Guscott: Smart and simple wins the day
JUST as Lukhanyo Am made a huge statement in the first minute with his bone-crunching hit on Elliot Daly, the Lions made their own mark with that unstoppable driving maul at the start of the second half which swung momentum.
They hadn’t shown their mauling hand before yesterday, and it worked a dream – it didn’t look like being stopped. The message for next week should be: keep it simple because they don’t need to get to the wide channels when they can win the game by being smart.
The first-half tactics of trying to get around the edge of the South African defence didn’t work and thankfully it was a decision they changed in the second half. The Lions gave away too many penalties and made too many errors which gifted South Africa territory and momentum.
Right from the off when Am smashed Daly, that was their statement saying, ‘you’re not going around us’. And the Lions didn’t really threaten out wide, save for a couple of sniffs that didn’t go anywhere. I wish the team had made the change themselves rather than waiting for the half-time talk, but it gave Gatland ten minutes to tell them what they needed to do and how to change tactics.
After half-time, the kicking became even better. It sounds simple but you have to win territory against the South Africans and the simple thing to do is kick. And don’t be afraid to keep on kicking and be boring.
Knowing that this game was going to be close, the Lions’ decision to kick for the corner at the start of the second half and go for the try was a brave call and the execution was superb. Those are the moments that captaincy, and the future of the series, are based on. If they hadn’t scored and the Lions lost, it would have been a poor decision. But it went their way and it’s one of the big reasons they won.
The second half turnaround was pretty sensational and they didn’t seem to lose their nerve in the last ten minutes when a side can. And Maro Itoje winning the turnover and ripping the ball away at the end to halt the SA attack pretty much summed up what his game was and it’s great to see him at his annoying, brilliant best – turning balls over, slowing it down, carrying, tackling – and it’s when and how he did it that had the big impact.
South Africa decided not to play too much rugby which was a surprise for me. To put their will on a team to me means the Boks should be carrying, bashing and smashing. But they didn’t dominate the scrum as people thought they would in the first half and after Mako Vunipola came on, with Ken Owens and Kyle Sinckler alongside him, the Lions had the ascendancy in the scrum.
Gatland’s selection was a massive success after he had raised a few eyebrows midweek.
He has made a name for himself throughout his career on getting selections right and he did it again. Next week he will have to be his brilliant best again. Will he make changes? Does he bring Mako in because he came on and played so well? Or does he keep it the same and use him as an impact substitute.
For me what was missing was a really simple game plan of hitting up the middle with Robbie Henshaw, Duhan Van der Merwe or even Anthony Watson on an inside ball. They need to be able to set themselves then go through a few phases with the options behind of Ali Price, Dan Biggar, Daly or Stuart Hogg kicking to different areas. Don’t kick for touch, as it gives away possession, but just stick it in between Willie Le Roux and his wingers and make them kick it back to you. And when they kick it back to you, kick it back to them and don’t be the first to give up easy territory by trying to run it back.
Bore South Africa at their own tactic and force them to run because it’s sudden death for South Africa now and I’d tempted to play a straight up and down team by bringing Bundee Aki in.
The dilemma is, do you bring someone like Aki in who is direct and gets you over the gain line but at the cost of a kicking option? And if you want to play territory you need Daly for the extra dimension it brings to your kicking game.
What I don’t want to see more off is Daly on the crash. A couple of times they were even using Daly on the pop ball which was ridiculous. It would be like me taking the ball in on a crash and I’m not built for it – nor is Daly. Flankers should have been used for that and use Daly in space or as a kicking option.
Henshaw had one nice break through the middle but Le Roux did well to scramble back and knock the ball out so it was harsh knock on, and I don’t think he had an option to pass.
It would have been nice to retain possession, go through a few more phases, but I’m not worried about the attacking game – the Lions’ gameplan will be kick, pressure, force mistakes and then get in position to maul.
The Lions flipped this game on its head by bringing more energy, precision kicking and better challenging in the air – more smart, simple rugby like that and like we did in ’97, they can sow it all up on Saturday.
“What was missing was a simple game plan of hitting up the middle”