Brendan Gallagher continues his series on tours to Kiwi territory
BRENDAN GALLAGHER looks back at 1983 when the Lions suffered badly from selection mistakes
With two of the great Lions figures at the helm – Willie John McBride and Jim Telfer – you would think the 1983 Lions would have been in safe hands but ultimately this turned into a controversial and illstarred tour resulting in a 4-0 series win to the All Blacks, the second time the Lions had been whitewashed in New Zealand. It was a dispirited tour party that made the long flight home with their tails between their legs.
The tourists made all sorts of cardinal errors from the choice of their captain downwards while they also missed one or two golden opportunities to succeed against the odds and make the critics eat their words. By the final week morale was at a low ebb and one member of the Test team was even reportedly found trying to sell his Lions jacket and other “stash” to turn a quick profit.
The make-up of the management with two such strong personalities involved was probably not ideal. McBride was a candidate for both the manager’s job and the coaching appointment. He ended doing the former but inevitably had strong views on the latter and was an automatic magnet for the New Zealand Press.
Telfer, ever the disciple of New Zealand rugby and what might be needed to flourish, wanted a fast rucking pack which the Scots in the squad understood and bought into but everybody else, it seems, preferred a slower mauling, set piece, orientated game. Telfer was outvoted when the truth is he was probably right. Telfer also had no experience looking after the backs but the Lions – despite the millions they made for New Zealand rugby – decided to scrimp on costs and not send a backs coach.
Quite why the Lions so rarely flexed their commercial muscles on these matters is a mystery. Incoming Lions tours – and this was their third in 12 years – are a glorious cash cow for New Zealand rugby. The Lions should have demanded more personnel and an itinerary that suited them rather better. The Lions held all the aces but not for the first time managed to blow their hand.
Then there was the captaincy and the recurring theme of Lions parties selecting a captain who struggled to command a place in the Test team– and the tensions that sets up. Ireland were the 1983 Five Nations Championship winner and Ciarin Fitzgerald was a good captain – of Ireland – and a decent but not outstanding Test hooker particularly prone to poor days throwing in at the lineout.
England’s Peter Wheeler was rated by many above Fitzgerald as a hooker and in fact was considered by some as a strong candidate as captain but in a poor England side struggled to stake his case in the Championship particularly when Ireland enjoyed a good 25-15 win in Dublin. Meanwhile Scotland’s dynamic hooker Colin Deans, around this era, was arguably a better all-round bet than even Wheeler.
The result? With an Irish manager already on board the Lions selectors went for Fitzgerald hoping for the continuity that would bring and left Wheeler at home altogether, and in so doing set up a desperately difficult dynamic. Deans payed out of his skin for the midweek team and Telfer – the forwards coach – strongly argued his case for Test selection. He was, however, always outvoted by McBride and Fitzgerald himself, the other members of the three man selection committee.
Fitzgerald wasn’t inclined to fall on his sword and drop himself like others had done before on Lions tours to New Zealand such as Doug Prentice in 1930 and Mike Campbell Lamerton in 1966. Fitzgerald kept soldiering on while Deans was left thwarted. At one stage Deans even took to putting in extra training runs at 5am in the dark of a New Zealand winter to demonstrate his fitness and commitment but mainly to work off his deep frustration.
Thirty years later Telfer made the following observation in Behind the
Lions: “It’s no secret I was outvoted...I wanted Colin Deans in the team. Ciaran was supposed to be a natural leader, an Army officer. He had led Ireland to the Triple Crown and he was a big pal of Willie John. I’m not saying he wasn’t good enough to be on the tour but he shouldn’t have been in the Test team. His throwing in was all over the place. Certain players develop as Lions and he didn’t. He was a hard little bastard. But he wasn’t good enough and that coloured the whole tour.”
There were other frustrations which began to gnaw away, particularly with the Scottish contingent. Ollie Campbell had been a key man for Ireland in 1982 and 1983 but was struggling a little and on form the more attack minded John Rutherford should possibly have been the starting ten. Ditto Ian Milne was going great guns for most of the tour in the Dirttrackers alongside Deans but was denied a Test start.
