Donal Lenihan: A Lions tour is a complex beast at the best of times. Then, along came a global pandemic...
Wasps’ Joe Launchbury feels the pain as he receives attention to an injured left knee, which forced his replacement during the Gallagher Premiership rugby match against Bath at Ricoh Arena on Sunday. Launchbury is out of contention for the British and Irish Lions’ South Africa tour after suffering the serious knee injury.
In the knowledge that Lions tours would likely become more condensed in the years to come, a key recommendation of my 2001 tour report was that the itinerary retain a minimum of 6 six games before the opening test in order to develop a cohesive gameplan, for every player to get adequate game time to press his claims for test selection and to give a squad drawn from four different countries sufficient time to come together and gel.
Even before the pandemic, this tour was scheduled to be the shortest in Lions history with just 8 games. One of those takes place against Japan in Murrayfield before the squad even depart and, most likely, without a number of players who will be involved in the Gallagher Premiership final on the same day.
They will join up with the rest of the squad on the day prior to departure. How this madness is still going on beggars belief.
For far too long Lions squads have been sent packing with one hand tied behind their backs by their own organisation. They are set up to fail and it persists to this day. Added to this is the fact that, a week in advance of the squad announcement, we still have no clarification as to where the games against the provincial opponents will actually take place.
The suggestion is those provincial squads will be flown into a base in either Johannesburg or Cape Town to play the Lions. Therefore the tribalism of meeting these sides in their traditional home may also be missing. It’s the equivalent of Munster taking on the touring All Blacks in Dublin’s RDS or Ravenhill.
This is often a tricky one in that all the best coaches are contracted to a specific club or national set up and therefore requires the cooperation of that body. Clubs will seek financial compensation for the release of their man while some, at both levels, may not be keen on seeing their employee disappear for over two months.
Gatland has been really smart in generating continuity in his coaching set up over the past three tours with a strong cohort of experienced coaches who are not only excellent at what they do but, of crucial importance, understand the shortcuts that have to be taken on a Lions tour.
It takes time for coaches from different set ups and backgrounds to learn to work together and trust each other. Gatland had that in 2013 and 2017 and looked to continue on that road by including Andy Farrell, Graham Rowntree and Steve Borthwick for this demanding trek.
While he was aware that the odds on Farrell touring were stacked against him due to Ireland’s proposed tour of the Pacific Islands, to lose him, Rowntree and Borthwick in the same week was a massive blow. He now has to start from scratch with people like Gregor Townsend, Steve Tandy and possibly a few more yet to be announced with whom he has never worked before. Given the condensed nature of this tour, this is a major setback.
Gatland appears to have located a real gem of a location to bring the squad together for a 10-day pre tour camp with a state of the art training facility and elite performance complex in Jersey, home of English championship side Jersey Reds, in advance of the Japanese game.
The Channel Islands have largely escaped the worst impact of the pandemic and the squad should be able to come together in a more socially amenable environment. The only problem here was that all the Gallagher Premiership clubs, even those outside of the two finalists, were threatening to withhold their players from this camp, despite the fact that their season will be over, as it falls outside the recognised international window.
This was yet another unsavoury obstacle being put in Gatland’s way. He had responded by suggesting that in tight selection calls — believe me when it comes to picking the last few players in the squad it becomes a choice made purely on gut instinct — availability or otherwise for that Jersey camp could swing that selection either way.
Thankfully that barrier was removed as late as yesterday with the announcement that, finally, the Gallagher Premiership clubs had agreed to release all their players not involved in the end of season playoffs. Gatland will be hugely relieved with this overdue bit of positive news.
At least with the support staff available to him, other important elements that impact the touring party such as player contracts, covering the key responsibilities of the player for the duration of the tour, commercial commitments to sponsors and individual issues surrounding player insurance and the necessity for exclusion clauses pertaining to pre existing injuries should now be taken out of Gatland’s hands and finalised in advance of the pre tour camp.
This is the most important piece of the jigsaw and with Gatland due to announce his tour party tomorrow week, I will focus on this key aspect in next Wednesday’s column. One key thought. At this stage we have already encountered influential coaches making themselves unavailable for a variety of reasons.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that some players may yet make themselves unavailable when the final detailed itinerary and the restricted nature of the tour become more apparent. Six weeks cocooned in a hotel in Johannesburg and Cape Town isn’t exactly what Lions tours are all about.
Watch this space.
