Judge Lions by how the Boks fare next
What is the rugby equivalent of questioning whether a football team could replicate a particular feat on a cold, rainy night in Stoke? A scorcher in Toulouse, perhaps? Or an icy night on the artificial turf of Kingston Park or Stonex Stadium?
Perhaps another contender has emerged out of the ill-fated, ill-advised and ill-tempered Lions series against South Africa. Warren Gatland and his Lions coaching team have faced a barrage of opprobrium in the past fortnight for the negative, conservative and feckless strategic approach after winning the opening Test, but such vitriol might have been hasty.
The British and Irish rugby fraternity should wait to see how the world-champion Springboks fare in the Rugby Championship – which begins today – before taking aim at Gatland’s losing Lions. Will South Africa be able to replicate their ruthless efficiency, their brawn-over-brains modus operandi, on a rainy Saturday night at Eden Park, for example, where New Zealand are unbeaten since 1994?
It would be a remarkable achievement, but if Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus’s side were able to batter down the All Blacks’ 27-year Auckland record – and probably win back-to-back championships in the process – then, notwithstanding the doubts that persist about their paint-dry strategy and questionable conduct, they must enter the conversation when discussing rugby’s truly great sides. Reigning world champions, Lions series winners, back-to-back Rugby Championship winners. The Lions will always harbour regrets, of not clicking in attack, of barely firing a shot behind the scrum but, in that context, a 2-1 series loss looks far less worthy of criticism.
Losing a series by one penalty against a side pushing “greatest ever” status can hardly be considered the most embarrassing occurrence in history.
The opposite also rings true, of course. What if the unthinkable happened and South Africa were to lose to improving Argentina or floundering Australia in the forthcoming tournament? Or worse, what if the Boks finished bottom? Unlikely, of course, but that would leave an indelible stain on the legacy of the 2021 Lions, whose chances of winning a series against an undercooked and Covid-ravaged South Africa would have been far greater than that of any Puma or Wallaby.
This paradigm has peppered Lions teams throughout the professional era.
Martin Johnson’s 2001 tourists narrowly lost a series of exquisite standards against the worldchampion Wallabies who, in turn, went on to win the Tri Nations. It was one that got away for the Lions, but the class of the opposition meant that there was no need for a damning post-mortem.
Even in 2005, when the Lions floundered through New Zealand en route to receiving one of the most comprehensive series whitewashes in history, those
All Blacks were in one of the purplest patches of form ever in rugby – and they also went on to win the Tri Nations. The tour’s culture was rightly excoriated, but there was no shame in losing to Dan Carter’s on-field witchcraft.
In 2009, Sir Ian Mcgeechan’s rejuvenated Lions lost one of the most tumultuous series by a whisker and, once again, South Africa went on to win the Tri Nations. The result was gutting for all in Britain and Ireland, but Paul O’connell’s charges received no brickbats as a result – the opposite, if anything.
Similar occurred in 2017, when Gatland’s second tour as head coach culminated in a drawn series, but the All Blacks went on to win the Rugby Championship and everyone realised, although the Lions had not won, that a draw was an achievement in itself.
The anomaly is 2013, when an Australia side in disarray – who finished third in that year’s Rugby Championship – managed to push the Lions to a third Test. Did the Wallabies’ subsequent troubles render the Lions series victory slightly less sweet? Undoubtedly.
Consequently, the barometer of success for the 2021 Lions is not entirely concerned with the happenings in South Africa over the past six weeks. What comes to pass in the next seven weeks will go just as far in defining their legacy as every ball kicked in the Rainbow Nation.
Barometer of success not entirely concerned with what happened in South Africa over the past six weeks