Series finale descends into Frenchman’s farce
Ferocious rivals in series stalemate after cliffhanger decider fought out at Auckland’s Eden Park marred by scrum penalties.
OPINION: So what does this result at Eden Park mean?
Was it really for the championship of the rugby world? No. There’s a tournament called the World Cup that decides that.
Lions’ supporters, ‘‘the best fans I’ve ever served in 15 years for Air New Zealand,’’ said one cabin crew member this week, were, quite rightly, wildly excited about the game. And they got a terrific test match, which did descend into French farce in the last five minutes, when you felt referee Romain Poite was out of his depth and at a level beyond his abilities. At the end of the game the poor guy wasn’t even sure if the game was over.
Thankfully for the heart health of Kiwis tension levels for Saturday night’s test in New Zealand weren’t within a mile of the 2011 World Cup final at the same ground.
Why? In 2011 the All Blacks hadn’t won a World Cup for 24 years and five tournaments. Beating the Lions, on the other hand, is par for the course. Nine tours, eight series victories. Make that 10 tours, eight series victories, one loss, one draw.
Kiwis, ranging from former All Blacks to the Lotto salesman in Franklin Rd, had two fears. One was that the weather would reduce to the match to a lolly scramble, erasing any advantage in skill the All Blacks may have brought to the table.
To the astonishment of almost anyone who knows the vagaries of Auckland weather the deluge at kickoff held off and held off throughout.
The other was that referee Poite would be a pin-pricking pain at the scrum, penalising the All Blacks’ dominant pack.
That fear was shortly erased, although, with what felt like a sickening inevitability, he binned Jerome Kaino for an arm that slipped up into the head of Alun Wyn Jones.
‘‘All we ask,’’ Steve Hansen has said, as every coach of every team in the world has said before him, ‘‘is consistency’’. An arm belonging to Sean O’Brien knocked out Waisake Naholo in Wellington, and O’Brien got away scot free. No such luck for Kaino.
On the other hand, to the benefit of the All Blacks, Poite, and his assistant referees, were adamant that the Lions rush defence, which all tour has slyly edged over the offside line, would find itself playing to the rules.
The consequence was that the All Blacks backline looked very much like the All Blacks backline that had played with such fearlessness and class at the 2015 World Cup.
Look at the stunning try before halftime by Jordie Barrett. Brodie Retallick started it all with a burst through a lineout, and then, when the ball was moved there was actually breathing space between the black and the red lines.
It took a piece of superb skill by Anton Lienert-Brown to sent Jordie Barrett away for his try on his starting test debut, the centre catching a bobbling pass, then firing a bullet to the flying Barrett.
But once the ball was in his hands the blazing speed missing from the flanks with the loss of a ‘flu-plagued Rieko Ioane was supplied by Barrett, who some at the top levels of the game here think may be even more gifted than his brilliant big brother Beauden.
Sadly the attention to offside duty lapsed in the frantic second half, which certainly didn’t help the All Blacks cause.
After tries in Wellington the Lions returned to traditional methods last night, the golden boot of Owen Farrell keeping them in the game every time the All Blacks threatened to stretch out to a decisive lead.
Nobody could question the heart in this Lions side, which reached a point where there were CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF fair comparisons to be made to the triumphant 1971 Lions, who, like the 2017 model, had a potent forward pack, and, in Barry John, a lethal goal-kicker. In ‘71, when they scored less tries than the All Blacks, but won the series, they didn’t need much else.
No doubt there will be some world-class whining from the north about the scrum penalty that put the All Blacks in the lead with 13 minutes to go, but nobody should take too much notice of it.
A good reason for the increasingly shrill media coverage in Britain is that the Lions have, for a few weeks, moved rugby from being a niche code on the inside pages of the sports sections there, to headlines on the back page.
British readers who have had only a passing interest in the game suddenly want to know about their new favourite team, and media jingoism hits new heights. The problem is, when you’ve promised people who barely understand the game a series victory, explaining away not quite making the mountain top isn’t easy.