Gatland’s men fire to get the job done
GAME on! Warren Gatland’s British and Irish Lions have finally applied the jumper leads to their tour of New Zealand and, in doing so, poked a stick into the eyes of their detractors.
If you were a tourist from the northern islands you wouldn’t care a fig if their 12-3 win over the Crusaders in Christchurch last night lacked tries, or breathtaking back moves.
Because the Lions, a team that some said might go through their tour without a win after their lacklustre opening victory over the NZ Barbarians, just tickled up the mighty Crusaders – and kept them tryless – in front of a 21,500-strong crowd dominated by their parochial supporters.
If coach Gatland, who had copped a flogging since the Lions lost their midweek game to the Blues in Auckland, needed to know if his side has got ticker then he got some answers at AMI Stadium.
Was the game ugly? Well, it wasn’t the sort of thing you would rush home and tell the kids about was it? The cliche about arm wrestles is appropriate here, and in the end it was Owen Farrell’s boot that proved the difference with the Englishman kicking four penalties.
Remember, the Crusaders are Super Rugby’s glamour side, an outfit that has charged through the competition unbeaten with 14 straight wins.
They simply met their match against the Lions. Even with guys like Matt Todd, Sam Whitelock and Luke Romano working their butts off in defence and young centre Jack Goodhue giving a glimpse of his talent, they paid a heavy cost for not executing under immense pressure.
This was a reminder of why the northern powers recommend their game as being requisite viewing for those who don’t always want to tuck into a diet of open footy, when the ball is shifted from all points of the park to keep the try count clicking over.
Until the game started to openup inside the final 20 minutes, this was a display of powerscrummaging, huge ball carriers stampeding into gear just a few passes off the ruck and defensive line speed that required do-or-die commitment.
Even with their backline having to be rejigged because centre Jonathan Davies left the park with a head knock, forcing Farrell to shift to the midfield to make way for Johnny Sexton, and fullback Stuart Hogg not returning from a head wound, the Lions’ back division didn’t lose its head.
If looks could maim, referee Mathieu Raynal would have needed some serious patching up by the Zambucks in the first stanza.
The all-All Blacks contingent of Joe Moody, Codie Taylor and Owen Franks in the front row for the Crusaders proved to be a grizzly lot until they were replaced in the third quarter, their eyes blazing with frustration and fury as they watched Raynal ping them for not obeying his orders at the set-piece.
Given that the battle-scarred troika are expected to start for the All Blacks in the first test in Auckland later this month, you would imagine their forwards coach Mike Cron scribbled a lot of notes on this very issue.
The Lions big grunters Mako Vuniploa, Jamie George and Tadhg Furlong, backed by second rowers Alun Wyn Jones and George Kruis, offered a glimpse of the combative set-piece action that can be expected in the tests and the argy-bargy after one collapse emphasised they will go toeto-toe in the rough stuff.
The lineout was also a concern for the Crusaders, who lost three of their own throws in the first half and while conceding a freekick for not opening the gap was another of those calls that could be disputed, their execution was below par.