No case for the continuance of the Lions if they do not play with flair and style

Commentary Allan Massie

The argument has already started. I’m talking, of course, about the Lions, not Westminster and Downing Street; that one will begin only when the first shock has subsided. The Lions one may have been calmed by the time you read this, depending on the outcome of today’s match against the Crusaders. But, whatever the result, it’s unlikely to go away.

It’s simple. How should the Lions play? Stuart Barnes is a commentator who usually favours expansive attacking play, with lots of enterprise, risk-taking and off-loading, which indeed was how he used to play himself as standhalf for Bath and, occasionally, England. But here he was, after the Lions lost to the Blues, saying in effect that the Lions should forget about all that, and play a grinding game, relying on forward power, lots of driving mauls, and kicking to the corner. The Lions, he insisted, can’t match the All Blacks in a broken-field game. So they have to see that the field isn’t broken. He didn’t quite call for the return of Dean Richard and stuff-it-up-the-jumper rugby, but he came mighty close to doing so.

Well, he has a point in calling for the traditional English style – adherence to which usually kept him out of the England XV. The Lions backs were poor in both attack and defence in the first two games, running unimaginative lines and never threatening to open up the opposition defence. Maybe they’ll improve. I hope they do because, as I’ve written here before, I don’t see that there is a case for the continuance of the Lions if they don’t play with flair and style.

What they mustn’t do is kick so poorly as to invite a counter-attack. Do that and the All Blacks will shred you. Nick Evans, the former New Zealand stand-off who has been the brains of his Harlequins team for ten years now, made that point this week. Carwyn James would have agreed: why kick and give hard-won ball back to your opponents, especially when you know that most times they will make good use of it.

Rhys Webb’s box-kicking was dreadful against the Blues, too long, rarely giving his wing any chance of regaining the ball. This sort of kicking is meat and drink to New Zealanders and the drink is champagne. If you have to kick it’s more sensible to put the ball in touch or at least near to the touchline, rather than down the middle of the field – that sort of kick offers too many opportunities to counter-attack.

Carwyn James again used to teach that your own 22 was often a good place from