Gatland’s hardest task? Picking the right joker
The Lions will need to bond quickly to succeed in South Africa but that is far from easy in a biobubble
If a rugby historical society is ever formed then the Oatlands Park Hotel in Weybridge would be a prime candidate for an oval blue plaque.
It was in this leafy Surrey town that Wales flanker Dan Lydiate claims to have been haunted by a ghostly “grey lady” during the 2015 World Cup. More significantly, this was the location for the Lions’ bonding sessions before their last successful tour to South Africa, in 1997.
Several leading figures from that series, including Sir Ian Mcgeechan, Matt Dawson and Lawrence Dallaglio, are unequivocal that it was here – rather than in South Africa – that the Lions beat the Springboks.
The bonding sessions were not sophisticated. Tour manager Fran
Cotton took the squad to a pub in Weybridge, put his card behind the bar and let the magic commence. “That is what won us the series, that week before we got on the plane,” Dawson later told the BBC. “It involved a couple of nights sitting in a room with a keg of beer, telling stories, and just getting to know players. That relationship just blossomed as the tour went on.”
This presents a problem for Warren Gatland. The greatest challenge any Lions head coach faces is bringing together players from four nations, who are used to bashing the daylights out of each other, in a time frame that seems to be contracting every four years.
That is hard enough in a normal year. With Covid-19, it is far worse. England’s Six Nations squad endured a “b----- miserable” time because of the social-distancing restrictions in which they were confined to their rooms for long stretches of the day. Conor O’shea, the Rugby Football Union’s performance director, said: “It’s pretty c--p, to be honest. It ain’t a camp as you know it. You go to your room, might get breakfast in bed, pick your lunch up, have it in your room, won’t socialise.”
For the Lions, this would be a nightmare. Room sharing, group excursions and collective drinking sessions all help form part of the glue that holds the Lions together. It cannot work any other way. No rugby team can be built from scratch over Call of Duty sessions.
Social-distancing restrictions are due to end in England on June 21, a week before the Lions travel to South Africa. However, that date is looking precarious with a third wave crashing over central Europe. Lions management are hoping for the best and planning for the worst, and The Telegraph understands solutions are being sought to ensure the team can socialise collectively, before and after departing for South Africa.
Then comes the question of what socialising looks like in 2021. Sir Clive Woodward infamously broke with traditional bonding activities by getting his 2005 squad to paint a giant mural, which led Donncha O’callaghan to remark: “When you’re in a Test and the chips are down, there’s nothing to be gained from how well you dovetailed with someone on a giant oil painting.” Yet with a growing percentage of players being teetotal, perhaps a lock-in with five kegs of beer no longer serves its traditional purpose.
Before the pandemic, Elliot Daly and Jamie George’s coffee mornings were the bedrock of England’s social
activities, although details of Rory Best’s exploits on the last Lions tour show that the old-school flame lives on.
And this is where Gatland does have a degree of control. Getting the right mix of personalities is crucial. If every player approached the tour with the unceasing intensity of Owen Farrell or Johnny Sexton then the group dynamic would be a tinderbox waiting to explode, especially inside a bubble.
In every Lions tour, legends are formed off, as well as on, the pitch. Mcgeechan has stated that his favourite Lion was Jason Leonard for the selfless manner in which he helped Tom Smith and Paul Wallace, his competitors for a starting spot, to prepare during the 1997 series.
When England prop Ellis Genge recently said that his qualification for the Lions was that they “need someone who’s good at sinking pints” he was half right. O’callaghan, the former Ireland lock, is teetotal but was the life and soul of the 2005 and 2009 tours.
The Lions rise and fall on those characters, who are often outside the 23, who can lighten moods and lift spirits. Best and, for all his critics, James Haskell filled this role in 2017. In today’s generation of ultra-professionals, the cadre of players who know how to administer a kangaroo court or lead a raucous sing-song is diminishing. Of the current contenders, you would suspect Welsh hooker Ken Owens, Irish lock Iain Henderson and Scotland fly-half Finn Russell would be good value in this respect.
Meshing the talent with the personalities makes Gatland’s selection the hardest any Lions head coach has ever faced.