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Alastair Campbell recalls his controversial Lions speech that left players 'seething'

By Josh Raisey
McCaw was 'targeted in all phases' by the 2005 Lions.

Former Downing Street director of communications Alastair Campbell has shed some light on his speech during the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour which angered some players.

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Campbell worked as Sir Clive Woodwards’ head of communications for the Lions’ 3-0 series loss to the All Blacks, and was even used to provide a team talk after the chastening 21-3 loss in the first Test. This speech, however, was not popular with the entire squad.

“Some of the players were hanging around in the bar downstairs [after the first Test] and having a bit of a laugh with some of the fans and I just made this observation to Clive that I was really surprised by that,” Campbell said to 2005 tourist Will Greenwood on his podcast this week.

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“I didn’t feel that they were really hurting like I thought they might be that they’d lost. It just felt very strange to me. He went ‘I want you to talk to them, I want you to tell them that.’

“I said ‘Clive, are you sure that’s a good idea?’ But you know what he’s like, once he gets fixed on something.

“I was quite worried about it, but I was working for Clive and he wanted me to do it. He basically said ‘some of the players have got a bit complacent and they’re not listening to me, they’re not listening to what I’m saying. I’ve got to think of something to shake them up.’

“It was really interesting, the reaction. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Brian O’Driscoll and he was just doing this very gentle shake of the head. He was basically saying dial it down a bit.

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“I had prepared it quite carefully, I’d thought it through. But I could sense in the room that there were some who were genuinely engaging. But others, I remember Martin Corry was absolutely seething.

“Matt Dawson said I lost some of them from the word go because I started off by saying ‘compared to you guys I know nothing about rugby’. That may be true, but it was my way of saying ‘I’m coming at this from a totally different perspective, I hope I can give you an insight.”

Future Lions captain Paul O’Connell was another player who was irked by this speech, and detailed his reaction in his book The Battle.

“On the training pitch the following morning, I was still thinking about Alastair’s few words and getting more and more p****d off. I decided what I was going to do when the session was over: find Alastair and knock him out.”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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