Lions warned against taking law into own hands
Head coach Gatland, who spoke of the need for players to “take one for the team” in response to the way fly-half Owen Farrell was drawn into a dust-up with Schalk Brits during Saturday’s tour opener against the Barbarians in Hong Kong, yesterday repeated his caution as quotes emerged from the Western Force camp that the Perth-based side were ready to give the tourists a feisty welcome to Australia today (11am Irish time).
“We want to go at them and let them know what it’s going to be like,” Force scrum-half Brett Sheehan said. “We don’t want to hold anything back.
“There were a few things that got under their skins [in Hong Kong]. Maybe we can do a bit of the same. We want it to be extremely physical and for them to know they’ve been in a battle.
“If it gets fiery, that’s good — that’s good for us.”
Lions forwards coach Graham Rowntree reiterated Gatland’s message and said payback to any provocation could be dished out in a different way than the infamous “99” call to arms deployed by Willie-John McBride when he captained the 1974 Lions on a brutal tour of South Africa.
“It’s a different era, what we have spoken about is doing your job well not getting drawn into things,” Rowntree said.
“There are enough opportunities in the game to be physical and put your mark on the game, the scrum, breakdown, tackles are all physical moments.
“What we can’t be doing is getting drawn into anything. We had a few issues around that on Saturday night and we can’t be drawn into anything here.
“I’ve said to them, ‘You all know your roles and you know you have to be in one place or another, not stood messing around, getting drawn into fights or intimidation’. We have to just get on with our game — we’re being very strict on that. The best players, the best forwards in recent years, they’ve been able to do that — be physical but just get on with their jobs. That’s what a hard man does; gets on with his job and is very physical, without being drawn into anything.”
Former England front rower Rowntree, a Lion in 1997 and 2005 and set-piece coach in 2009 said any player retaliating would be “very strongly” disciplined in-house.
“[Players] know the sanctions in place if they overstep the mark,” he said. “You are going to get banned, you could miss a tour if you are not switched on.”
Ireland hooker Rory Best, who will make his Lions debut today at Patersons Stadium in a front row featuring props Cian Healy at loosehead and Dan Cole at tighthead, also highlighted the wider consequences for the team.
“Discipline is key when you get to big games and you’re playing at the top level, which playing for the Lions is,” Best said.
“Three points and penalties are massive and if you concede them you’re going to be in trouble. If we have a penalty and somebody retaliates and it’s reversed, things like that can change games, can change momentum of tours even, so that’s where we need to be. We don’t intend to take a backward step but we need to be disciplined in our approach to that. Everyone knows you can be physical without going over the top.
“There’s been a lot said about people trying to make a name for themselves but we have to concentrate on ourselves just to make sure that physically we’re there and certainly as a pack of forwards that if we’re on the money we have a very good chance of winning.”
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