
Performances like those from visiting teams here in June, and by the All Blacks in Europe in November, surely prove the point that the only real measure of northern and southern hemisphere rugby comes at the World Cup.
Before the cup last year the All Blacks played just five tests before they headed to England. And guess what? All four southern hemisphere teams made the semifinals.
At first glance it certainly appears that Ireland and England have improved since the World Cup, and, judging by what happened in Chicago, Dublin and Paris, the All Blacks are not as all conquering as they were last year. But how, until they all get to Japan in 2019, can we really tell?
It’s a melancholy fact that the only way to know where the teams stand outside World Cup year would be for a move towards a global season.
That would take a generous spirited attitude from, in particular, a financial powerhouse like the English rugby union, or, as they call themselves, The Rugby Union.
How likely is that? When Fiji played England at Twickenham a fortnight ago it’s estimated England made about $17 million. They made a ‘‘goodwill’’ payment of $132,000 to Fiji.
‘‘It’s not our responsibility to fund world rugby,’’ said England rugby’s chief executive, Ian Ritchie.
Does that sound to you like a man whose world view stretches south of Dover?