Rory McCarthy | Deputy Sports editor
In the maze and multitude of responses to the announcement of who would and wouldn’t travel to Australia it pays to bear in mind the intentions of the management. Long ago, in 2007 to be precise, on a sunny Saturday in Marseille, an underrated English side knocked Australia out from the Rugby World Cup. The Aussies and to some extent the rugby world were shell shocked at the defeat, with an English side built around the scrimmaging brilliance of Andrew Sheridan and Phil Vickery as well as the tenacity of Nick Easter, Jamie Noon and Josh Lewsey coming out on top. A lesson was learned that day in how to beat Australia. Fast-forward to earlier this afternoon and Warren Gatland has selected an absolutely gargantuan and biblically-sized touring party. Their template will be to copy what England did that day in Marseille and bludgeon and bully the Australians into submission. Is it risky? In some respects yes and in some no. Confrontational rugby generally works well against the Australians and, as noted by Danny Cipriani, you aren’t going to beat the Wallabies by attempting to be more skillful than them. However, the strategy of hammering them into dust is risky, with the likes of Digby Ioane, Israel Folau, and Adam Ashley-Cooper extremely capable in the contact zone and there appears little scope for a Plan B if the Lions fail to intimidate the Wallabies.
Selection
Firstly let’s look at selection. This is always mired in parochialism. In Ireland the reaction on Twitter has been aghast at the exclusion of Simon Zebo and Rory Best. Zebo would have been an anomaly in the backline, a relatively slight and skillful player amongst behemoths. Brian O’Driscoll’s reputation warrants selection and his defence is second to none, but the same can’t be said of Zebo. Were he selected he would be by himself as a strike-running back as opposed to George North and Tommy Bowe who are far more conventional and abrasive. The Lions don’t have any intentions of playing in such a silky fashion and thus the game plan wouldn’t have suited Zebo. He will be disappointed but setbacks are a part of sport. Sean Maitland is a classy footballer and an excellent decision maker as well as being more physically robust than Zebo. His selection is justified. As for Rory Best, his throwing and poor Six Nations not only ended his chances but also Donnacha Ryan’s, as it contributed to Ireland’s poor lineout in that tournament. Accusations of bias can be bandied around seeing Dylan Hartley selected, however Graham Rowntree, the English and Lion’s forward coach seemed sincere in saying injuries will result in Best being called up. Other unlucky Irish selection is Peter O’Mahony who was probably left out on grounds of size.
The biggest selection controversy is rightfully that of Chris Robshaw. Robshaw has his detractors. He is not a specialist in any particular field of his position but performs all the basics to a very high level. He captained England to four victories in the Six Nations and received two Man of the Match awards, as well as playing a key role in the defeat of the All Blacks in the November series. His omission is probably down to Tommy O’Donnell’s spellbinding performance in the Stoop, which really took the gloss off Robshaw and confirmed to the Lions management that when the going gets tough, Robshaw goes into a shell. The Harlequins captain did the same in Cardiff during England’s implosion in the Grand Slam decider. Danny Care likewise lost out to Conor Murray who, although has his critics, again matches the managements desire for size and physicality. His defensive work rate is also without match from a scrumhalf in the Northern Hemisphere.
Scottish fans will feel as aggrieved over Kelly Brown and Johnny Beattie not being included. The selection of Tom Croft and Dan Lydiate is particularly hard to justify. Croft hardly played in the Six Nations and spent most of the time hiding on the wing when he was on the pitch. Lydiate hasn’t played a serious game all year, missed the Six Nations and there has to be a degree of bias in his selection. The management have to some extent dismissed sentimentality. There is no uncapped bolter on this tour. They have selected players who they know and have worked with. They will be aware of their limitations and their strengths. In this respect Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip have been the most fortunate. Neither have had a particularly vintage season but again they were key players in South Africa in 2009. Indeed, both played under Rowntree, Gatland and Rob Howley on that tour. Those coaches know how good they are. It’s hard to imagine would England have had so many forwards were Rowntree and Andy Farrell not present at the selection meeting. Mako Vunipola is a decent ball carrier but not a renowned scrummager which seems to contradict the intentions of blasting the Aussie set piece off the park. Geoff Parling is a solid scrummager in the engine room, and has a very high work rate. One senses that Joe Launchbury and Donnacha Ryan missed out for being perceived as more mobile players, not exactly what the Lions desire down under. The selection of Tom Youngs is for all intents and purposes verging on lunacy. Rowntree clearly likes Youngs and is willing to fight his corner. However, the lad used to play centre for Leicester Tiger’s ‘A’ side and now is being picked for the Lions. He can’t throw the ball straight beyond four in the lineout. The scrutiny upon him will be heavy in light of Best’s admission.
Ireland with its contingent of nine players can count itself lucky. If it is critical to say Lydiate is been taken on faith then so is Tommy Bowe who has also been injured for a portion of this year. Again like Kearney and Heaslip the management know what to expect from the Ulster winger. Wales have fifteen selected players and this seems to indicate that Gatland counts the Six Nations as a greater indicator of form and potential than European club rugby. The argument over whether Heineken Cup rugby is a higher level than Six Nations rugby or the other way round is a complex and difficult one. The Welsh provinces have been pretty appalling with no contribution to the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup again, but they still find the majority of selected Lions. Warburton has looked anonymous for Cardiff this year most notably in the RDS when Leinster put fifty-nine points on them. The only decent Welsh province, the Ospreys who are current Rabo 12 Champions, have three selections. Gatland knows that the Welsh players raise their game for big occassions and as such, while selecting so many is a leap of faith it is not exactly blind given how good some of these players are.
