Gatland turns on ‘personal’ criticism
for first-Test selection.
Going into the game, Davies would have been favourite to wear the No. 13 jersey in Auckland, but the way his replacement Johnny Sexton combined with Farell in a slick 10-12 axis will give Gatland something to think about, albeit away from his favoured gameplan of having a strong bludgeon trucking it up from 12 (notice, no mention of the W word).
Anthony Watson also threw his name into the hat as a sharp counterattacking option at full-back. New Zealand need to adapt to northern hemisphere referees There has been plenty of head-shaking among home players in reaction to decisions made by French officials Pascal Gauzere and Mathieu Raynal in the last two matches.
Gauzere’s performance at Eden Park was panned by some sections of the Kiwi media and in the Crusaders game, Raynal was particularly harsh at scrum time, penalising the home front row for early shoves — calls that prompted howls of derision from the Christchurch faithful.
It didn’t take long for the Frenchman to earn the Kiwi wrath with one writer comparing Raynal’s display to that of Wayne Barnes in the infamous Cardiff World Cup quarter-final defeat of 2007.
There has already been a lot more whistle than the Kiwi franchises are used to and with Jerome Garces and Romain Poite down to officiate in the second and third Tests of the series as well as a midweek game apiece, it is something the New Zealand public and media will have to get used. WARREN Gatland claims he has been the victim of a personal and targeted campaign during the Lions tour of New Zealand.
The head coach turned on his critics following the 12-3 victory over the previously undefeated Crusaders at Christchurch’s AMI Stadium.
It was a result which came as a huge lift following an unconvincing victory over the Provincial Barbarians and a defeat to the Blues.
Those games had seen the Lions, and Gatland in particular, come in for heavy flak, with his coaching philosophy called into question.
Beating the Crusaders provided him with the perfect platform to hit back.
Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: “There are a lot of people who have written us off in the last week saying the tour was over and I even heard someone say it was more embarrassing than 2005.
“I have been hammered by the New Zealand media as well, so it has been a targeted campaign against me personally.
“That is part of coaching at the highest level and we know you have got to be able to handle those sort of things and handle that sort of pressure and sometimes that brings out the best in me as a competitor.
“The pleasing thing was, as Alun Wyn Jones said, it is about the 15 doing it, the 23 doing it, for the whole 41 of us.
“So we can take another step forward and look forward to the next couple of weeks. We are starting to build now.”
In the subsequent press conference, he added: “It has been a really tough week.
“There has been a lot of criticism. People had written the tour off after two games.
“That has been challenging for us all. We have had to stay strong within the group.
“The goal was the Test matches and to keep improving towards that. I hope we didn’t disappoint too many people with this result.”
Gatland also believes his British and Irish Lions can match the All Blacks scrum – however the setpiece is refereed.
“I felt they had one scrum where they had some ascendancy; there was one where they just got a little bit under us,” said former hooker Gatland.
“But I thought on the whole we scrummaged pretty well. I know there was some discussion, but I thought the referee did a good job; I didn’t have any issues with that.”