Pride of the Lions
Ian McGeechan insists he is satisfied Paul O’Connell was the right man for the Lions captaincy despite the success of Brian O’Driscoll as Irish skipper. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
It was critical for me that we were competitive in the Test series. In the end, we got so close in the first two that it would have been criminal if we hadn’t won a Test. Even with eight changes, what we did in the third Test was a really satisfying finale
IAN MCGEECHAN knew he was entering choppy waters when it came to naming his captain for the 2009 Lions tour of South Africa. The outcome of his deliberations would not be watched more carefully than in Ireland, the country with the only two credible candidates.
From an early stage, McGeechan was sure in his own mind that the man would be Paul O’Connell rather than Brian O’Driscoll. And so it came to pass. It’s history now what happened in South Africa last June, and McGeechan has had plenty of time to reflect on whether he got this issue right or otherwise. He spent a couple of days in Ireland at the weekend promoting his book Lion Man, and spoke to me at length on the captaincy issue and the many other aspects of this and other tours.
“It was particularly tough with Ireland having had a Grand Slam season under Brian,” McGeechan admitted. “But he knew my preference for a front five player, especially in South Africa. If you have what you think is a strong character in the front five, it does make a difference in South Africa. I rang Paul and told him that I wanted him to be captain about two weeks before the announcement of the team and the only other phone call was to Brian.
“I told him of my decision and why. He said he was disappointed but that he had got fantastic support from Paul in an Irish jersey and he would be doing the same for Paul in a Lions jersey. He asked me if I’d mind if he rang Paul and I said I’d be delighted.
“Also, after the 2005 tour, I was conscious that I wanted Brian to enjoy a Lions tour, for him to just go out and play his rugby. He was superb, the rugby he played and as a character, just what he gave to the whole group couldn’t have been better. I’d like to think he will look back and think, well, I enjoyed that.
“If your very experienced players are saying that, then it’s right.”
In the book itself, McGeechan writes: “In the final analysis, I was proud of my choice of Paul O’Connell as captain. He was an outstanding man and leader and had the total respect of the team. He had that special Lions aura.”
Having previously toured twice with the Lions as a player, most notably the all-conquering 1974 side led by Ulstermen Syd Millar and Willie John McBride, been head coach three times and assistant coach in 2005, McGeechan had well and truly earned the mantle Lion Man. But he was only too well aware that things had gone anything but well in New Zealand four years previously, and like many others, wondered if the Lions had passed their sell-by-date.
“There were big questions as to whether the Lions could compete in the pro era,” McGeechan acknowledges. “Not having a win or nearly a win in New Zealand in 2005 was a concern. I came back really concerned about how the Lions could go forward and I had long conversations with Bill Beaumont, the manager, after that tour because we both felt the same.
“I didn’t anticipate being head coach of this one. I said to the Lions board when I was interviewed that there were certain things that I believed a Lions tour should have and look like. If they didn’t agree, it was a case of don’t select me because I won’t compromise on those things. I was very concerned that in five weeks we could become competitive in a Test series.
“I don’t think nowadays you want to go beyond seven weeks. You’re looking at 10, 11 games but it’s those leading up to the Tests that are the key ones. And you need a little bit of a buffer before it starts at all. Surely it’s not beyond the wit of intelligent rugby people to structure the season that allows an extra seven days between the final competitive game and the Lions coming together.
“It was critical for me that we were competitive in the Test series. In the end, we got so close in the first two that it would have been criminal if we hadn’t won a Test. Even with eight changes, what we did in the third Test was a really satisfying finale.”
And yet they failed to win or even tie the series. On a personal basis, however, the failure to dethrone the world champions hurt badly.
“The night of the second Test was the lowest I’ve ever felt in anything I’d ever been involved in with rugby. I had seen us play some remarkable rugby and the players put in things you hadn’t seen before. They all came back with their Lions jerseys on their backs and some didn’t speak for 15 or 20 minutes and I just didn’t know what to say to them.”
However, that feeling of doom and gloom quickly passed. Apart from the win in the third Test, what gratified McGeechan most was the massive number of people who travelled to South Africa at a time of recession to give the lie to the notion that the rugby public was no longer interested in the Lions.
