Gatland taunts the All Blacks over lack of tries
‘We’ve poked the bear, but the wounded Lion is still recovering as well’
WARREN GATLAND taunted the All Blacks in the wake of Saturday’s thrilling second Test victory by claiming they have failed to live up to their reputation as the best attacking side in world rugby, and they are only still in the series due to the British and Irish Lions’ inability to stop giving away penalties.
The Lions looked like they had thrown away a glaring chance to level the series at 1-1 when they conceded a string of penalties in the 20 minutes after half-time, with the total number of 13 against angering Gatland.
But late tries from Taulupe Faletau and Conor Murray levelled the scores before Owen Farrell’s 78th-minute penalty sealed a famous 24-21 victory for the Lions, and Gatland did not hesitate in “poking the bear” after New Zealand’s failure to cross the try line.
The Lions have now outscored the All Blacks four tries to three across the two Tests, although it remains a fact that they have only led the reigning world champion for little more than two minutes so far this series. Yet that did not stop Gatland from fanning the flames in the wake of the Wellington victory, admitting he is still waiting to see where the All Blacks’ famed reputation for attacking rugby has gone.
“The ironic thing is this is the best team in the world and, for two Test matches, they really haven’t stressed us,” Gatland said. “They have squeezed us, made us give away penalties and that has been to our downfall, but we haven’t seen the expansive rugby the All Blacks are known for.
“We’ve coped with that and if we can continue and improve in other areas, then we are going to see, hopefully, a great Test match. Yes, we have poked the bear, but hopefully the wounded Lion from last week is still recovering as well.”
The series is now finely poised ahead of Saturday’s decider back at Eden Park, where New Zealand have not lost since 1994, yet the Lions will delay their return to Auckland until tomorrow in order to visit the southern city of Queenstown for some rest and recovery. It’s something the Lions appeared to benefit from in both 2009 and 2013, with three-day excursions on a safari in South Africa and to the Australia’s Noosa resort believed to be behind third Test victories on the last two tours.
Gatland believes easing the players’ workload proved crucial to winning the second Test, and he hopes the same effect is taken from this week’s excursion to Queenstown.
“We’ll look at it in the next few days and talk to the players,” he said. “We freshened them up a bit and made this week a little lighter. When we looked back on the tape of the first Test, our forwards were a bit heavy-legged. We did a double session on the Thursday [before the first Test].
“It was accumulation of three-to-four weeks of no days off, travel, the games, the training, walk-throughs, everything the coaches do, the meetings. So we consciously lightened up this week. The last two tours, going away somewhere, that’s worked really well for us and hopefully it’ll do that.”
Of course, Queenstown comes with its distraction. The ski resort was the scene of England’s 2011 Rugby World Cup shame, the infamous alcohol-fuelled night out that involved ‘dwarf-tossing’ nd shamed both the team’s reputation and that of stand-in captain Mike Tindall.
Gatland stressed though that there will not be a similar occurrence this time around. “No, this group of players is completely different,” he explained in reference to the 1993 tour of New Zealand when a second-Test victory was celebrated by the Lions a little too hard. “That was the amateur days. These players are true professionals, they’ll have a couple of quiet beers. The players are conscious – they’ll enjoy themselves tomorrow down in Queenstown and then they’ll start focussing on next week. I don’t envisage that being an issue whatsoever.”
The players better heed his advice, given they now face unquestionably the biggest week of their lives. Get the next six days right, and this Lions squad will go down in history as one of the true greats. – The Independent AUCKLAND: The All Blacks are chomping at the bit to get back out on the pitch against the British and Irish Lions on Saturday, and avenge only their fifth loss in more than six years.
Scrumhalf Aaron Smith and lock Brodie Retallick both said they would have been happy to put on their boots yesterday, so desperate were they to put wrong the rights of the 24-21 defeat last weekend.
They will, of course, have to wait until Eden Park to get stuck into the tourists again in a winner-takes-all deciding third test.
“Right now there’s more pressure within the group. It’s do or die, now or never I suppose,” Retallick told a news conference.
“It would be good just to go to Saturday right now and not have to bother about the rest of the week. But we’ll build well, and there are a few things we didn’t get right on attack that we’ll get sorted. There’s a lot riding on it.”
Retallick, whose monumental effort in the All Blacks’ engine room helped New Zealand to a 30-15 victory in the first test, said the Lions had raised the physicality stakes in game two.
“The intensity of the first two matches has been huge,” he added.
“Especially on their behalf, I thought they were a lot more physical and confrontational than in week one.
“We need to sort that out and make sure we’re going back at it because we can’t let it happen again.”
Halfback Smith was also itching to get back out onto the pitch.
“It’s what you play rugby for, these big games,” he said.
“I could play today, that’s how ready I am. These are the ones you remember and it’s going to be a long week in prep but it’ll all be worth it if we get the processes right to go out and play our brand of footy.”
Smith praised the effort of his pack after they were forced to face up to the Lions with a man fewer for 55 minutes after the personnel reshuffle in the wake of the dismissal of Sonny Bill Williams.
He said the All Blacks, held try-less in a test for the first time since 2014, had been “disappointed” with failing to do better in unleashing their attack.
“They really fronted up on defence and closed up that tight space,” he added. “We didn’t react well to that. There was actually a lot more space than we thought and we maybe didn’t adapt as well as hoped.
“We usually find a way and our bench comes on and finishes really strong but that’s all about learning. There are opportunities there and they’ll be there Saturday.” - Reuters