THE STAKES ARE SO HIGH FOR SEXTON
But we can make history says recalled No10
ISRAEL DAGG winced a little. ‘Last week I was knackered for a long time after the match,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t walk for two days. I don’t expect it to be any different this time. It’s make or break for them. They’re hungry, down the road.’
Hungry, and getting desperate, too. It is impossible to view Warren Gatland’s bold selection as anything less than an all-in gamble.
He denied that today’s Test had the feel of a final, saying this was the semi-final, and if the Lions won, the final would be in Auckland next week. Yet it already looms bigger than any last-four game.
There are two in the All Blacks starting line-up who were not born the last time the Lions won a Test in New Zealand — Anton LienertBrown and Rieko Ioane — and it is almost as if the tourists are fighting for more than just keeping this series alive.
This is a battle that equally encompasses the relevance of the tour, its meaning and future. Talk of unmanageable schedules and impossible tasks chips away at the Lions’ good vibes. And if it seems strange to doubt the long term, given the enduring popularity of the Lions with fans, ask yourself: when did sport last listen to those who love it most?
So, if the Lions lose again — their sixth straight defeat on New Zealand soil, the worst run since seven consecutive Test losses against the All Blacks between 1977 and 1993 — their inability to overcome will be rolled in with various peripheral grievances, mostly financial, as a way of questioning the tour’s survival.
Some think this could be the last Lions Test of significance played against the All Blacks, and if they are right, it is not just this particular leg of the tour that will fall.
The Lions come as a package to three destinations in sequence: New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. It is impossible to think it could continue without landing in the home of modern rugby every 12 years. Yet in a sport moving as fast as rugby is now, 2029 seems a very long way off. Who knows what the schedule will look like then? Who knows where the Lions will be; if the Lions will be?
Into this doomy environment steps Johnny Sexton, his return to fly-half a gamble not so much laid on the table, as pushed with both hands towards the pot in the middle. This is high stakes stuff against an All Blacks side who were as ferocious as they were gifted last week in Auckland.
High northerly winds and a deluge are forecast for Wellington, bringing predictions of a war of attrition that will demand the coolest, and safest hands.
‘The physicality was very high in Auckland,’ said All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick. ‘The intensity, the pressure, the speed of thought needed. Some games, you have time to step back, collect your thoughts, have a look around the stadium, think to yourself: “What do I do next?” This won’t be like that.’
And if it is intense for the All Blacks, a game up already in the series with a third Test to come at Eden Park where they haven’t lost since 1994, imagine it from the Lions’ perspective, with no margin for error.
It probably explains the difference in language in the build-up this week. Asked about the subtle skills of winger Waisake Naholo, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen kept it light. ‘He’s quick and he scores a lot of tries,’ he said. ‘I don’t know if that’s very subtle.’
At the Lions camp, by contrast, the talk was all of correcting the faults from week one, and in particular of matching New Zealand’s physicality. ‘We need a response, don’t we?’ said Sexton. ‘If you’d seen the scoreline at the end of the first Test, you would expect a totally different game when you went back and looked at the footage.
‘The way the All Blacks played and beat us was not how they have traditionally beaten teams over the last couple of years.
‘They really took us on around the fringes, they stopped us at source and gained a lot of momentum in and around the ruck and through the forwards. That is where we need to show our response. Of course, they could come with a totally different gameplan and we’ve got to be ready for that as well. It’s a huge challenge but a huge opportunity also.
‘You don’t get many chances to create history in your career.
‘To turn around a series like this, after going 1-0 down, would be remembered as one of the greatest Lions performances. We need to view it like that rather than as a daunting challenge. We have got to attack them and give it our best and see where that takes us.’
Gatland has been working on an element of surprise this week, too, although it is unlikely the All Blacks will be thrown. The Lions delayed their team announcement until 12.30pm local time on Thursday, to give the All Blacks no inkling of changes before their morning training session.
Yet at 12.09pm, asked what he thought Gatland might do, Hansen identified the recruitment of
‘We have got to attack them and give it our best. . . ’
Sexton at fly-half with Owen Farrell at centre, a switch in personnel at lock and changes in the breakdown as three potential lines of attack. All were revealed as part of plan B by the Lions team announcement 21 minutes later.
The bottom line is, no matter the selections, the Lions have to raise standards dramatically.
New Zealand have not lost a home Test match since South Africa won in Hamilton on September 12, 2009 and they last lost in Wellington on June 14, 2003, when Sir Clive Woodward’s England won 15-13 in similarly filthy conditions, thanks to a heroic forward display, against the odds.
Sexton was asked if, to earn the respect of the locals, a team need to win down here. ‘Probably,’ he said. ‘But you more want the respect from your team-mates, the respect from each other.
‘You want the guys either side to finish the game, saying: “I loved playing with him”. That matters more than the respect of the New Zealand people.’
Respect will also be due back home if the Lions turn it around.
Respect and, one hopes, a stay of execution from those who would condemn grand tours like this to the history books, and think their worth can only be measured at the cash register.