Deans already sounds under pressure
It is always satisfying to start off a tour with a win and given the quality of player made available to the Barbarians for that game, there was a chance that the iconic invitation side could spoil the party for the real tourists. The heat and humidity was always going to be a match-shaping factor and turned the odds very much in favour of the more prepared side. That was always going to be the Lions. The most pleasing aspect of the whole exercise was that all the players emerged unscathed from a potentially damaging exercise.
It helps when your set piece is dominant and the fact that the Lions enjoyed over 70% possession in the opening half gave Sergio Parisse’s side no chance. Warren Gatland will be thrilled that the only starting players with previous Lions experience — Paul O’Connell, Mike Phillips, Jamie Roberts and Adam Jones — were all superb and led the way for others to follow. In total 16 of the 24 new Lions in the 2013 party got to play and are now fully fledged Lions. That is important.
The one disappointing aspect to date has been the untimely injury to tour captain Sam Warburton. He won’t be fit to play until game three against the Queensland Reds on Saturday at the earliest. By tonight everyone in the squad, bar the tour captain, will have either been on a previous tour or have worn the jersey for the first time on this tour.
Remember, you are not a Lion until you play. Being selected doesn’t count. You do not enter the record books until you take to the field. In 1980, England scrum half Steve Smith was called up during the last week of the South African tour and sat on the bench as a reserve for the final test but didn’t come on. It took him another three years to be officially recognised when he captained the side against Hawke’s Bay in his first appearance having, once again, been called out as a replacement.
That is the disadvantage of having a captain without previous Lions tour experience. You don’t feel part of the Lions until you play and Warburton has now had to sit back and watch O’Connell give a captain’s performance against the Barbarians, with today’s skipper, Brian O’Driscoll, keen to lay down a similar marker. It is only human nature that Warburton will feel added pressure as a result with the clock ticking to the first test. I hope he is passed fit to play at the weekend.
Already Justin Tipuric has set the bar with an excellent performance at open side and Sean O’Brien will be offered his chance today. One of the main concerns that Gatland would have carried into the tour was the lack of any meaningful game time for a number of the squad over the last two months, specifically Alex Cuthbert, Richie Gray, Dan Lydiate, Richard Hibbard, Ian Evans and Leigh Halfpenny. There is balance between being under-cooked and over-played. On the evidence of last Saturday Cuthbert, Lydiate and Gray all came through with flying colours, playing the full 80 minutes in extremely demanding conditions which suggests their conditioning work has been top drawer. Hibbard also had a fine game, with his lineout deliveries right on the money.
The most interesting aspect of the match for me was the introduction of George North in the unfamiliar position of inside centre for the closing 14 minutes. With Roberts the only regular starter in that midfield position in the squad, was Gatland looking to broaden his options in the event of injury with O’Driscoll, Jonathan Davies and Manu Tuilagi more at home in the outside centre role?
I can recall Graham Henry wanting to have a look at a young O’Driscoll at full-back in the opening game of the 2001 tour with plenty options available in midfield. On Lions tours, players are often asked to perform roles in an emergency that they wouldn’t contemplate on normal international duty. Was there a specific thought process behind North’s positioning there or did Gatland only want him to get the ball in his hands as often as possible given the fact that the Barbarians defence were out on its feet in the last quarter?
Time will tell.
Today’s contest promises to be a lot more revealing. Many of this Lions side have not had anything like the preparation afforded to last Saturday’s starting team due to their commitments with Leicester, Ulster and Leinster, who between them supply ten of the starting line up for Perth. Western Force are the lowest ranked of the Australian provincial teams, but have fourteen Super 15 games behind them already and despite losing 11 of those, go into today’s contest fresh and confident despite not fielding a full strength side.
It will also help that they will play in front of a passionate home following at the Subiaco Oval. Last Saturday’s crowd were a bit muted to say the least and were there to be entertained rather than offer passionate support. Lining up for the Chinese national anthem posed a bit of a surreal start to a Lions tour. It will be completely different in Perth, with places still up for grabs in Robbie Deans’ Wallaby squad for some of the Force side. For others it represents a career high and the only time they will be offered an opportunity to play against the famous touring Lions. That will only serve to improve their performance even more. However utterances from their captain Matt Hodgson that they will give a brutal welcome to the Lions and that “hopefully we will hurt a few bodies” will only serve to fire up the tourists even further.
The Lions are about to find out there is little or no breathing space in a tour of this nature with everyone looking for a scalp. The side that took to the field last weekend have set the benchmark that now requires raising again today. Next Saturday against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane will be even tougher and so it goes until that key opening test.
After yet another bad weekend for the Aussies on the injury front, with Scott Higginbotham and Sitaleki Timani joining Digby Ioane and David Pocock on the sidelines, the problems are mounting for Deans. All four appeared certain starters in that first test and the loss of three key forwards will have a big impact of the Wallabies competitiveness up front.
In addition Deans’ comments when suggesting he hopes the provincial games will serve to take the Lions apart “limb by limb” smacks of a man under pressure already. The odds have swung even more in the tourists’ favour as a result but in all likelihood, they too will be hit on the injury front before the tour takes off in earnest.
