All Blacks have got jitters claims Gatland
WARREN Gatland hit back at his critics last night, claiming his All Black counterpart Steve Hansen has a bad attack of the jitters ahead of the three Test series that starts on Saturday in Auckland.
He also responded bluntly to criticism from within the Lions fold – including from his Lions boss Sir Ian McGeechan – that his decision to call-up six players from the Wales and Scotland squads who are already in the vicinity as midweek bench cover was devaluing the shirt.
Gatland defended his decision, after the 32-10 victory over the Maori All Blacks, saying: “These guys will be with us for a week and they are here for bench cover. They understand that’s the way it is. My job is to win a Test series, and I will do whatever it takes.”
Gatland said Hansen’s sniping, with his latest bulletin being about a split among the Lions players, was surprising.
“He has been doing a lot of Press conferences and I can only take that as a sign of respect in that he is a little bit worried. It’s unlike Steve, and maybe he is worried by potentially how good this team can be.
“We know we have got a big step up to play the All Blacks but all I can say is that this could be a great series with fantastic rugby.
“The off-field stuff puts a bit of a dampener on the tour, but that’s professional sport. It's not anything that is a worry for us, but you go, whoah, he is a little bit more worried than he normally is...”
Gatland added: “There’s no way we are divided. It’s
about preparing and learning from the games warming up, but it’s all about winning the Test series.
“The harmony and the boys singing in the changing rooms who weren’t involved tonight shows what it means to them. We’re very close.”
Gatland insisted that tour captain Sam Warburton and Owen Farrell could be fit for the first Test.
He said: “Sam is fine, and we wanted him to get some game time.We are hopeful that Owen will be okay as well. It was precautionary leaving him out.
“At a pinch Owen probably could have played tonight, but the ground is quite heavy and a number of players at half-time had tight hamstrings, groins and calfs. We are trying to manage them and for us it was important that we didn’t take the risk and put him out there.”
Gatland explained that the call-ups of the Welsh quartet of scrum-half Gareth Davies, tight-head Thomas Francis, lock Corey Hill, and hooker Kristian Dacey, and the Scots pair of fly-half Finn Russell and loose-head Allan Dell, were for the right reasons.
“I understand the concerns, and we did it similarly in 2013. I have no doubt it’s one of the reasons why we won the first Test then because we gave the team a chance to win the Test, and if we hadn’t done that we could have easily lost the series.
“In terms of devaluing the shirt, I can see some people’s point, but we’re here to win a Test series and it’s those guys covering from Auckland, not travelling halfway around the world.
“We found it difficult for the first ten days when we were here in terms of jet-lag and tiredness – and the players that came in from Auckland last night, and from Australia, will be able to fit quickly into that time zone.”
Gatland shrugged off Eddie Jones criticism of the call-ups.
“I’ll let Eddie do his own talking, he can do plenty of it...I understand Eddie’s concern, people’s concern, but I know how difficult it is to do that travel from Argentina. It’s not as if you’re in Buenos Aires.
“You use past experiences. Christian Wade came in last time (from Argentina) the day before and he sat on the bench, came on and it was obvious that the travel impacted his ability to play.”