Lions tour, rugby news,
british and irish lions, Australia, second test, results, odriscoll
So, not entirely
surprisingly, it’s come down to this. It’s been that kind of season, that kind
of tour. Both sides now have an 80 minute shot at forever, with the Lions
either ending 16 years of hurt or the Wallabies sending them to New Zealand
four years hence seeking a first series win in 20 years.
Another crackling occasion
couldn’t have been set up much better, although Irish fans might provide one
caveat. The margins have been wafer thin and it will be no surprise if, like
the ’89 and ’01 series, this comes down to the last play of the match too. In
that, there are a couple of ominous portents, in that on both occasions the
team that rebounded from losing the first Test by levelling the series
completed the comeback in game three.
Historically also, the
Wallabies have risen to the occasion in do-or-die games, as the series winner
12 years ago against the Lions here in Sydney underlines. Their two World Cup
triumphs in 1991 and ’99 were also built on handling big games.
Admittedly, this generation
are comparatively unproven, but they have added some armour under pressure over
the past 12 months. Under Robbie Deans they have tended to produce their best
performances when under fire after their most deflating losses.
The value of experience and
leadership has been a hot topic this week, witness Deans recalling George
Smith, while Warren Gatland has jettisoned you-know-who and the Ireland captain
on top of losing the Lions’ current and most recent tour captains, but in James
Horwill, Will Genia, Stephen Moore and others, a real leadership group with a
winning mentality have come to the fore.
This will tell a tale
alright. Gatland has taken a huge gamble with an exceptional, trophy-laden CV
in his selection, and if it comes off, then a Lions series win can be added to
the honours his teams have harvested, and he would probably still be favourite
to take the Lions to New Zealand. But if it doesn’t, he’ll have seriously
jeopardised those prospects.
That merely underlines what
a brave call Gatland’s selection was. It may have betrayed plenty of
favouritism in this week of need, but to suggest it was vindictive or in any
way a non-rugby decision is nonsense.
However, looking at a re-run
of the second Test, it still looks wrong. It would be no surprise if Adam
Ashley-Cooper has more space to work in the outside channels without O’Driscoll
to close down the space, not to mention his superior tackling execution to
Jonathan Davies. Just seeing the selection will encourage the Wallabies to do
so too.
They have started only 18
players in three Tests. By first making five changes from a winning team, and
then six changes, the Lions will have used 24 in three starting line-ups, even
if four-fifths of the team is now Welsh.
Go-forward ball
In the process too, the
injection of Jamie Roberts, Seán O’Brien and maybe Toby Foletau should generate
some badly needed go-forward. But it all seems predicated on the Welsh game
plan of bashing the opposition into submission via the collisions. It’s not making
the most of Jonny Sexton.
However, in addition to now
having the momentum, you’d have to think the Wallabies will improve
exponentially again, that even James O’Connor might put the lessons of the
first two games to use by playing flatter, keeping concentration and disrupting
more accurately. And having belatedly twigged that Israel Folau is actually the
game’s likeliest match-winner, one suspects they’ll bring him up the middle,
and either work it wide or kick it wide to him more regularly.
In contrast to their
build-up games (in which Davies was amongst those who revelled in more of a
running game) the Lions failure to bring George North and Tommy Bowe into the
game was indicative of their increasingly restrictive game plan. The one
problem about having a world-class goal-kicker is that a team can become overly
reliant on one.
The one time Sam Warburton
went to the corner, and reduced the Wallabies to yellow card territory, he
promptly backed off and threw the ball to Halfpenny. A la Wales, the Lions pack
down for a scrum to win a penalty, not to use their backs, and even with
wobbles the tactic yielded a 9-6 return last week. There’s also the Lions’
lineout troubles which the selection of Richard Hibbard and puzzling omission
of Tom Croft doesn’t seem to rectify.
There’s also the Romain
Poite factor, which is incalculable. But most of all there’s a feeling that if
it requires a moment of magic – be it a quick tap or quick throw, a
counter-attack, or the ambition, patience and composure on the ball which comes
with broken play – the likes of Will Genia, Folau, Kurtley Beale or even
O’Connor, will be more likely to deliver it.
