My stylish Lions are not boring
WARREN GATLAND insists the British and Irish Lions can play with flair after All Blacks criticism of their predictable play.
New Zealand boss Steve Hansen claimed he does not expect the Lions coach to stray from the punishing physical approach that has underpinned his career in the Test series.
But Gatland, who has named an entirely new line-up to take on the Blues tomorrow, said: “In a way there’s an opportunity for people to want to be critical.
“We experienced that four years ago winning the series in Australia where people decided to be critical and a lot of people got caught with their pants down afterwards, didn’t they?
“So we didn’t play so well against the Barbarians on Saturday, and it gives us an opportunity to go and be positive against the Blues.
“The message to the players is that we want to play positive rugby, we want to be able to move the ball and shift and create chances.
“And to match the All Blacks you’ve got to display a bit of X-factor and that X-factor means an offload, or doing something a little outside the box, and the players are being encouraged to do that.
“That’s what we’re going to need to do to be able to beat them, and express themselves, back their skill, back their ability.
“We don’t want to play by numbers. Players are being encouraged to demonstrate their level of skill.”