Test series against the Lions ‘tougher than World Cup’

OPINION: New Zealanders need to wake up to what All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has been saying all along - they are about to collide with a serious rugby team at Eden Park on Saturday.

The British and Irish Lions are better than anyone they faced at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, when the northern hemisphere sides were innovative only in the ways they managed to shoot themselves in the foot.

The traits of this Lions team are similar to the 2015 Springboks, against whom the All Blacks struggled in the semifinal: the difference in this Lions team is better in every department.

They have a bigger scrum, better depth, a superior lineout and a kicking No 9 who is at least the equal of Fourie du Preez in his twilight.

That view has been formed on the basis of cumulative evidence over the past fortnight.

Take the Lions’ 34-6 win against the Chiefs on Tuesday for example.

While the Chiefs were deprived of their best players, does anyone now doubt that the Lions’ base game - set-piece strength and defence - has grown with each fixture?

Opponents have been kept tryless for two of the past four tour games. The All Blacks will of course be infinitely better than the Crusaders and Chiefs but it is a stretch to imagine that New Zealand’s collective struggles against the Lions’ defensive methods will suddenly disappear on Saturday.

I stood behind one set of goalposts at FMG Stadium Waikato on Tuesday night so can offer nothing of note on the ‘Lions are offside’ debate other than to state the obvious - modern rugby teams are as cynical as each other.

However, I did see enough from that vantage point to make a few other observations about their defensive work.

The main one is that it is not necessarily the speed of the defence that is causing the problem, it’s the excellent organisation. When the Lions come up they do it in a line, they do it with perfect, consistent spacing between the defenders and they do it with the right numbers on either side of the ruck.

As for the set-piece, the ability of their jumpers to anticipate the calls is superb. They were all over the Chiefs and it confirmed a suspicion that has been there since the Crusaders game when Peter O’mahony leapt across the line to snaffle a Codie Taylor throw - they are largely reading the Kiwi cues.

No wonder the All Blacks are desperate for an underdone Kieran Read to play - they need him at lineout time.

Make no mistake about this: the Lions will put the All Blacks under pressure for periods - possibly large periods - on Saturday night.

But is this not what we wanted? A true test series? And it will tell us something else as well.

The doubters still bring up All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster’s title-free years at the Chiefs as a reason why he mightn’t be the man to succeed Hansen.

But if he constructs an attack that unpicks this Lions side his credentials could not be greater.

This series will be harder than winning the last World Cup.

Garces was the man with the whistle in Hamilton as the Lions scored four tries to win their first midweek match on tour.

Barnes, who toured New Zealand with the Lions in 1993, pointed to Tuesday night’s contest as an example when Garces ‘‘was having none of’’ the complaints made about the Lions’ technique at the breakdown, which nullified any attacking threat the Chiefs could muster with their defence, again, solid after strong stances in wins against the Crusaders and New Zealand Maori.

‘‘The scrum and lineout are the foundations on which European teams base their game. They are not as fluid as the Kiwis,’’ Barnes wrote in The Times.

‘‘The basis of New Zealand’s structure, one driven by open play and broken fields, is the breakdown. There is a breakdown every few seconds. There is a scrum and lineout every few minutes.

‘‘The fewer bodies at the breakdown, the faster the play and the harder it is to live with the bewildering ability of New Zealand.

‘‘The Lions have to flip this formula on its head. Slow down the phases, breathe the air of a rugby game happening at an altitude less rarefied than New Zealand like.’’

The first test’s referee Peyper, who covered the New Zealand Maori game, is a regular Super Rugby official but Barnes doesn’t expect him to treat the laws in a ‘‘makeshift manner’’.

‘‘That would be a mistake. It is the difference between European and New Zealand rugby that dictates the nature of the game, not the official,’’ Barnes said.

‘‘Saturday’s referee - in tandem with the French duo - will manage the breakdown according to the laws, not someone’s whim.’’

Make no mistake about this: the Lions will put the All Blacks under pressure for periods - possibly large periods - on Saturday night.