The Owen Farrell-inspired victory for the British and Irish Lions against unbeaten Crusaders, after being tipped to not win another game on tour, will keep New Zealand’s analysts awake for nights to comeAs the past few weeks on the election trail have shown, a campaign rarely runs in a straight line. What seems certain one day can look unlikely the next and a few days after being tipped to go through the rest of the tour without securing a victory the Lions not only defeated the previously unbeaten Crusaders but gave New Zealand some reasons to be fearful.One disappointment for the Lions, which will kick in after the euphoria and relief of a win they needed with the majority of...
There was much to admire in Christchurch, but Warren Gatland still has some fine-tuning to do before the first Test against the All BlacksStill not very pretty, but mightily effective against Super Rugby’s only unbeaten team this year – and as Warren Gatland said: “We needed that, didn’t we?” He has repeatedly claimed that only the Test series matters, but while there was palpable relief on his face after the criticism that followed the Blues defeat, you get the feeling he had targeted this match as the opportunity for the Lions to announce their arrival. Certainly they had a far more cohesive gameplan – with aggressive, suffocating defence at its heart – and his side were far more composed, finishing...
With an All Black tight five, the Christchurch side are powerful in the ruck and they can really do some damage through Richie Mo’unga and David HaviliWarren Gatland is kidding no one when he says there is not much difference between playing the Super Rugby teams and the All Blacks. He’s trying to take the pressure off his players but they’ve just lost to the Blues, who haven’t beaten another Kiwi side all season. Test level is a different, much bigger beast and when it’s the full-blooded All Blacks against the Lions the levels of pressure and intensity will go right through the roof.While losing to the Blues was a blow it wasn’t fatal and now they come to the...
Gatland’s men need to break the shackles but Test series will be defined just as much by how they cope with an attacking style almost never seen in Six NationsWhen Ian McGeechan coached the Lions in New Zealand in 1993 his policy with the media was simple: say nothing in a polite way. He knew, even at a time when the Lions were a rugby entity rather than the commercial juggernaut they have become, that a difficult tour would become onerous if the tourists generated negative headlines through a word or two out of place.Have a quiet word with him afterwards, as you were able to in those days, and you were given something more sustaining than gruel, but on...
Defeat against the Blues means the Lions need to ditch ‘rugby chaos’ and develop a clearer plan with tougher challenges aheadDrawing conclusions this early in a British & Irish Lions tour can be dangerous but there is one that can already be made with certainty: the phrase “rugby chaos” must be banished from the tourists’ vocabulary, never to return.It always had the whiff of a soundbite, dreamt up by an anxious PR team eager to deflect attention from negative “Warrenball” headlines, but with a laborious opening victory now followed by defeat against the weakest of Super Rugby sides the Lions will face, it has backfired with an irony not lost on the caustic New Zealand press. Related: Lions slip to disappointing defeat...