Tourists are offside – All Blacks open up

The All Blacks have urged South African referee Jaco Peyper to pay close attention to the offside line in Saturday’s first Test, with the Lions’ aggressive line speed in defence one of their key concerns.

After Warren Gatland called for a clampdown on the All Blacks’ blocking of opponents – with two penalties called against the Lions’ opponents the Chiefs yesterday for this offence – New Zealand assistant coach Ian Foster responded by pointing out how players try to steal a march when closing down the opposition. “It is a priority for officials to make sure the offside lines are patrolled heavily, particularly with the use of line speed from all rugby teams,” said Foster, who is Steve Hansen’s most likely successor as head coach.

“If you don’t police offside lines you don’t get a game where both teams have the chance to play. The reason the Lions do what they do, they think they can get an advantage from it.

“Every method has areas where you can attack through it. It gives you different opportunities. So we have got to make sure we are smart as the game unfolds.”

Gatland’s former Waikato teammate also responded tartly to the Lions head coach’s blocking accusations.

“I was expecting it,” said Foster. “We were apparently bad scrummagers last week. This week we are bad at something else and next week I can guarantee we will be useless at something else so that’s how I’m treating it.”

The All Blacks will be coming at the British and Irish Lions fully loaded after their talismanic captain, No8 Kieran Read, was passed fit to play following his recovery from a broken thumb and centre Ryan Crotty, who had been side-