Meanwhile the combative David Leslie might not have ousted Peter Winterbottom from the Test team but was exactly the kind of warrior the tour party needed generally. He was left at home. The Scots felt aggrieved and it should be noted that later that year, coached by Telfer, they drew with New Zealand at Murrayfield and went on to claim a Grand Slam four months later.
There were some who also felt the Lions under-performing midfield needed pepping up with the introduction of Clive Woodward. The Lions try scoring threat behind the scrum was very slight.
Most tours have their selection issues but a new element in 1983 was the reduced length of the tour which saw the first Test coming after just three weeks. Time was not on the Lions side and come the first Test the back division they fielded had never played together as a unit. And then, on top of that, probably the one player they could least afford to lose to injury promptly went down in a crumpled heap after just half an hour of the First Test.
Terry Holmes’ direct running off the back of the scrum gave the Lions their best hope of consistent ‘go forward’ and although the Lions eight were not the force of 77 they were still
on a par with New Zealand. The Cardiff man however fell awkwardly trying to catch the ball at the tail of a lineout and did such damage to his knee ligaments that he didn’t play again for the best part of a year.
Nigel Melville was flown out as a replacement, scored two tries on his debut against Southland but then left New Zealand in a neck brace after a nasty high tackle.
That first Test was a massive missed opportunity by the Lions. With New Zealand still looking to gel the Lions seemed the more likely side but at 9-6 just before half-time missed a golden opportunity when Rob Ackerman failed to put Trevor Ringland away for a simple run in...15-6 at the break would have been a much healthier launching pad for the second half.
A penalty from Alan Hewson and an opportunist try by Cowboy Shaw saw New Zealand take a precarious 13-12 lead late in proceedings at which point Hugo McNeill was just wide with what might have been a match winning long range dropped goal attempt. New Zealand, as is their wont, responded a minute later when Hewson showed how it was done by nailing a similar effort himself. Somehow New Zealand had scraped home.
The second Test, with a howling gale blowing straight down the pitch in Wellington, was another missed opportunity. The consensus was that it was a 15 point wind and playing into the elements first the Lions were rightly pleased to trail only 9-0 at half time. In the second half, though, it just didn’t happen for them, there was no threat to go with their territorial advantage and New Zealand played with exemplary discipline to restrict the Lions to just two penalty attempts. Ollie Campbell was off target from medium range and O’Neill pushed one wide from long range.
Even in the third Test, playing in appallingly cold and wet conditions in Dunedin which left many of the players fighting hypothermia the Lions had their moments. On the hour the Lions were leading 8-6 after tries by Roger Baird and John Rutherford but the All Blacks replied with a well-taken try by Stu Wilson after a Dave Loveridge break. Alan Hewson converted and added a decisive late penalty. Yet again New Zealand’s discipline was excellent, denying Campbell a single penalty attempt.
By the fourth Test the Lions were deflated, depressed and looking for the plane home. The Kiwis ran riot and romped home 38-6, Stu Wilson speeding over for three tries. It had been a difficult tour but that performance was unworthy of the 1983 Lions, the were better than that. Despite everything they had battled hard from the off and gave New Zealand plenty to think about for three Tests. It was a sorry finale.
The eloquent John Beattie, also writing in Behind the Lions, summed it up with these stark but revelatory thoughts: “There is nothing worse than being on a losing Lions tour, it really is the worst feeling in the world. You will hear wonderful stories about the hospitality but that’s bollocks. You’ re there to be in the Test team and win the series and unfortunately, I didn’t achieve that. For me it was an unmitigated disaster. I hated it. I don’t look back on either of my Lions tours with any affection… “I could name you the whole 71 team, the whole 74 team, the whole 89 team and the whole 97 team. But I couldn’t name you any of the losing teams including the ones I was involved in.”