Wanted: leader of the pack

NZ Maori 19 Lions 13

His inspirational leadership from the back row helped ensure his famous side’s first victory over the tourists in 75 years and left the Lions management and players scratching their heads as to how to pick up the pieces from a morale-sapping defeat in Hamilton.

It is by no means the beginning of the end for these 2005 British & Irish Lions - as Neil Back reminded journalists yesterday, they lost a tour game to the Blue Bulls in South Africa in 1997 and won the Test series and four years ago a defeat to Australia A was followed by a Test victory over the Wallabies.

Yet nor should the problems encountered against the Maori at the weekend be overlooked and a morning spent watching a tape of Gibbes’ leading by example in word and deed could go a long way to giving these Lions some claws. That’s because a rudderless Lions pack, having finally gone a long ways to getting its scrummaging sorted, were knocked out of their stride virtually everywhere else on the field.

In fact, when putting together the Jono highlights show, the Lions video boffins might just zoom in on one, precious moment to epitomise what a difference such a contribution can make.

It came towards the end of the match, after the Lions had belatedly found some momentum following Brian O’Driscoll’s try, which reduced the Maori lead to six points with 12 minutes to go.

The tourists had for once pinned their hosts inside their own 22 and had forced a lineout in very dangerous territory. A steal there and the Lions could sneak an improbable and undeserved victory but Gibbes took control and told his hooker to throw him the ball at the back of the lineout. Ballsy stuff and it paid off as Gibbes got to the throw, slapping it right-handed out of enemy hands to his backs, and with some poise as he was already falling away from the ball.

And it wasn’t just in the lineout because Gibbes - with fellow flanker Marty Holah - was simply awesome in the tackle area too.

“Passion is what won us the game,” said former All Blacks fly-half Carlos Spencer, having made his final appearance on home soil before leaving for a three-year contract with Northampton. “Passion is huge (in rugby), especially in this side; this team thrives on passion and they showed it tonight, especially this man Jono. He’s a warrior, all over the park.”

Carl Hayman agreed. The All Black first-choice at tighthead prop was full of praise for his skipper and the Maori passion he helped to instil.

“It’s hard for me to talk about the Lions but Jono was huge was for us tonight, giving the guys direction at lineout time and around the field. All the guys really respect him. He’s not a leader that just runs around, he runs around and rolls up his sleeves as well. Jono’s got huge respect from all the team.

“The key for us was matching the physical aspects of their game and I don’t think too many of our guys took backward steps.

“The teams that have matched the Lions in previous games in the first half of matches have then fallen away. Our challenge from Jono was to take it to them for 80 minutes. I think for large portions of the game we succeeded.”

Hayman was, in fact, given a torrid time in the front row by Lions rookie Andy Sheridan, in one of the few highlights before indiscipline got the better of the Englishman just before half-time and he was sin-binned for throwing a retaliatory punch. It was a suitably apt note on which to end a frustrating half of nervous, error-strewn rugby with the scores at 6-6, two penalties each to Stephen Jones and Maori fly-half David Hill.

When Hill was replaced shortly after half-time by Spencer, Luke McAlister took over the kicking and nudged the Maori in front before full-back Leon MacDonald sealed the match with a converted try, crashing and spinning his way through three missed tackles on an otherwise sound night for the Lions defence.

McAlister added another penalty before O’Driscoll’s try, converted by Jones, gave the tourists a sniff of a comeback.

But then up stepped Jono Gibbes to take the game once more by the scruff of the neck and regain control.

Such warrior-like qualities are what Lions coach Clive Woodward thought he had at his disposal before Lawrence Dallaglio broke his ankle in the Bay Of Plenty tour opener but it was seriously lacking at the weekend.

Woodward must unearth that warrior spirit once more from somewhere in his vast playing squad if his side has any hope of winning the Test series with the All Blacks, starting a week on Saturday.

He denied that leadership was a concern in the aftermath of defeat on Saturday night, saying he thought it had been excellent. The truth was somewhat different. He named a side containing a three-time Lions tourist - Richard Hill - and six current or former captains of England, Ireland and Wales yet the manner of disarray at the lineout, in the tackle area and in terms of discipline made one wonder what had happened to all of them.

A week on from the impassioned and much-vaunted pre-match speech of Gareth Jenkins in Rotorua, both vice-captain Paul O’Connell and fellow forward Hill were forced to admit the Lions had not been aggressive or passionate enough.

That’s right, a Lions vice-captain and a three-time tourist admitting their hunger had not matched their opponents.

“Our lineout wasn’t good, our work at the breakdown was a problem and our overall aggression wasn’t good enough,” O’Connell said. “They were a bit more aggressive than us at the breakdown and generally more aggressive than us all over the field.”

“We have to look at ourselves, and maybe question our intensity and general performance,” Hill said.

With just two more games, against Wellington and Otago, before Test selection takes place, it cannot afford to happen again. Woodward needs men to stand up and be counted as the All Blacks come at them head on.

From outside centre, captain Brian O’Driscoll needs someone to share the burden of leadership up front and close to the rough stuff.

Both Gibbes and Holah, his rampaging back row colleague, were deemed surplus to requirements in the New Zealand Test squad announced by Graham Henry the morning after the game - a sobering thought as the Lions search desperately for just one leader to emerge from their ever-increasing ranks.

NZ MAORI: L MacDonald, R Gear, R Tipoki, L McAlister, C Ralph, D Hill (C Spencer, 43), P Weepu; D Manu (G Feek, 53), C Flynn, C Hayman, R Filipo (Braid, 72), S Hohneck, J Gibbes - captain, M Holah, A MacDonald.

LIONS: J Lewsey, T Shanklin, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy (S Horgan - blood sub 24-31), S Williams, S Jones (R O’Gara - blood sub 32-36), M Dawson; A Sheridan (G Jenkins, 49), S Thompson (S Byrne, 72), J White, S Shaw, P O’Connell, R Hill, M Williams, M Owen.

Referee: Steve Walsh, New Zealand.