Kiwis beware — Gatland’s Lions are far more mm
Mick Cleary
Is that a shiver of apprehension under Kiwi bedclothes, the first sign of anxiety at what is coming their way?
It is a long time since New Zealand treated any team heading south with anything other than certainty in their heart that they would soon wave them off with another victory in the bag.
Sure, respect and all that, humility, nothing taken for granted, be humble and domination will follow, but given that it is now 22 years since the All Blacks have lost at Eden Park in Auckland, their principal test match venue, you would have to say they are entitled to a teeny weeny bit of presumptuousness.
But wake up Kiwis, that middle-ofthe-night trembling is for real. The Lions have the look of a team about them.
The recent internationals have thrown up new contender after contender, from England wing Jonny May to Ireland tighthead Tadhg Furlong via Scotland centre Huw Jones, all names that would not have featured heavily on anyone’s list in October.
Second row is perhaps the Achilles heel of the All Blacks, as was seen when both long-standing incumbents, Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, were injured for the match against Ireland in Chicago.
And the Lions? Take your pick from Maro Itoje ( reputation still sky-high despite missing the recent tests), George Kruis, Courtney Lawes, playing his best rugby in a long time, or Joe Launchbury, ditto as per Lawes. And that is just England. Add to the mix the Gray brothers from Scotland, Alun Wyn Jones and Luke Charteris from Wales, Devin Toner, Iain Henderson and Donnacha Ryan from Ireland.
Yes, you can only pick two of them at any given time but given that injury and fatigue will be an issue from players travelling from these parts, strength in depth is paramount. The Lions have it in spades.
It is a dangerous fallacy to believe that players might be overwhelmed by the seemingly insurmountable obstacles, from the fact that the Lions’ first game is only three days after they land in the country to the prospect of playing two of the three tests at impregnable Eden Park rather than rotating the series around other venues.
The Lions should be fired up by the difficulties. And, given the evidence of the past five weeks and the manner of the performances around the home nations, there is every reason to expect that they will be.
International players are used to excellent off-field facilities and care. They are elite athletes and deserve their bespoke environment. And yet.
Within them all lies the feeling that the Lions ought to be different. They want it to be special and unique, a mood-swing apart from the norm, be that mucking in with blokes who were fearsome rivals only a few weeks earlier to the notion that they may be expected to play Saturday-Wednesday- Saturday (if only bench duty) were there to be a run of injuries.
A bit of hardship, of toughing it out with your new mates, is part of that experience. The bigger the challenge, the better the trip.
That did not happen the last time the Lions travelled to New Zealand, in