Ieremia backs Blues in Samoa Gatland calls for teams to challenge the English
Lions boss has decisions to make, writes Mick Cleary.
Alama Ieremia believes Samoa hosting the Blues and Reds is another good sign for the Pacific Island nation.
The Blues are expected to announce tomorrow that their June 2 fixture will be staged in Apia. The match comes in collaboration with Michael Jones and the Samoan government, and is likely to see some form of fee paid to the teams involved.
Last year the Fijian government stumped up $1.6 million to lure the Chiefs and Crusaders to Suva. Its success will see both teams return to play the same match in Fiji on May 19.
After much public pressure, All Blacks ventured to Apia for first time in 2015.
Samoan national coach Ieremia harnesses a strong relationship with Blues mentor Tana Umaga the pair being former All Blacks and Hurricanes team-mates. Ieremia expects around 12,000 people to fill Apia Park for the Blues match.
‘‘I’m confident we’ll pack the park out,’’ he said. ‘‘Since the All Blacks game we’ve had the lights put in for night games. The pitch is in perfect condition, not dissimilar to what it was when the All Blacks were here. It’s been well looked after and managed so the facilities the the
As befits a combative former New Zealand hooker, Warren Gatland has always been drawn to the fray. So when he talks of his relish at seeing England obliged to stand tall against all-comers in the 2017 Six Nations championship you know that his enthusiasm is genuine.
‘‘The players from the other countries will be absolutely up for it, busting a gut to put one over on England because the rewards for doing so are going to be massive, in the tournament itself and potentially for the Lions selection. I want to see how they go at England and how England respond. I want pressure to bring the best out of them all. I want those players to front up. I want the English players to front up. And if they do come through it all, yes, that is good for the Lions.’’
Gatland admits to being more upbeat about the Lions’ chances in New Zealand than he was at this stage four years ago when he was plotting the Lions’ strategy to take on the Wallabies in Australia.
Gatland has some 70-80 players on his radar and will have to whittle that down to 35-37 by midApril, when the touring party is announced.
‘‘I’m really upbeat as to the squad we will take,’’ Gatland said. ‘‘We have so many choices. We’re looking for various elements: X-factor, because that is what the All Blacks have got, but we’ve got those players, too, Stuart Hogg in Scotland, for example. We’ve got a range of things. We are going to have some size, some physicality, some footwork, some pace, skill, experience. We can match the All Blacks in that regard.’’
There is much to be decided in the coming weeks, the captaincy included. Gatland professes an open mind. ‘‘Is it someone who has been a Lion already [Alun Wyn Jones or Rory Best qualify on that basis] or someone who has done a good job in this Six Nations?’’ muses Gatland. ‘‘And yes, if Dylan Hartley leads England to another Grand Slam that could sway it. Dylan has done a great job with his leadership with England. The sending-off [for Northampton] looked like frustration to me. But Dylan has to contend with pressure, too, that of Jamie George pushing for his place.
‘‘As for Sam [Warburton], he’s got to get selected for Wales first and foremost. The captain has to be sure of his place.’’
Gatland has just returned from his native New Zealand and is savouring the interest expressed in the Lions the length and breadth of the country.
There was plenty of media speculation, too, that Gatland’s son, Bryn, a first five-eighth in the Auckland Blues development squad, might be selected in the I want the English players to front up. Provincial Union XV for the opening game of the tour in Whangarei. Dad has promised to send the Lions’ big men down his channel.
The former Waikato hooker and All Blacks back-up to Sean Fitzpatrick has a high profile in his homeland, with a degree of scrutiny that will only increase. Gatland was drawn as a clown on the front page of the New Zealand Herald after he rebuked the paper for depicting Wallabies coach Michael Cheika in such terms.
‘‘The clown bit was bad enough but it wasn’t even a happy clown, just a miserable-looking sod,’’ said Gatland, who had also taken his countrymen to task for what he billed as their ‘‘arrogance’’ in repeatedly booing Australia’s New Zealand-born playmaker, Quade Cooper. ‘‘My comments got twisted but the point is that even though it is only a minority, we, as New Zealanders, ought to be better than that. The All Blacks are very conscious of how they project. They’re humble and that’s how it should be.’’
Gatland knows the Kiwi rugby psyche as well as anyone. His was a typical upbringing in Hamilton with rugby the heartbeat of the community. ‘‘I can remember my father taking me along to our local club, Eastern Suburbs in Hamilton, black and white hoops, as a fiveyear-old and every Friday night I used to fold up my shorts and my jersey to put them at the end of my bed, ready to go the next day, excited about what was ahead,’’ recalls Gatland. ‘‘It was all barefooted rugby. I didn’t wear boots until I was 10 or 11. I didn’t wear shoes to school until I was 12. That was the way it was.’’
Gatland was a No 8 until he turned 20, good enough to even keep legendary All Black Michael Jones out of the Northern Regions New Zealand Schools side that Gatland captained. He was a stalwart of the Waikato team but got splinters in his backside on the All Black replacements’ bench understudying Fitzpatrick, never winning a cap.
He did play against the Lions in 1993, though, scoring a try for Waikato in their 38-10 victory in the final midweek match of the tour. Gatland knows how much that game meant to Waikato, all that pent-up desire to get stuck into the tourists in their one visit in the 12-year cycle. These tourists will be primed for what awaits. Each and every team they face on the 10-match trip will want a piece of the Lions.
‘‘Society has changed but rugby still means so much to New Zealanders,’’ Gatland said. ‘‘And rugby is an expression of what the nation is about, too. It binds them together. That’s what the Lions face.’’ Telegraph, London