Dropping O’Driscoll was daring

Brian O’Driscoll in 2013. Now Jonathan Sexton and Owen Farrell. Warren Gatland certainly does not shy away from making the big calls. Four years ago it landed him a series win in Australia with O’Driscoll’s contentious replacement, Jonathan Davies, part of a backline that romped to victory over the Wallabies. That was a daring move. This is a salvage mission.

The tour rests on this match. The reputation of Gatland will be defined by it one way or the other. If it comes off — and the odds are against it — it will be a masterstroke to rank with the best. If it fails, it will be seen as a desperate play to get something from a tour that has been buffeted by various trials and tribulations. It is the last shot for glory.

And it is the death of Warrenball, the simplistic tag that has stuck to Gatland, often needling him as if playing hard-ball, structured rugby with a banging inside centre clearing the way ahead was his preserve alone.

Funnily enough, the All Blacks got nothing but praise for their use of a version of it, with Sonny Bill Williams in the wrecking-ball role, in the first test at Eden Park. What a role reversal.

Now it is the Lions looking to be the creative force. Of course, the pairing of Sexton and Farrell is not a random, gratuitous act. The combination has played in tandem already by design as well as by circumstance, Sexton coming on early against the Crusaders because of an injury as the Lions impressed in victory over New Zealand’s leading Super Rugby franchise, featuring also in the closing stages of the first test.

The dual playmaker role has proven its worth as England have shown with the axis of George Ford and Farrell, the idea being to use their vision and distribution to play the field through their tactical kicking as well as in feeding the outside backs.