BATTLE AT NO.10 WILL BE KEY TO LIONS SUCCESS, SAYS TOWNSEND
LIONS attack coach Gregor Townsend believes Warren Gatland’s cohort will need to have more than one type of game to be successful in South Africa. Matching physicality, bringing their own, and having a game of movement, speed and finding space will be key, the Scotland head coach believes.
Included in the 37-player squad are 10 Welshmen - including captain Alun Wyn Jones - 11 England internationals, eight Scots and eight Irishmen.
There will be fierce competition in all areas to make it into the Test side to face the Springboks, but Townsend has pointed to the fly-half spot as being one of the most competitive rivalries.
Dan Biggar, Finn Russell and Owen Farrell will all be vying for the No. 10 Test jersey, although Townsend admits he sees the English skipper as both a centre and half-back.
“The 10s will be a key position for me to work with,” Townsend explained.
“Finn, obviously I know very well. Dan Biggar and Owen Farrell, I’m looking forward to working with them and helping them play their best rugby during this tour.”
Biggar’s outing for Northampton against Leicester in April got everyone talking for the rights reasons, and it seems it may well have convinced Townsend even further of his rugby pedigree.
The former Osprey was in the process of being replaced after an opponent fell on his leg, but upon realising there were no backs left on the bench, Biggar shrugged off his physios and returned to action for a tense finale - also making a key trysaving tackle.
Townsend said: “He showed his toughness and bravery to stay on at the end. Very competitive
“The rugby that Northampton play is a real good compliment to how some Test matches will go. We know his skills around managing a game, his kicking, his kick chase, but also what Northampton are doing and moving ball into space has made him improve even further and be an allround player.”
One of Biggar’s rivals will be a player who Townsend knows very well in Russell. The Scottish boss, who will be assisted in defence by his international assistant and Welshman Steve Tandy, believes Racing 92 playmaker could “bring a real point of difference”.
“He brings that skill set that not many players in world rugby possess: his passing, his kicking, his reading of defences.
“Finn’s shown he can play a real balanced game as well. When it comes to the Test series, balance will be important: knowing when to attack, knowing when to turn the pressure back on South Africa through that other means.
“He’s a competitor, he’s up against two real competitors as well for that position, and a lot will be down to form and how well those 10s can get the attack going, how well they’ve worked with the other players around them.”
Confirming Farrell will be used as a 12 and 10 option, Townsend added: “He’s one that goes between both positions.
“A lot will depend on how well players play, how well they combine with each other, but he’s played very well at Test level at 12 and at 10 over the last few years. It’ll be interesting to see how that one develops.”
Sticking with the backs, another fascinating development will be seeing who the Lions coaching staff choose to select on the wings, with Josh Adams, Louis Rees-Zammit, Duhan van der Merwe and Anthony Watson all in the mix, plus Liam Williams as a potential option.
“I watch a lot of Josh’ games, and I have painful memories of two years ago when he scored two tries at Murrayfield,” Townsend said. “He had an outstanding year all the way through to the World Cup.
“I thought he played well in the Six Nations, I thought he had some really nice touches. In the England game and France game, his work off the ball, his kick chase was very good.
“He missed two games for different reasons but in the games he played I thought he was very effective in what was obviously a very good Welsh side.”
Adams was suspended for two Six Nations matches after attending a gender reveal party ahead of him becoming a father. The Covid protocol breach was met with a two-match suspension.
He will face stiff competition from Rees-Zammit, who has become the youngest player to be called up by the Lions for more than 60 years.
Gatland believes he has a huge amount of potential, while fellow breakthrough player Duhan van der Merwe will also be vying for a starting spot out wide.
“Duhan has shown over the last six months when he came into the Scotland team and played Test rugby that he’s made for playing on that stage,” Townsend said. “He’s improved a fair bit as well during that process and there’s a lot more to come from him.
“We were really impressed with how well he trains, how he fitted with the new team. These are going to be things that are crucial with the Lions, how to integrate with new teammates, how intense you train, how open you are to feedback.
“He’s got undoubted strengths with his physicality, his ability to break tackles and his speed.
“Those two wingers that really had outstanding seasons - Duhan and Louis Rees-Zammit - show that just in that short time how quickly they’ve improved, how they’ve thrived at Test level.
“We want all of that, we want them to kick on even more over there.
“Our job as coaches is making sure the players show their strengths over the six weeks we come together as a Lions squad.”
As for the scrum-half spot, there was arguably no major standout candidate for this spot, but the final candidates to make the starting Test side are Wales’ Gareth Davies, Scotland’s Ali Price and Ireland’s Conor Murray.
For Scarlet Davies, it will be his second stint on a Lions tour, although it is the first time he has been called up from the start.
He was part of the controversial Geography Six in 2017: a group of players which Gatland drafted in from Wales and Scotland’s southern hemisphere tours as temporary cover during the Lions trip to New Zealand.
Asked if that experience will motivate Davies to perform and put him stamp on being a Lion all the more, Townsend said: “Yeah, I imagine so.
“I think the motivation to play for the Lions is really strong throughout all the players that were up for selection out of that long list.
“I think it was over 70 players we contacted about their availability. Only one couldn’t do it for personal reasons, which we understand.
“It just shows you that in these tough times, for a lot of people, everyone was desperate to go on that tour.
“Gareth, I’m sure, will be wanting to not only have a successful tour but get himself in the Test side. He’s shown over a number of years with Wales that he can perform at the highest level and be a match winner.”
He will face stiff competition from Conor Murray in particular, with Townsend saying of the Munster No. 9: “He’s played really well for the Lions in the past and he’s back in really good form.
“I know he’s been unlucky with injuries so great that he’s fully fit. I’m looking forward to working with him.”