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'Our mantra the whole time has been chaos, adapt, change'
Warren Gatland appeared unflappable when he did a live TV interview shortly before the kick-off of Wednesday’s Lions tour match versus the Sharks in Johannesburg. An outbreak of Covid in the Lions camp on Wednesday resulted in a round of retesting and eight changes being made to the original matchday 23 chosen on Monday for the midweek match.
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It had been initially reported on Wednesday that a member of management who had tested positive following a lateral flow test for the virus had been isolated along with four close contacts – two players and two other members of staff. Following the subsequent PCR testing of the squad, it then emerged that a player had now also tested positive.
“The two individuals had a total of twelve close contacts – eight players and four staff members – all of whom have been placed into isolation at the team hotel,” read the Lions statement accompanying the multiple team changes. Ali Price and Owen Farrell replaced Gareth Davies and Dan Biggar at half-back, Josh Adams took over at full-back for Liam Williams and Louis Rees-Zammit came onto the wing in place of Anthony Watson.
Among the replacements, Maro Itoje, Finn Russell, Hamish Watson and Taulupe Faletau were included at the expense of Tadhg Beirne, tour skipper Conor Murray, Stuart Hogg and Chris Harris which left Gatland with a 7/1 forwards/backs split that he didn’t sound overly concerned about when speaking to Sky Sports.
“We’ll have to wait and see,” said Gatland when asked about having Russell as his only replacement Lions back. “I have spoken to Hamish Watson and Taulupe Faletau that they have just got to be ready to go on. It’s the same forward pack just with Maro Itoje coming in (on the bench) and we’re just a little light in the backline. Finn is going to cover a few positions and if someone else has to step up, I’m sure they can do a job for us.”
? BREAKING:
Huge changes to the matchday squad that was initially picked on Monday #LionsRugby #CastleLionsSeries #LionsSA2021https://t.co/E52vGfDAZU
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 7, 2021
As for his calm composure regarding the Covid situation that had put the Lions versus Sharks game in doubt, he added: “I did tell them a story: In 2013 when we went to Hong Kong and the analysts went ahead and told us they had got to the stadium in 20 minutes, I put the team meeting back an hour not realising it was rush hour and it took us an hour and a half to get to the stadium so we arrived incredibly late but the boys were brilliant.
“A bit of panic on the bus and Andy Irvine (Lions chairman on that tour) said to me, ‘Gats, why are you so relaxed?’ I said, ‘I can’t stress about it because I can’t change anything’. Our mantra the whole time has been chaos, adapt, change and so we have had to do that today and I am really excited about tonight. The boys are pumped up, we have got three new caps so that is absolutely brilliant and we are going to go out there and give a brilliant account of ourselves.”
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Asked if there could be further Covid consequences this week for the Lions tour, Gatland added: “We’ll see what happens. We had a couple of positives today in terms of a staff member and a player and the close contacts. We’ll see what happens. I’ll take advice from the medical team and see how we go forward from here.”
Countdown to extinction or a blip along the road?#LionsRugby https://t.co/nXxjyS1ykh
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 7, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments