The media pack has doubled. From the 35 journalists or so and six camera crews prior to the Maori and Chiefs games, on Thursday roughly 75 journalists and 12 camera crews descended on the QBE Stadium in Albany in Auckland’s North Shore. Unlike the first week here, they were kept waiting outside, and upon entry the curtains were closed to obscure the view of the kickers after what had been a vocal training session.
Anyone would think there was a big game looming this Saturday.
In facing them, Warren Gatland had been true to his and the coaches’ word in picking a team to face the All Blacks at Eden Park on Saturday based on form, and in the process they’ve rather given the lie to the notion that this series will provide the ultimate clash of northern and southern hemisphere styles.
Sometimes, perhaps, maybe we can overthink things. When Gatland said that the coaches would pick a team to face the All Blacks on form, we reckoned past achievements and some kind of perceived status would also be factors. When he said players involved in Tuesday’s win over the Chiefs could still force their way into the first test match-day squad, we figured that the starting XV was nonetheless ring-fenced. In other words, when he said the selectors would convene on Wednesday in their Auckland hotel to finalise the team, we figured that was just to cross a few ‘t’s and dot a few ‘i’s.
Wrong on all counts.
This is both a form selection and a bold selection, designed to take risks as well as play to their strengths. The Chiefs game mattered, not least in promoting Liam Williams at full-back and Elliot Daly on the left wing ahead of the tried and trusted Leigh Halfpenny and George North. Although not the most obvious kind of game breaker the Lions might require if they are chasing the game, Halfpenny makes the bench, whereas North misses out.
Thus, when the Lions’ head coach faced a media pack that was doubled from earlier in the week and was asked ‘when this team came into your mind’, he looked a little nonplussed.
“It came into our minds on Wednesday when we picked the team,” he said, with a slightly incredulous look on his face. “There was some good healthy debate and obviously there was the issue of the back three. The message to the players before we came out to New Zealand was that to play the All Blacks you have to be bold and take risks. Yes we are playing to a structure as every team does, but we have been giving the confidence to the players to bring in an offloading game when it’s appropriate.
“We have seen some development and improvement on that and there were a couple of nice examples on Tuesday night of that coming together. We know we have got to be courageous coming here, we’ve got to be bold and play some positive rugby.
“We feel our set-piece is getting better from game to game and we’ve improved defensively. We just need to bring that other element into the game, which is playing with some flair, taking some risks and being courageous and bold.”
This selection reflects the progress made over three and a half weeks, and six matches, and no-one could dispute that the coaches have been true to their word in ensuring this was a form selection. “I like to think we have been consistent in the messages we have been delivering about how tough it was when we arrived and we would get better as the tour went on in terms of combinations and I think we have demonstrated that,” said Gatland.
“We said we would pick the team on form and there are probably a lot of changes from the start of the tour to now in terms of what people speculated the side would be.”
So it is that Peter O'Mahony and Sean O'Brien are picked on form ahead of Sam Warburton, who is on the bench, with O'Mahony to captain the side.
The selection also recognises that the Lions are not going to win the first Test 12-3, as they did against the Crusaders, or anything remotely like that. Nor will they romp home by 32-10 as the bulk of this side did against the Maori.
“We squeezed the life out of those two teams and we won’t stop being aggressive defensively,” said Gatland. “To play against the All Blacks you’ve got to have a strong set-piece. You need a platform to be able to work off to start with. We’ve created opportunities, early on the tour we weren’t finishing, but on Tuesday we started to do that.”
“I think we’ve played some lovely rugby. We struggled at the start of the tour, but we’ve scored nine tries to three in the last four games. I can’t fault the players if we’re getting some success by dominating up front.”
“We’re not going to be talked into playing Barbarian-type rugby when we’ve got certain weapons we can use to our advantage. And that’s being smart about how you play. And hopefully we can be strong at set-piece and strong defensively at the weekend, and when the opportunities arise we can get in behind the All Blacks and finish the opportunities we create.”
Stayin’ alive is another mantra.
“We’ve got to be alive for 80 minutes. We know there are periods in the game where they seem to almost lull and then they get one opportunity and they just ignite and that’s when they are most dangerous. So we’ve just got to stay alive for every moment. It will be a high tempo game, with the offloading threats. But we are excited about Saturday night and looking forward to it.”
It's going to be a step up from anything we have experienced, but we are pleased with our own progress
Reflecting the Lions’ sense of ambition, in addition to preferring the more in-form, left-footed option of Daly on the left wing, Gatland and co have gambled on the sharper counter-attacking if more error inclined Williams over the “error-free” Halfpenny, even though last week he had said he disagreed with other coaches in regarding Williams as more of a winger.
“I said in my opinion I think wing is his best position. He can get involved in the game a lot. But I’ve also been consistent in saying selection would come down to form and the players who played on Tuesday night would still have an opportunity to go and impress. He did that. He was elusive, he caused the Chiefs a lot of damage, he played well and so he has been given an opportunity at ‘15’.”
With negligible preparation time, and although he would assuredly have liked at least another week, the Lions are in a better position than seemed likely in the first week of the tour, or perhaps even than their head coach envisaged.
“We are pretty happy with where we are at,” said Gatland. “Players have worked incredibly hard and their whole focus has been about improving from game to game and arriving at the first Test in pretty good shape. I think we are in a healthy state but we are under no illusion about how difficult the challenge is going to be on Saturday night against the best team in the world; with their record at home and particularly at Eden Park, where they are unbeaten since 1994. It’s going to be a step up from anything we have experienced, but we are pleased with our own progress and the development that has gone on in the last few weeks.”
Amid the barbs coming back and forth from both camps, Gatland was asked if Steve Hansen was trying to get inside is head: "If I'm getting up his nose that's a nice position to be in!"
Invariably, there was another dig from Hansen in central Auckland over an hour earlier, when he said that the Lions had used the media to get across their message to the officials regarding the tactic of New Zealand to block runners off the ball.
Not, of course, that the All Blacks would countenance such a course of action. Wayne Barnes anyone?
Again, Gatland looked a little incredulous when informed of this.
“I’m not worried about Steve, he can say whatever he likes. I’m not worried about Steve at all. We’ve got ourselves to prepare. We know it’s going to be a tough encounter. Let’s let the rugby do the talking because there’s been enough trash talking already.
“So let’s get excited about what could be a fantastic series. A couple of sideline things have taken the focus away from that. The welcome, the hospitality has been awesome. I’m getting a different message as a squad of players from sometimes what’s being reported in the media.”
