After All Blacks on home turf
was an an attitude problem.
While we had a couple of the big boys out, and had won 18 on the row, we got to Chicago, a big sigh of relief after getting the record, as you saw also with England, and we may well have been starting to get comfortable. The Cubs had won the World Series the first time in however many years it was and we’d started to become tourists rather than a team on tour.
Last night was totally different. It wasn’t an attitudinal problem. I just think we were one short and we were playing a good side. What we have to learn from last night is how to play a little smarter in those situations.
So, that if happens again, primarily with a yellow card, how do we deal with it and how do we make sure we come out the right side?
We’ll look at the tape, from game one to two to three, and see where can we make improvements, tactically, and how can we hurt them from a space point of view. They will do the same thing. Q: What do you mean about digging deeper after a defeat? Is that a bit of a history lesson? A: It’s not a history lesson, it’s just life. It’s about what we call the inconvenient fact. Sometimes we brush over the cracks that are there. When you lose, the cracks get exposed because that is why you have lost. The crack that got exposed last night was that we didn’t know how to take that space that was downfield towards the end. How we do learn from that and go there? Q: What did you make of the whole occasion in terms of the atmosphere that was created by both sets of fans? A: It was great. It is what Lions tours are all about. The longer they stayed in the game, the noisier the Lions fans got. The old adage is that the way you keep the opposition fans quiet is by dominating the game. Both sets of fans are very loyal. Your guys are probably a bit more boisterous than ours and a bit more adventurous in the type of things they sing and say but that is because us Kiwis are a bit reserved I guess. That’s why you love Lions tours and having more than a one-off Test. Q: Warren Gatland said in the week that he would like to meet up for a beer after the game. Did you get to a chance to catch up with him? A: I didn’t see him unfortunately, but we will catch up. I caught up with Sam Warburton. Q: You menttioned Sam there, did you think the changes the Lions made, with him and Itoje coming in and the new 10-12 combination, made a difference? A: You would have to say they did because they won the match. It was a bit hard on O’Mahony who I thought played pretty well in the first Test. But when you have got the ability to bring someone like Warburton in, his leadership is strong, so I think they’ll be happy with what they did. Q: Have you any update on the incident involving Kyle Sinckler at the guard of honour after the game? A: I’ve heard about it. In hindsight, it’s probably something regrets. But it’s one of those things that happens when there are emotions. It’s like having a fight with your wife. You say things you don’t mean. He probably said something he didn’t mean at the time and was a bit emotional. We won’t be taking it up with anyone, there are bigger things to raise than that. Q: John Hart got spat at after the 1999 World Cup, it was not very pleasant after the 2007. How do you think the country will react to this defeat? A: That’s a fairly big leap my old mate! Both of those were after World Cups and it doesn’t take much of a memory to recall we didn’t have great success at that point at World Cups. Our fans were desperate for us to have success having gone into various tournaments as clear favourites and then not producing. But we have had a little bit of success since 2007 in that arena and quite a lot of success since 2011.
Our fans are a little bit more accepting of when things don’t go right. I believe they are well educated in the art of the game and they understand that they saw their team give it everything they had. It’s when you lose and you feel like people haven’t turned up is when people get frustrated.
Our guys turned up, they just didn’t get the job done. Everyone will be excited next week. It will be great. Rugby has been needing something like this for a while. It’s now got it, so everyone will be a bit nervy about that because it could go either way and how exciting is that? Q: Why do you think rugby needed something like this? A: Someone said before it’s the first time I’ve had to come in and sit in here like this for a while. We haven’t done it a lot and people have got carried away, saying the All Blacks are this and the All Blacks are that. We have kept saying, actually we don’t believe that.
We have got the Lions playing the All Blacks and we are in a great situation and competition is good for everyone because it forces everyone to have to improve. You look at the World Cup in 2015 and the four home nations would be pretty disappointed with what happened there. We have seen it improve because of that. All of that is great for the game.
The game is way bigger than all of us. If we want to be seeing our game continue to grow and foster and do the things that it does in the way of camaraderie and teach us lessons about life, good and bad, we have got to keep encouraging our game to be strong. It’s moments like this series that go down in history and excite young people to say ‘Hey, I want to be part of this’, not only as a player, but also as a fan. It wasn’t great conditions for watching last night, but who cares that it was raining last night. You ask any of those Lions fans whether they felt the rain, I bet you they didn’t. Did ours, I don’t think they would have either.