The head coach has a history of punts which came up trumps and is banking on his bold choices outfoxing the SpringboksWhen it comes to selection for the final Test of a British & Irish Lions series, Warren Gatland has historically proved a shrewd operator. In 2013 his reshuffled Lions, containing six starting personnel changes as is also now the case, trounced the Wallabies 41-16. Four years ago the All Blacks also proved unable to seal a series most had expected them to win.It is perhaps in that context that Gatland’s last spin of the 2021 roulette wheel – and almost certainly of his Lions’ career – should be viewed. This is a head coach who has been in this...
Sense of grievance manufactured by Rassie Erasmus is more proof that Lions have not fared well in the social media age If Lions tours are supposed to spread the Gospel of Rugby, they best choose somewhere else to go. If they are to satisfy the bloodlust of the already converted, then why play anyone else? This match, like the last – indeed this whole week – has showed rugby at its ugliest and most difficult to love. Which is just how some people, well, love it.And now the dust has settled, we are confronted with what no Lions tour to South Africa has known since 1910 – a series tied up for the final Test. The mind boggles. Social media...
Smoke clears after an unseemly war of words to leave bullish coach watching Lions fall victim to his planFor Rassie Erasmus, mission accomplished. We will never know to what extent, if any, his video rant and the accompanying outrage affected the match officials. But considering it was a last throw of the dice – a means to an end to ensure both sides come back to do it all again one last time next Saturday with everything on the line and a way of firing up his players – they can be seen as a success.Perhaps the greatest shame is that if Erasmus’s outburst achieved one thing, it was to ensure that the arm-wrestle Warren Gatland predicted ensued. It was...
The South Africa director of rugby should stop slamming officials and analyse the failings of his own coaches and playersThe very best coaches in the world love to have control over everything. We see it with Eddie Jones and England all the time and when those coaches feel like they lose control, they act. Rassie Erasmus evidently feels like control has been lost, that Warren Gatland has seized the initiative and that he has had to respond. This week, just as he wants his players to, he has gone on the front foot. And how.I almost see it as an acknowledgment that the Lions have outplayed South Africa in the press and Rassie has been desperate to change that. Clearly...
Attritional contests are things of the past but there has been no change to the exhausting number of games on the calendar Listen to anyone involved in the British & Irish Lions’ agonising defeat by South Africa in the second Test in 2009 and one word keeps on coming up: brutal. It was a seventh successive Test loss for the Lions but the nature of it – Ian McGeechan’s men bloodied, defeated but unbowed after losing the most gladiatorial of contests with the clock turned red – did much to enhance the myth surrounding the touring side. Despite defeat the Lions’ reputation had been restored after being thrashed by New Zealand four years earlier, but at what cost?The fallout from...