Captaincy
Sam Warburton has so far in the press conference being listed as a ‘starter’ by Warren Gatland a very uncharacteristic comment from Gatland. The leadership and experience of Paul O’Connell and Brian O’Driscoll will flank Warburton. That is a huge benefit for the young Cardiff open side. At 24 he has huge potential and when he’s played well this year in the Six Nations he’s been near enough to the best loose forward in the Northern Hemisphere. Justin Tipuric will push him all the way for selection, but that competition is healthy. Warburton will also have Europe’s premier playmaker in Johnny Sexton at outhalf who is also a leader in his own right. Sexton is a banker to start provided he stays fit. Andy Farrell has potential but Sexton is in a different atmosphere compared to the Saracen’s stand-off. Farrell has his detractors in these waters, who see him as arrogant and cocky, but he’s a good goal kicker, a brave and technically competent defender and he can cover thirteen. The news that Johnny Wilkinson denied the offer of selection on the grounds he wanted younger players to have a shot, as well as his feeling that his body wouldn’t be up to it is a measure of the man’s class and humility. Ian Madigan would have been a bolter and could cover twelve and fifteen. He could still expect to be called up but an average performance against Biarritz doesn’t help his cause. The Lions have left themselves short at inside centre with only one selected, namely, Jamie Roberts. Billy Twelvetrees might have been considered but again the Lions want to bludgeon the Aussies not skate around them with silky skip passes. Twelvetrees was probably deemed too raw in any case.
Coaches
Warren Gatland is head coach, with Graham Rowntree, Andy Farrell and Rob Howley his main assistants. He also has a backroom team comprising of Robin McBride and Neil Jenkins. There is not a single Irish influence in the management. Indeed only Patrick O’Reilly aka ‘Rala’ is the only Irishman not involved in the playing party but as kit man he will hardly be called on to discuss tactics. However, given that Declan Kidney has been sacked and Ireland were second last in the Six Nations, they don’t exactly warrant huge influence in matters. Not even picking an Irish captain to balance this discrepancy shows how intent Gatland is to win this tour. In selection he had no room for sentimentality and he’s shown the same in choosing his captain. His selection and his intention have been clear from the outset and the team around him has little intention to dispel that notion. Farrell who was twice the Super League’s Man of Steel takes over from Shaun Edwards as the defence coach and will certainly add grit and menace to the already physically imposing Lions. Rowntree was one of the few English coaches to come out of the 2011 Rugby World Cup debacle with an enhanced reputation and thoroughly deserves his place on this tour. Howley is also an excellent coach and was responsible for the nascent understanding between Roberts and O’Driscoll that caused such damage in 2009 in the high veldt of South Africa. He can be relied upon to cause damage with the backs at his disposal. Ultimately with their selection and their clear intentions, the danger for the Lions is that if they can’t smash the Wallabies down, there is very little else they can do. Replacing say Roberts with Manu Tuilagi is exactly a dynamic shift in playing styles. The benefit is that their playing style will be easy to implement as the Lions essentially only have a month of training before they play the Barbarians in Hong Kong on June 1st.
The Australians
The Aussies are in disarray. The Lions will galvanize them into a response. The dismissive arguments of Stephen Jones, Robert Kitson and Chris Hewitt about how weak and poor the Lions are don’t add up to the truth. Exploring the problems prevalent in Australian Rugby is for a whole other day but they will still have some excellent players. Digby Ioane has announced he is moving to a French club and as such the Lions will be his swansong in a gold jersey. He remains one of the most prolific strike-runners in Test Rugby and he will be more than up challenge thrown down by Bowe and North. Likewise NRL convert Israel Folau will be more than ready for the onslaught the Lions will throw at him. He’s raw and inexperienced in Union, but he is a phenomenal athlete and was sensational in NRL as a young eighteen year old. He is strong in the air and is a good defender. New Zealand’s favourite Kiwi Quade Cooper will play ten. There is no point even trying to predict what he’ll be like come the first test in Suncorp Stadium. It’s likely he’ll have walked out from the set-up citing irreconcilable differences with Robbie Deans and will be playing Aussie Rules. Up front the Lions will hope to run the Aussie scrum into the ground and this is probably why Matt Stevens was selected. Injuries to David Pocock have deprived them of their talismanic forward but the Brumbies have re-signed George Smith from Japan who is just as capable. Furthermore, youngsters Michael Hooper and Liam Gill have been real finds for Australia and will feature for the Wallabies. Will Genia was the best scrumhalf in the world prior to his injury in last year’s tri-Nations. Kurtley Beale hasn’t really hit the heights of two to three seasons ago and as Scott Johnson noted wryly ‘he used to be able to beat a defender in a phone box….now he can’t even get in the phonebox.’ The Deans era has not been a happy one for the Wallabies yet the confidence which the media have bestowed upon the Lions will upset the uber-competitive Australians and cause a reaction. Whether that reaction is to go quietly or go out with a bang remains to be seen. The Tests will be competitive and exciting. The midweek games will be a whole other matter. While the Brumbies top the Super 15 table and the Reds are current champions they are the wheat from the chaff. The Western Force and the NSW Waratahs are awfully poor. Melbourne are liable to concede over seventy points if they are deprived of their international contingent.
