Over-confident Lions look for excuses as the All Blacks prepare for killer blow

Alex Broun 22:20 26/06/2017
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  • The British and Irish Lions train in Wellington on Monday.

    It’s all kicking off in the land of the long white cloud.

    Firstly the Lions are (rightly) hammered from all sides after their poor showing in the first Test in Auckland and then All Blacks’ boss Steve Hansen calls into his local radio show to label his Lions counterpart “desperate” to suggest New Zealand deliberately tried to injure Lions scrumhalf Conor Murray by diving in to attack his standing leg while he was kicking.

    But it should be no surprise Warren Gatland is clutching at straws after the Auckland drubbing. Most people predicted a tight match with some – myself included – even edging the Lions to get home.

    The Lions though were stunningly outplayed and truth be known the 30-15 score line flattered them.

    However it wasn’t the margin of defeat but the nature of it that will be so galling to Gatland.

    The Lions had physically dominated the Chiefs, Crusaders and Maori All Blacks to the combined score line of 78-19 and were expected to do the same in the Test.

    After all, weren’t the All Blacks pack just the Crusaders in different jerseys. Or so the Lions thought…

    One of Gatland’s biggest challenges before the tour was to make the Lions believe that the invincible All Blacks were in fact very ‘vicinble’. It appears Gatland did his job too well and not only did the Lions think they could win, they thought they world. If anything last Saturday in Auckland the Lions seemed over-confident.

    Not smart when you are taking on the back-to-back World Champions at a ground where they haven’t lost for 23 years but the look on the Lions’ faces 20 minutes in to the match showed just how unprepared they were for the full force of the All Blacks.

    You could almost read the minds of the bewildered men in red jerseys: “Wow, this is fast”, “Didn’t we beat these guys a fortnight ago?”, “I knew they were good but not this good”, “Can I go home now?”

    Those watching were also surprised as the game panned out exactly the opposite of what was expected.

    Supposedly the Lions would have the “lion’s share” of possession and the All Blacks would live off the scraps, launching deadly counter-attacks – as they often do.

    But instead it was the All Blacks who dominated possession, 61% to 38%, bashing it up with close carries and forcing the Lions to make a massive 183 tackles. The highly skilled All Blacks played conservatively – no risky passes or off-loads – exhausting the Lions forwards in defence, so that when they did finally get the ball they were too tired to do anything with it.

    The whole match turned on a scrum in the 54th minute. The All Blacks were clinging to a 13-8 lead and the Lions looked set to pounce.

    The Lions scrum was meant to be a banker for the tourists, one area where they would dominate – like they did against the Crusaders.

    The tourusts had made a change upfront in the 52nd minute with Mako Vunipola going off for Jack McGrath, while the All Blacks swapped both props just before the scrum – Joe Moody and Owen Franks off for Wyatt Crockett and Charlie Faumuina.

    Tellingly the Lions also pulled off match captain Peter O’Mahony for tour captain Sam Warburton seconds before they packed down.

    The scrums had been very even to that point – stable, no side really gaining superiority. We may never know just why the All Blacks decided to attack that very scrum but attack they did. More like decimate.

    The All Blacks drove, the Lions buckled and New Zealand drove them back a full ten metres, winning a penalty advantage in the process. But the All Blacks went for the jugular. The extraordinary Kieran Read scooped up the bobbling ball at his feet and a few passes later Reiko Ioane was over in the corner.

    The Lions were physically and more damagingly mentally shattered – game over.

    Now in Wellington, the same venue as the second Test this Saturday, the Lions must somehow find a way to restore their shattered pride and overcome a Hurricanes side with many recent All Blacks – Julian Savea and Nehe Milner-Skudder chief amongst them – keen to show they still have what it takes to be considered at Test level.

    Lions players like Jack Nowell, George North, Courtney Lawes, Justin Tipuric, Rory Best and Jonathan Joseph also have their shot at forcing themselves into contention for the Lions second Test team, named Wednesday.

    The neutrals will hope the Lions can bounce back against the Super Rugby champs or Saturday could be a very dark day indeed for Northern Hemisphere rugby fans.

    And a tour that had promised so much could wind down to a meaningless dead rubber third Test.

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