“Our supporters were absolutely magnificent,” he says proudly. “It’s so good that they were present for a Lion Test win and we’re carrying that forward in a very positive way to 2013. I spoke to a lot of supporters, particularly in the past week and they said it’s the best experience they’ve ever had. There was that common purpose. Whether you’re English, Irish, Scottish or Welsh, the Lions are different not just for the players but for the supporters as well.
“The peculiar thing from this tour is that there has been no negativity from anybody, from the press, the players, the supporters, from South Africa — and we lost the series! For whatever reason, it struck a chord with everybody. They could see what the players were putting into it. It was an amazing atmosphere. The Lions is the biggest brand in the world. There is no other team that pulls 35,000 people 6,000 miles to watch them. You looked at the stand in Pretoria and Durban and Ellis Park and one half was red.
“A Lions tour to South Africa is special. You are in Africa. A Lion in Africa — it just fits.”
Another feature of the summer tour was the manner in which the players from the four countries gelled together perfectly and while McGeechan wasn’t claiming any of the credit, a great deal must still go to himself and the Welsh manager Gerald Davies.
“The biggest lesson I have learned is that there were no cliques in the tours that have gone well,” he maintains. “The non-Test players often created the environment out of which you got the top Test performances. You go back to 2009, ‘97, ‘89, ‘74, they were all incredibly strong groups of players no matter which team was on the field. Those that weren’t as good, ‘77, ‘93, 2005, that I was involved in, there wasn’t this engagement between mid-week and Test players or the coming together that you felt you were working as one.
“It’s not easy. The crazy thing today is that the Lions tours are the shortest they’ve ever been and yet it’s the longest thing a professional player is ever involved in. He’s not asked to play mid-week games any more, he’s not asked to play two games in a week. On this tour, I told them you have to have an open mind coming to it because it will ask things of you that you are never asked in any other context. If you come to terms with that as a group of players, then the Lions become a very strong group.”
This time, it worked to perfection, just as it usually did back in the good old amateur days. As if to again demonstrate how the life of a Lion was almost created with Ian McGeechan in mind, he revealed: “I’ve always said as a player, the time I was professional was when I was a Lion. I was living, sleeping, training, playing rugby. That was it. I wasn’t doing anything. The problem was that it was 3½ months away from home, 22 games in South Africa, 26 in New Zealand. It was a major commitment.
“You went with 30 players, one manager, one coach. If you wanted physiotherapy, you queued up for the local physio in whichever town you were in and waited your turn. It meant you got very tight as a group. 1974 in South Africa was the best of the amateur tours, a fantastic, incredible experience. It was a good side. We beat the All Blacks in’71 and should have beaten them in ‘77. Syd Millar managed the tour very well. He and Willie John had been both been to South Africa and knew the pitfalls. They put the risks in front of us, what the challenges were.
“Every player felt he had the opportunity to put themselves forward for Test selection.”
How fitting it was, of course, that McGeechan should have been coach of the first professional Lions tour in South Africa in 1997, a series they won in memorable fashion and one famously recorded in a superb fly-on-the-wall documentary, Life With the Lions.
“South Africa were world champions and still had all the senior players,” he says. “In the first Test in Cape Town, we played very, very well and caught them a bit cold. The second was a real bun fight of physicality which we came out of very well before we were well beaten in the third. Keith Wood, John Bentley, Scott Gibbs, Martin Johnson and others were all great characters who worked to make a huge mark.
“They learned a lot in ‘97, fellows like Lawrence Dallaglio and others who won the World Cup for England in 2003, came through. You had Paul Wallace and Jeremy Davidson arriving from nowhere and that’s what Lions do — just like Mighty Mouse McLaughlan and Sean Lynch in ‘71. As a coach, you have to keep an open mind knowing that is going to happen.”
And finally, the last word inevitably with South Africa, 2009.
“If you’re going to have a successful Lions, the chemistry and character comes before the talent,” argues McGeechan. “If you don’t get the first two right, it doesn’t matter what talent you’ve got. Those with the talent have to put everything on the table and that’s what happened this time. Brian O’Driscoll was outstanding in what he put there, Paul O’Connell as captain, Phil Vickery and Martyn Williams, two very experienced players … they set a foundation for what playing for the Lions was all about and which the others grew into.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
