Jackals can swing series Lions’ way
Steffan Thomas talks to former Springbok coach Gary Gold about the Lions tour and PRO14 expansion
NO one is more qualified to assess South Africa’s chances against the British & Irish Lions and the Rainbow Nation’s impending presence in northern hemisphere club rugby than Gary Gold.
The former Springbok assistant coach believes next summer’s Lions series will be the most competitive of all time and says Warren Gatland’s side are slight favourites.
Gold is also adamant South Africa’s domestic sides will make mincemeat of the rest of the PRO14 when they join the competition in the future.
Gold, now head coach of the USA, was instrumental in South Africa’s 2-1 Test series victory over the Lions in 2009 and he cites the battle of the breakdown as the area which will decide the outcome of the 2021 renewal.
Gatland’s Lions will face a South African outfit who were crowned world champions last year after destroying England in the final – just as in 2009, having seen off England in the 2007 RWC final.
“I think it will be an absolutely amazing contest,” former Bath and Worcester coach Gold told TRP. “The fact the world will have been starved of truly topclass sport for a year will send this series into a different stratosphere. It means a huge amount to players.
“In 2009 there were certain senior Springboks who told me beating the Lions was a bigger deal than winning the World Cup because you can go to a World Cup three or four times in a Lions’ span.
“If you go to three World Cups as a Springbok you have a decent chance of winning it, but playing the Lions and beating them is a rare thing.”
Gold, right, believes the Springboks could do worse than look at the way Wales played at the 2019 World Cup when analysing Gatland’s side.
“The Springboks will have to understand the threats the Lions will pose,” said Gold. “If you look at the impact Warren will have on the team and look at the way Wales defended at the last World Cup, they had a strong ability to rip out of the tackle. It was something the second or third defender was good at so South Africa will have to counter that.
“The breakdown will be decided on who he picks. In 2009 we were shocked the Lions didn’t pick Martyn Williams who was the best player they had on the floor. No disrespect to David Wallace, but they didn’t have a proper fetcher. This time they’ve got plenty. Tom Curry, Justin Tipuric and Jack Willis could really challenge the Springboks on the floor.
“They will have to counter South Africa’s raw physicality – it’s not going to take a coaching genius to tell the Lions what’s coming. If they don’t front up in front of a partisan crowd then they won’t win, but it’s a slight worry South Africa might come in cold having not participated in this year’s Rugby Championship.”
British and Irish players will have to get used to facing South African sides with the country’s best Super Rugby franchises set to join an expanded PRO16 in 2021.
The 53-year-old Gold acknowledges the strength of Irish provinces Leinster, Munster and Ulster but is worried the PRO16 will be too easy for the South Africans.
He said: “Leinster are outstanding, Munster are fantastic, and a lot of the teams we will be playing against are very good, but respectfully there are a lot of sides who aren’t in their league.
“I think for our move to the PRO14 to be successful we have to be allowed entry into the Heineken Champions Cup. The PRO14 fixtures alone are potentially going to stunt the growth of the South African franchises because you are only going to have a handful of competitive games. A lot of games will not be of the level of competition we are used to in Super Rugby.
“There has to be fewer PRO14 fixtures played during the international period for this move to work otherwise you could have the scenario where a secondstring Ospreys side faces a very strong Bulls side in Pretoria and then it’s a complete mismatch.
“If they could get into the Champions Cup the quality of opponent would be far higher and the South African franchises would also improve that competition.
“It would be a disaster if a whole heap of players were missing for some key games therefore we need a global season so players can be available.
“If the likes of the Bulls, Stormers, Lions and Sharks are allowed entry into the Champions Cup they’d be serious contenders to win it, let alone the PRO16.”
Gold led the US Eagles to last year’s World Cup and firmly believes there is massive untapped potential in American rugby, but admits they are miles away from replicating the success of Japan.
He said: “Major League Rugby is a huge step in the right direction but we only had five weeks of it at the start of the year before coronavirus called it off. We’ve got guys in a crucial developmental stage of their career and not getting any rugby which is a significant blow.
“We are quite far away from achieving anything like Japan and that’s mainly because they have had more time with their players. There is a lot of potential in US rugby, but it’s going to remain untapped until we get more time with the players.”