Donal Lenihan: Warren Gatland has always been a shrewd judge of men
Conor Murray at a British & Irish Lions Tour squad training session in, Jersey. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
LIONS tours are challenging at the best of times but even before the squad assembled in Jersey for their pre tour camp a few weeks ago, the trek to South Africa was set to be the most demanding of all, mostly for a variety of non-rugby reasons.
The global pandemic and the most recent worrying surge that has plunged South Africa into a level four lockdown has cast a shadow over the validity of the tour and the prospects of it proceeding as originally scheduled.
Despite that, at the precise moment the tourists plane touched down in O.R. Tambo international airport in Johannesburg, the South African government declared that the tour would proceed even if conceding that the prospect of any fans attending the games had all but disappeared.
There is also the possibility, with the ever-increasing number of positive cases being returned in the Gauteng areas the country, that all three tests could now be played at sea level in Cape Town. This would be a real bonus for the tourists, removing the advantage the Springboks always hold over visiting teams when playing at altitude in Pretoria and Johannesburg. The hosts will delay that call for as long as possible.
While the Springboks were dealt a setback last weekend when three of their players tested positive for Covid, the Lions party suffered a catastrophic blow with the loss of outstanding captain Alun Wyn Jones to injury just seven minutes into the game against Japan last Saturday.
On his fourth Lions tour, Jones had become the modern-day equivalent of Willie John McBride to this current squad. McBride famously put it to his players when they assembled in London for a three-month, 22 game tour of South Africa in 1974, set against the background of a growing global awareness of the appalling Apartheid regime in that country, that anyone harbouring any doubts over whether or not they should travel was free to leave, there and then, without rancour or recrimination. You could hear a pin drop. Nobody left.
Back in Jersey Alun Wyn - conscious that the incredibly restrictive nature of what his players were about to face on tour and the mental strain imposed by being confined to their hotels, training ground and match venue would ask serious questions of his Lions squad - also put it to his players that they too had to face and embrace the reality of their situation.
From the first day in camp, Jones was the one the players looked up to. He was the rock that made so many of the new tourists feel good about themselves when they looked around the huddle at the end of training in the infancy of their time together in Jersey.
To lose him before the flight even departed is a blow of monumental proportions. Filling his boots will not be easy and Warren Gatland’s decision to call on one of Munster’s most famous sons in Conor Murray to fill the void caught everyone by surprise.
Given the presence of a number of seasoned international captains including Owen Farrell, Stuart Hogg and Ken Owens, along with others carrying similar leadership credentials in Maro Itoje and Iain Henderson, Gatland was not short on options.
He has always been his own man, never afraid to stray beyond the obvious candidates when appointing his captain. Back in 1999 he pitched a relative rookie in Dion O’Cuinneagain into the role with Ireland, despite the presence of more experienced candidates.
At a time when so many of the players who had come through the amateur system were struggling to grasp what being a professional athlete entailed, Gatland opted for the one player in the squad who appreciated that most and lived the standards the status demanded.
Likewise, when opting for a new voice and presence to set higher standards within his Welsh squad in the lead in to the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand, he reached for left field once again in opting for 22-year-old Sam Warburton, over the likes of Alun Wyn and Owens, to lead a new era of Welsh rugby. That proved an inspired choice. That is why I can identify with his thought process in opting for Murray to pick up the gauntlet and fill the massive hole left by Jones’s withdrawal.
DROP CAP
First and foremost, Gatland focused on who within the squad is guaranteed a starting slot in the test side. Apart from Tadhg Furlong, Robbie Henshaw and Itoje, there are precious few other players certain to start the opening test against the Springboks in Cape Town on July 24th. Whether that proves a help or a hindrance remains to be seen and is something that will become more obvious as the tour progresses.
What makes Murray’s appointment surprising is the fact that, a decade after making his international debut against France in a World Cup warm up game in Bordeaux, he has never been entrusted with the captaincy with Munster or Ireland.
In the circumstances, it’s clear Gatland identified some stand out qualities in Murray, not only in the two weeks spent in Jersey, but also on the 2013 and 2017 Lions tours. I suspect, more than anything, it was that air of calm assurance Murray so often brings to the table. At times when the pressure is at its greatest, Murray never loses the head. Given the challenges the Lions are going to face, on and off the field in South Africa, Gatland has zoned in on that.
In that one characteristic, he shares a very important trait with another great Lions leader in Martin Johnson. I can vividly recall, amid the mayhem that surrounded the explosive game against the Waratahs in Sydney a week out from the first Lions test against Australia in 2001, how Johnson dealt with the fallout.
A brutal game, forever remembered for Duncan McRae’s violent attack on Ronan O’Gara, saw us lose three key players in Lawrence Dallaglio, Will Greenwood and Neil Back to injury. While lying on the treatment table having his eye stitched in the medical room, Johnson asked me what the injury fallout was likely to be. When I told him, he just shrugged his big shoulders and placed his trust in the next players in line. That measured response offered calm and reassurance at a key moment.
Conor Murray is likely to face many such trying moments in the weeks ahead. It will ask questions and test his inner calm and resilience like nothing he has faced at any time in his career. It is vital that he remains true to himself and trusts the instincts that Gatland identified in him, not only in Jersey, but at key moments on previous Lions tours together in Australia and New Zealand.
Murray has the personality to bring people with him. He will need the wise counsel of Itoje, Owens, Farrell, Henderson, Furlong, Hogg and Dan Bigger but he must also heed the sound advice of his departing Lions captain.
Shaking his hand when the announcement was made to the squad hours after the Japanese game last Saturday, Alun Wyn said ‘congrats, and just be yourself’.
Circumstances will dictate just how straightforward that is likely to be. Gatland has always been a shrewd judge of men and in Murray he has placed his faith in a relatively quiet but strong and authoritative figure. I wish him every success.
