Tourists fail the X Factor Blues show how to play
WE had been promised the XFactor and it ended up deciding the game... but unfortunately it was provided by the men in blue rather than the ones in red.
The build-up to this second match of the tour in Auckland had been dominated by a debate over the style of play we were likely to see from Warren Gatland’s team.
You had all the talk about that old chestnut Warrenball, which so irritates the coach, then you had the emergence of a new buzz phrase in Rugby Chaos.
And you had the X Factor, with Gatland insisting his players were being encouraged to express themselves, show off their skills and do things outside the box.
Well, skill and flair was to win the day, but it was to come from the hosts.
With just six minutes left on the clock at Eden Park, it looked as though the Lions were heading for a victory which would have been such a morale booster.
Five minutes earlier, while the crowd had been preoccupied with a Mexican Wave, the visitors had, almost unnoticed, earned a scrum penalty which Leigh Halfpenny expertly slotted from some 45 metres.
That put them ahead and on course for a win which would have done so much for this tour and provided that all-important momentum.
But it wasn’t to be, as the Blues provided an object lesson in just what the X Factor really is.
It’s handling ability, it’s skill, it’s pace and it’s finishing... and the winning score had the lot.
First, there were the killer offloads from No.8 Steven Luatua and the man who has made it his speciality, Sonny Bill Williams.
Then came the blistering finish, as replacement fly-half Ihaia West scorched past Johnny Sexton and went around Halfpenny to touch down between the posts.
It was a score fit to win a game and it was the difference between the two sides in every sense.
The Lions just weren’t able to produce that kind of quality in attack or deliver that kind of cutting edge.
They did have one last chance to snatch the spoils when they secured an attacking lineout five metres out in the final minute.
But when Rory Best failed to hit his target, it sort of summed up an evening of mistakes and missed opportunities for the tourists.
Chances went begging, while indiscipline was a real issue, with 13 penalties conceded in all, some of them “soft and needless”, as Gatland admitted afterwards.
Two of those were given away in quick succession by replacement wing Liam Williams for the same offence of taking out his opposite number Matt Duffie in the air.
The first of those cost the Lions three points, as a kickable penalty was reversed, while the second saw Williams sin-binned, leaving his team down to 14 men at a crucial period.
Discipline simply has to be tightened up moving forwards as it’s hard enough out here as it is, without making it even more difficult for yourself.
Yet the tourists still managed to get back in front following Williams’ return and, while it was far from a perfect display, it did look as though it was going to be a winning one.
And while you can debate stylistics as much as you want, the style that really matters is a winning one.
It wasn’t particularly pretty from the Lions, with their solitary try coming via CJ Stander from a lineout