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The greatest trick Gatland's Lions could pull on this tour

By James Harrington
British and Irish Lions in training

A surprise player boost to the Lions’ Dublin training camp may distill a little extra team spirit – but the tourists still head south more in great hope rather than ‘massive expectation’, writes James Harrington

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The loss of Billy Vunipola for the Lions’ tour of New Zealand is a major blow. But it’s a fair bet that coach Warren Gatland’s disappointment has been mollified at least a little by something else – namely the sudden and unexpected availability of 10 extra tourists for this week’s training camp in Ireland.

Saracens and Leinster losing their respective semi-finals freed Owen Farrell, Tadhg Furlong, Jamie George, Robbie Henshaw, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Jack McGrath, Seán O’Brien, Johnny Sexton, and Mako Vunipola, for fitness, training and bonding sessions at Carton House, near Dublin.

Those surprise extra 10 take Gatland’s available player tally to 30 – nearly 75 percent of his total squad for the tour. It is more than double the number he had at the first camp in Cardiff. And, given just who is coming, that just might give the Lions a shot at creating something that may, in the right conditions, smell like team spirit. Just a little bit.

That would be the greatest trick Gatland could pull on this tour. It was one Clive Woodward conspicuously and embarrassingly failed to do in 2005. And it’s one that v2017 Lions have the smallest window of opportunity to perfect before the first match on June 3.

His Imperial Galactic Rugby Overlord Steve Hansen warned about the pressure of the ‘massive expectation’ of Lions’ supporters. What pressure is that, exactly, your galactic imperiousness? There’s no pressure on the Lions. Six wins in 38 Tests against the All Blacks does not deliver much in the way of expectation of any description. And certainly not ‘massive expectation’.

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Hope, on the other hand, there’ll be plenty of that. There won’t be enough available free space in the entire country to store all the hope that the Lions’ and their 20,000 legion of fans will bring in their hearts. But, expectation? Nope. There’s none of that.

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What the Lions do have on their side is, literally, the great unknown and – if they can generate enough of it between now and mid-tour at the latest – team spirit.

The Lions v2017, for all that 16 of them toured Australia four years ago, have never played together. There’s no video of go-to lineout moves; no footage how the scrum will work (or not); or how Sexton and Joseph may play off each other (or not); any of it. There’s just the jigsaw identification of how they could work (or not), based on internationals and club matches involving the players on opposing sides, or in different competitions.

Until the June 3 match in Whangarei, there’s little evidence of what may be in store for Hansen and his cohorts to begin to study. Whether that actually makes a difference in the Tests is a moot point. A 16 percent success rate against the All Blacks suggests pretty strongly it probably won’t.

Besides, if what the Lions do in New Zealand is set to surprise for the hosts, it’s because will be at least as much of a shock to the tourists.

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Even with his stronger-than-expected tour party get-together in Dublin, Gatland will only get all his players together in the same room less than 24 hours before they pick up their boarding passes for the flight from Heathrow.

His Wasps, Exeter, Munster and Scarlets contingent will be unavailable before then as their clubs have the small matter of finals to contest. Toulon’s Leigh Halfpenny, meanwhile, has a Friday-night Top 14 semi-final against La Rochelle to negotiate before he’s allowed out with the Lions.

That’s why having the Saracens and Leinster crowd for an extra week is such a pleasant surprise for the party. Both sets of players know all about team spirit – and both could help instill it in the Lions.

A decent slug of that could offset the tourists’ laughably inadequate preparation time ahead of the first of their demanding-as-hell warm-up matches. Add a splash of the great unknown, a dash of hope … and suddenly you’ve got the makings of a heady tour cocktail – maybe even a pan-hemispheric allblacksblaster.

Probably not, in all seriousness. But hope springs eternal. And Lions’ fans have a lot of that…

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Jon 1 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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j
john 4 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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A
Adrian 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 8 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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