Midweek skipper calls for focus from teammates
WELLINGTON: Veteran hooker Rory Best wants his British and Irish Lions midweek teammates to ensure their thoughts are not focused on the second test. Nor the plane home for that matter.
The final midweek match of the tour against the Hurricanes in Wellington tonight is a chance for the players to make a statement, the veteran Irish hooker said.
For those seeking to force selection in Saturday’s second test team, the match is an ideal platform, Best said.
However, those players run the risk of taking their eyes off what really counts, which is working as a team to knock over the defending Super Rugby champion.
Best said anyone who let his personal ambitions take precedence would do himself and the Lions a disservice.
‘‘If you take your eyes off the ball against the defending champions, and one of the strongest franchises there is, we won’t need to worry about Saturday.’’
Best said the midweek group was in a ‘‘pretty good space’’ despite the 3015 loss to the All Blacks in the first test.
His team’s last start was the 346 mashing of the Chiefs in Hamilton, reversing earlier losses to the Blues and Highlanders.
It was a performance which many believed had given the test side momentum for the Eden Park test.
Best is sure the midweek players again have an important psychological role to play.
‘‘It’s important that we get out there and produce a performance. It’s for morale as much as anything.’’
Warren Gatland has been tightlipped this week about who from the midweek team might be frontrunners for promotion to the test squad if changes are made.
The consensus from commentators is that test forward reserves Sam Warburton — the tour captain — and Maro Itoje are strong candidates to start in Wellington on Saturday.
From the midweek team, the contenders include lock Courtney Lawes and fullback Jack Nowell, who starred on the wing against the Chiefs.
Meanwhile, John Plumtree and Brad Shields do not use a lot of complicated words to describe what must be done to beat the British and Irish Lions, but the main ones start with P — pressure, patience, physicality, parity and platform.
Plumtree, the Hurricanes’ assistant coach, said yesterday that out of the teams he had helped prepare to play a touring Lions side — he was with Wellington in 2005 and
South African outfit the
Sharks four years later — this is likely to be the strongest.
‘‘We always put pressure on ourselves to win; that’s the standard we set ourselves,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s [the Lions] a superb team and we know what the task is to have to play above ourselves to win.’’
Plumtree said there would be a desire to play with some width, but that was not possible unless the forward battle was won, or at least even.
‘‘We have to be smart and it’s up to our forwards to stand up and build a platform.
‘‘Securing possession and being patient, building pressure — the last thing we want to do is defend all day against the Lions.’’
Hurricanes captain Shields said the physical nature of the contest would determine a lot.
‘‘The Lions are big boys. We have to dominate as much as we can and put them under pressure, so it’s up to the forwards to set the tone.
‘‘When we [the forwards] go well and get stuck in, the rest of team does, we can set that backline alight.’’ — NZN