A tacit admission of mistakes
The plummeting fortunes of Phil Vickery and Lee Mears are illustrated by neither’s ability to even make the bench after being deemed good enough to start last Saturday. While Adam Jones and Matthew Rees were virtual certainties to start after the positive impact they made off the bench, the promotion of Andrew Sheridan and Ross Ford is a tacit admission that in South Africa, size is everything. It also confirms what we suspected all along in: most of the early provincial games only camouflaged weaknesses in the Lions tight five.
Mears, a committed and industrious forward, earned his place in the opening test side primarily because of his accuracy come lineout time was so much better than either Rees or Ford. What are the odds now that by shoring up the problems at the scrum, the Lions lineout will suffer? Simon Shaw’s inclusion for a first test start of his career 12 years after he was seen as a shoo-in to partner Martin Johnson in 1997 is very much a case of “big man wanted”. After impressing when introduced at the ABSA stadium, Donncha O’Callaghan has a right to feel aggrieved on losing out altogether on the matchday squad.
Luke Fitzgerald has been rewarded for his patience and consistency after a series of good showings, not least his defensive solidity against the Emerging Springboks. Ugo Monye, whose defensive attributes have always been called into question, was picked initially as a finisher. Having been presented with three glorious opportunities to score in Durban and converting none, he was on borrowed time.
With seven Irishmen in the starting team, the side is representative of where the European silverware ended up this season. The implications for Declan Kidney and the Irish side two years from a World Cup are very positive as, regardless of what happens in the test series, all those players will come home better for the experience. Expect a backlash however from the English media if things don’t go to plan.
In the short term however the 2011 World Cup does not even register with the Irish contingent. Right now the challenge is survival. The Lions simply have to win to avoid a vacuum developing for the last week of the tour. By making so many changes, Ian McGeechan is making a last throw of the dice. Let’s hope his numbers come up.
