POWER PLAY
The Lions scrum is demolished by All Blacks as they come a distant second in physical battle
WE CAME expecting sporting theatre at its finest. We left with the impression that the Lions remains the daftest sports concept imaginable. Build a team inside three and half weeks to beat the back-to-back world champions at a stadium where they had not lost in 23 years? Madness.
There was no quibbling as the thousands of red-clad supporters made their way back to the downtown Auckland watering holes to drown their sorrows.
‘We got our a***s smacked,’ said one Lions fan succinctly to Kiwi revellers he was sharing a train carriage with. It was a spot-on assessment.
Rather than the most fantastic end-to-end try near the half time break igniting the tourists, the second half had a terrible inevitability about it once the Lions failed in the early gamble of kicking a penalty to the corner instead of the posts.
Points via the boot would have narrowed the gap to just three and ratcheted up the pressure on the hosts who had been cruising 13-3 nearing the break and looking the likelier to score next.
However, Liam Williams’ spectacular break from his own line, a jaw-dropping counter followed by Jonathan Davies’ one-two with Elliot Daly before Seán O’Brien supplied the finish, provided a massive momentum swing.
Instead of building on that, however, the Lions backed a lineout maul that had been well-defended all night and it spluttered again and the ball was lost.
They did get it back quickly but Williams’ attempt to repeat his first-half exploits ended with Anthony Watson tossing away possession when he needed to go to ground with it at the 22 and hope the cavalry would carry and continue the move.
That was the end of the Lions. Rieko Ioane soon ran in the first of his two tries, and with the visiting bench failing to deliver the necessary collective level of intensity to keep them in the fight, they lost their way until Rhys Webb’s garbage time consolation.
Warren Gatland spouted on about easily fixed errors in the aftermath, but you have to wonder.
Ten times he had coached Wales against the All Blacks, 10 times he wound up a loser, many of those matches following a similar pattern to this first Lions Test. A couple of moments that inspired and fleetingly offered hope, a couple of subsequent moments of horror that swiftly doused that sudden optimism.
What will stick in the craw is that Ireland had shown Gatland the blueprint just seven months ago on what you need to beat these Kiwis − score loads of tries, keep your discipline and ensure there are no costly set-piece aberrations.
The Lions flunked on all three fronts. They scored just one try to the three conceded. They lost the penalty count 7-11. And then they saw their scrum at fault for the All Blacks’ game-breaking second try followed by their lineout misfiring at the start of the lengthy play that led to the dispiriting third try.
That error was compounded by how Williams allowed a box kick to bounce, inviting Ioane to race clear.
The November setback to the Irish in Chicago was, according to Aaron Smith, of great help in ensuring Steve Hansen’s side weren’t caught napping at the start of the 2017 Test season.
‘Ireland put us under a lot of pressure last year and we didn’t handle it well at all. If anything, we learned a lot from that game,’ said the scrum-half.
‘The Lions were a different team, different beast, but we handled it a bit better, were a bit more prepared for the (rush) defensive structures.’
Whereas the Lions were left to rue Daly’s inability to finish off a second-minute jostle for the line with Israel Dagg, Smith was ruthlessly clinical when quickly tapping the penalty 16 minutes later that led to Codie Taylor’s try.
‘A simple numbers game,’ explained the scrum-half. ‘It was three on five.’
The arithmetic, though, which best summed up the difference between winning and losing this intense battle was visible in what was got up to by the respective front fives.
New Zealand’s unit carried for a massive 94 metres off 33 runs, the Lions just 16 metres off 24 carries. Then add in how the Kiwi’s front men had to collectively tackle just 35 times to the Lions’ 68 and you get clear indication of who was dominating who.
The consequences of this further back were that Taulupe Faletau’s carry was restricted while scrumhalf Conor Murray came in for enormous attention, with the All Blacks repeatedly running straight through the ruck at him.
Something had to give and it was the Lions who need to rethink what they have been trying to achieve since landing in Auckland on May 31.
Look at how the sudden inclusion of Williams and Daly to kick-start the back three was only something belatedly stumbled upon last Tuesday in Hamilton.
That wasn’t something more than just an arm purposely up a sleeve by Gatland in a bid to cause a surprise. Instead it illustrated how the confrontation-minded management weren’t clued in at the start as to what was needed to be creative.
They also erred in going for outof-sorts Alun Wyn Jones ahead of Maro Itoje in the second-row, while Owen Farrell didn’t convince he deserved his start ahead of Johnny Sexton.
Things must now change.