LIONS CAPTAINCY..? THE FIRST THING I DID WAS RING MAM!
GARETH Thomas knew immediately who he needed to ring.
It was June 2005 and Clive Woodward had just asked him to take over as captain on the Lions tour of New Zealand.
That followed Brian O’Driscoll being ruled out by shoulder damage sustained in a hugely controversial spear tackle early on in the first Test.
It was English back rower Martin Corry who took over as skipper after O’Driscoll’s departure in Christchurch, where the Lions lost 21-3.
But now Woodward was turning to ‘Alfie’ to take up the reins for the remaining two Tests against the All Blacks.
“Clive asked me at breakfast,” recalls Welsh great Thomas.
“I was very, very surprised. It’s a position I never thought I would be in.
“I was obviously really chuffed, but I didn’t spurt out and say ‘yes’ straight away.
“This is how Welsh I am. I had to go and ring my mother first!
“I wanted to ask the one person who has known me and seen me evolve and grow up more than any team-mate, coach or journalist. “So I rang my mother.
“I still remember her words. “She said: ‘Yeah, do it, but do it your way. Don’t try and be another Dricco’, because I ain’t Dricco and I will never be able to be like him.
“Once I had permission from the almighty Yvonne, then I jumped at it.”
However, Thomas was well aware he was taking on a tricky assignment.
“We were in a difficult position at the time,” he says.
“There was a lot going around about the way Dricco had been exited from the tour.
“I knew the press duties I would have to do relevant to that.
“I wouldn’t say I was afraid, but I had this sense of scepticism of how I would be able to come across with players from different countries.
“I was all right in the changing rooms of Wales. I knew all the boys, I knew their upbringings, I knew what made them tick, I knew what I could say and what I couldn’t say. We are all pretty much cut from the same cloth.
“But in Ireland it’s very much a private school sport, the same in England. These guys are f***ing intelligent, you know!
“That’s a scary concept to confront, to realise you have to have dialogue with people who are maybe not going to get you and you are not going to get them, yet somehow you have to make this connection.
“Being captain isn’t just about being a good player.
“It’s about a person that people will follow and that’s not just about your ability.
“I am the first to put my hand up and say I don’t ever think I was captain material.
“But I evolved into being captain for Wales and a leader of a diverse group of people.”
Now he found himself at the helm of the Lions, going into the second Test against New Zealand in Wellington.
“It was a really, really difficult week with all the Dricco stuff,” he said.
“All I remember saying to the boys is we need to create an environment where we can grow and to do that we have to quash the biggest and best team on this planet.
“I remember being ridiculously pumped in the dressing room before the game, probably more than I’d ever been before, probably too much.
“I think you can go over the top.” Thomas’ impassioned team-talk seemed to have done the trick as a Lions team featuring six Welshman raced into a 7-0 lead, with their centre skipper crossing under the posts after just two minutes.
But the All Blacks responded and then pulled well clear in the second-half, with two-try Dan Carter contributing 33 points to a series-clinching 48-18 triumph.
“We got so hyped and I think I and everybody else had built up to such a crescendo that when the whistle went we were going to go crazy,” said Thomas.
“It worked for us in the first ten minutes because we were winning.
“But the reality was we didn’t spread it out. We focused everything on the first ten minutes and didn’t think about the next 70, understanding that New Zealand are a team that can play for 80 minutes.
“Everything had been so against us that week that everything was focused on a good start and we kind of forgot about the rest.
“We delivered what we had spoken about in the week, in terms of getting a good start, but then we were unsure of where to go to next.
“As captain, I remember just trying to really focus on my own performance because I felt if I could keep performing when things were going downhill then hopefully that would be an inspiration for other people to focus.
“With hindsight, I would have got everybody together and said ‘Let’s understand we have achieved what we set out to, but maybe we have to work the next ten minutes and the next ten minutes.
“But that’s the power of hindsight.”
Thomas was captain again for the third Test in Auckland, which New Zealand won 38-19 to complete a 3-0 series whitewash.
So, 16 years on, how does he now look back on the whole experience?
“For me, growing up as a kid, I didn’t really know that much about the Lions,” he explains.
“I only ever wanted to play for Wales.
“I didn’t understand that the Lions was once every four years. I didn’t really know that much about the legends that wore the Lions jersey prior to me.
“So it would be wrong of me now to say it’s the biggest thing I ever achieved in my career.
“That was playing for Wales because that was the only thing I ever wanted to achieve.
“Playing for the Lions was like a Brucie bonus.
“It was something that was really never on my radar, but came on to my radar because Wales were doing well and I was lucky enough to be part of a good Welsh team.
“I am honoured I got to wear the Lions jersey, I am honoured I was chosen at a time when there were other great players out there.
“But it didn’t resonate with me as this childhood dream that I managed to achieve. Maybe if we had gone to New Zealand and won, then it would have been a memory I look back on differently.
“Being Lions captain is an achievement I am very proud to have and one I never dreamt of.
“But, as sportspeople, everything becomes better or worse dependent on results.
“If there had been different results and better performances, then maybe it would be more of a good memory for me.”
Reflecting on the 11-match tour, he said: “We went to New Zealand with a lot of hype, a lot of press attention.
“There was an expectancy to see us succeed because everybody had put so much pressure on the way Clive had set things up and the environment he had created.
“It was maybe a little bit too evolutionary for the Lions concept, which doesn’t need changing because it isn’t broken.
“As a rugby competitor and wanting to win, you look back on that tour and think what a complete failure because we didn’t really ever come close.
“But then when I step outside of my career and look back at it, I think, do you know what, would anyone have come close?
“It was the arrival on the stage of brilliance of one of the world’s greatest players, if not the greatest, in Dan Carter.”
The former Bridgend, Cardiff and Toulouse star back added: “The Lions is very unique, very different.
“With the adversity you face and the camaraderie you’ve got to try and create while fighting this adversity, it’s a pretty special, unique bonkers concept, but one it was an honour to have been part of.”
Back in 2005, Thomas managed to recover from a broken thumb in time to take his place with the Lions.
Scroll forward to the current tour of South Africa and another Welshman has fought back from injury to serve as skipper, with Alun Wyn Jones having overcome a dislocated shoulder in remarkable fashion.
The 103-cap Thomas has huge admiration for the inspirational Ospreys second row.
“I played in the same team as him a number of times at the start of his international career and he has grown into a captain,” he said.
“When I look at him, I see someone who is fully focused on his job and his team.
“I listen to his interviews and he bats a lot of questions away.
“All he is interested in is saying things or being a part of things that are a benefit for his team.”
Gareth Thomas was speaking at an event to highlight the Tackle HIV campaign, which he leads in partnership with ViiV Healthcare and the Terrence Higgins Trust. It aims to tackle the stigma and misunderstanding around HIV. For more information visit www.tacklehiv.org and follow @tacklehiv