Lions go full steam ahead in Rotorua
Tourists win but must manage ref at Eden Park The Lions desperately need a leader with authority.
Sam Warburton may not be fully fit, but it is starting to look like the Welshman may have to play against the All Blacks at Eden Park. The Lions are a team desperately in need of a captain and the shambles that took place during the first half in Rotorua was a low point of the tour.
There was no discipline and the Lions were both penalised and warned for back-chatting to the referee. Admittedly you sometimes need to have the composure of a Tibetan monk not to ask the ref if he knows what time of day it is.
But these are professional rugby players and they should know better. The Lions gave away far too many penalties, again, and captain Peter O’Mahony appeared to be doing absolutely nothing to appease the man in charge.
Steve Hansen and Eddie Jones value the diplomacy of a captain. They also like a leader with authority, a man who the ref is perhaps a little bit in awe of. The Lions once had such a man in Martin Johnson, but you struggle to see his like in this squad.
The communication skills of New Zealand’s players make Britain’s players look like schoolboy debaters, particularly when Southern Hemisphere refs are in charge. O’Mahony had no idea how to communicate with Peyper and neither did his teammates.
At the end of the half the Lions kicked a penalty into touch and thought that was an end to it. But Peyper signalled the lineout had to be taken and was immediately pursued by Conor Murray, Johnny Sexton and O’Mahony. It was not a good look. The Lions’ discipline had collapsed.
If that continues next week then they will be clobbered by Peyper in the first test at Eden Park. In order to win this series, the Lions have to force penalties through their forward drive and give next to nothing away. Only the first half of that equation looks likely.
Warren Gatland also needs to establish with Peyper what he considers to be the laws of the game, because some of them have no relation with what appears in the lawbook. Twice the New Zealand Maori declined to take a quick throw, waited for the bulk of the Lions forwards to come in for a lineout and then threw the ball out the back.
The first of those instances led eventually to a try. The Lions players and management will consider that a lineout had formed and wonder what Peyper and his officials were up to. They will also have looked at the All Blacks’ game against Samoa and wondered what constitutes a forward pass in this part of the world.
The officials on Friday night were appalling. Not for the first time Samoa will assert that they are obliged to play to a different set of laws to the All Blacks. Play twice was restarted when they had a player being treated for concussion. At least five of the All Blacks tries should have been reviewed, but TMO Ian Smith had no wish to intervene.
Yet last night Smith did not award the Lions a try when just about everyone in the ground thought they had scored. Peyper was also badly positioned. When the All Blacks are permitted to score from blatant knock-ons, such inconsistency is not a good look.
It is vital for the Lions to sort these things out because their midfield backs look medieval compared to the All Blacks. Against Samoa Anton Lienert-Brown gave a masterclass in running lines, drawing defenders and the giving of a pass. In contrast Jonathan Davies looks like a man of clay.
Murray was again immense for the Lions last night, but this was a victory based on massive bullying power. That will only be enough to beat the All Blacks if the Lions can get onside with the ref and if Gatland does indeed have something up his sleeve other than his arm.