Roles reversed as Hansen decides to go for broke
Lions are now the stable squad as home coach turns to youth with the series on the line
Stability was once the watchword of the All Blacks. Warrenball was the style of the Lions. How the roles have reversed over the past couple of weeks. How the wheel has spun. Who finishes at the top of that circle of sporting life will be shaped by those chosen to run out at Eden Park on Saturday for what Steve Hansen, the All Black coach, believes will be “a cracker” of a Test match.
It is Hansen who has lit the fireworks touchpaper in this final week of the series, chopping and changing his line-up, partly induced by suspension and injury, but, tellingly, partly because the men in black have not done what they normally do. A gamble on Hansen’s part? Or trust in the values of the likes of fledgling full-back Jordie Barrett, starting in a Test for the first time and maybe even doing the goal-kicking? Centre Ngani Laumape is also running down the tunnel to start for the first time. There is potential there but no proof yet of delivery at this exalted level.
Just as Warren Gatland went for broke in his selection for the second Test, standing tall and backing his instincts, so too has Hansen. But it is measure of how tumultuous this series has been, how far-reaching its ramifications, that what was once a fixed point in our consciousness, a sense of how the All Blacks would perform and just who would make it happen for them, is now in a state of flux. The ad-hoc Lions have some certainty about them. New Zealand do not.
That air of settlement within the Lions camp comes after they bounced off the ropes from the first-test battering to record a victory of note in Wellington. Quite fittingly that team have been rewarded with a nod of approval by Gatland – the first time since 1993 that a Lions team has been unchanged, and only the sixth in their history – and charged with bringing home what would be one of the most significant results ever.
That is quite a task. But such was the self-belief generated not just by the deed of the 24-21 win but by its manner too, standing toe-to-toe with the All Blacks in the physicality stakes, riding through the storm of the third quarter when their discipline (eight penalties to two conceded) deserted them and finding the way to navigate to victory in the closing stages. That is when the Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell axis came into its own. That is when the Farrell right boot did its trusty job, converting Conor Murray’s try to bring the scores level, a huge psychological fillip, and then nervelessly banging over the winning penalty with three minutes left. Farrell against one of the Barretts in the goal-kicking stakes – that is a game-shaper.
And now the Lions have to do it again. They have the momentum. They have the confidence. They have the knowledge of how to beat the All Blacks on their own turf. They have to go at them harder still at the breakdown and in contact. They have to use Sexton and Farrell to get them into the right parts of the field – if there was one part of their game that did not function quite as it might (discipline apart), it was their use of territory. There is no question that they have the capacity to restrict as well as to hurt the All Blacks. They need the ball that was delivered at the Westpac, where there was stability in the scrum and a decent supply from the line-out.
What has been surprising is the extent of change there has been in the New Zealand back line. Once again Hansen has shuffled the deck. Out goes the wunderkind of the opening weekend, two-try wing Rieko Ioane and in comes the proven operator, Julian Savea, the most prolific scorer in world rugby with 46 tries in 53 Tests. Laumape, Jordie Barrett and centre Anton Lienert-brown have only 14 caps between them. The young ones are expected to be bold.
The Lions forwards know they cannot afford to rest on any laurels because New Zealand will be fired up more than ever. This is a fight for survival as far as they are concerned.
It is an elemental battle. Alun Wyn Jones against Sam Whitelock. Maro Itoje versus Brodie Retallick. Sean O’brien against Sam Cane. Taulupe Faletau head-to-head with Kieran Read on the occasion of his 100th cap. It is a promoter’s dream card, a heavyweight contest to get the juices of the rugby world flowing.