Gatland: I am ready for dirty tricks on tour
Coach insists he is in no hurry to pick Lions leader Jones is bookies’ favourite, Warburton odds shorten
Head coach Warren Gatland says that he is anticipating a campaign of dirty tricks when the British and Irish Lions tour New Zealand.
It took just 41 seconds in the last Lions series for controversy to ignite when captain Brian O’Driscoll was spear-tackled by Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu. O’Driscoll was ruled out of the rest of the series while the All Black pair escaped any sanction.
Off the field, the challenge is just as great from a partisan press and public, which means Gatland is expecting a bumpy ride from the moment the Lions land in New Zealand at the end of May. “Those are the challenges as a management,” Gatland said. “If things are too nice and going too smoothly there is always that potential for someone to look for a negative story or a negative angle or there is a sting being done. “We want to be great tourists and play some good rugby – that is not going to please everyone but we have got to be aware that there could be some negatives thrown at us. It is how we deal with it and how we respond to it. That is something that happens in everyday life and modern sport, we will just make sure we are prepared for it.” The 2005 tour as a whole was disastrous for the Lions, who lost the series 3-0, and Gat- land admits many of their wounds were self-inflicted. “There were lots of things in 2005 that made it easy for the journalists to write about, whether it was Alastair Campbell or Lions not fulfilling commitments,” Gatland said. “We are trying to go there and mend some stuff from 2005. We want to engage with the community, we want to play some good rugby, we want to get the public on our side.”
Gatland has already had a taste of what is to come. After denouncing the New Zealand Herald for mocking up Australia coach Michael Cheika as a clown, Gatland subsequently received the same treatment himself. “It was a bit of a lesson,” Gatland said. “When you criticise the NZ Herald and say they were a bit over the top drawing Cheika as a clown they quickly turned round and drew me as a clown. I was really upset – they could have at least made me a happy clown so that was not really fair.”
Warren Gatland tends to deliver crisp, concise answers. Like most Kiwis, he identifies spades as such rather than earth-removing devices. However last week, when asked for his thoughts about how he will identify his captain for the tour to New Zealand, the British and Irish Lions head coach’s response spilled into incoherent levels normally associated with a Donald Trump press conference. That either betrays a hidden secret or, if we are to take him at face value, a real uncertainty that two rounds of the Six Nations Championship have done little to resolve.
It is certainly a blessing rather than a curse that he has so few nailed-on names in his starting XV. Austin Healey wrote in The Daily Telegraph last week that only Owen Farrell can be considered a lock at this stage and it is hard to disagree. The fly-half has neither captained his club nor country and Gatland’s preference tends to be for forwards to lead the side.
Alun Wyn Jones is the bookies’ favourite but has the misfortune to be competing for a place in the second row where the competition is frankly ridiculous. Rory Best and Dylan Hartley are direct rivals as Ireland and England captains but both may miss out on a starting berth to Jamie George.
Interestingly, the odds on Sam Warburton becoming the first man since Martin Johnson to lead the Lions in back-to-back series have shortened considerably recently. Warburton was one of a few players Gatland made a point of praising without any caveats, having recaptured his old form since being relieved of the Wales captaincy.
All cards appear to be on the table. Test captaincy is not a prerequisite. Nor is being an automatic starter.
“Those things are ideal for me but not essential,” Gatland said. “Ideally I would like them to be an automatic Test starter, but they don’t have to have had captaincy experience. Martin Johnson had not captained England in 1997 but from a Lions perspective … in terms of someone who has done it before has an advantage.”
In attempting to clarify those comments, Gatland verged into stream of consciousness territory. “Looking back at 2013 when I was picking the squad, if I was picking the Test side would the captain probably make the Test starting side and the answer was yes,” Gatland said. “Probably the same criteria might apply this time so if you are looking at individuals you are looking at them and going, ‘Is that person you want as captain likely to be selected in the Test side?’ If the answer is yes then they have got a good chance, if the answer is not sure because he might be a good captain but there might be one or two players playing better or they have to play slightly better to make it a slightly easier decision then maybe the situation where you pick someone on merit is going to be a great captain, is going to be a great tour captain.
“Then the conversation with him is, ‘Look it is a great honour for you to be captain but there is no guarantee you are going to be selected in the Test side if your form is not as good as someone else.’ There are a lot of potential scenarios in that issue.”
Which roughly translates as the tour captain not being assured of his Test place. In Gatland’s opinion the issue of the captaincy is a sideshow that he will only attempt to grapple with once the
squad has been selected. Even once his mind is made up, he will delay informing the chosen one to save them being prodded and probed by the media.
“I will be leaving it as late as I possibly can, as I did last time, before I talk to that person,” Gatland said. “But I have got a few names in mind and without being definitive … the first thing we will do is pick the squad and look at potential candidates and who can captain the touring side.”
Overall there was plenty of encouragement for Gatland to take from the first two rounds of the Six Nations in which the home nations have built upon an autumn in which southern hemisphere scalps were harvested. None was more precious in that regard than Ireland’s 40-29 victory against New Zealand in Chicago.
“The great thing about the autumn with Ireland winning is even though as coaches we say it sometimes, players don’t believe us that they are human,” Gatland said. “You put them under pressure and they will make mistakes. The Irish players got to experience that and the England players have done that before and Andy Farrell has had successes over New Zealand in terms of victories and that is great. That confidence and self-belief can go through a team and it becomes infectious.”