If the Tour from Hell was 2005, what do we call 2017?
It’s actually easy to have some sympathy for Lions head coach Warren Gatland. He’s been handed a brute of a schedule (whose idea was it to play ALL the Super Rugby teams?) and virtually no time to prepare.
Yet after two games, and this defeat to the Blues (by some margin the poorest of the franchises they’ll meet) there seems every possibility that the Lions will not win another game on this tour of New Zealand.
The Lions were better than at the weekend, and perhaps a little unlucky at times, although bad fortune in rugby tends to be the result of bad execution. It was for Sonny Bill Williams’ score just before half-time; the siren’s echo had long gone when the try was scored yet the Lions couldn’t find a legal way to stop the Blues, even as underpowered as the hosts looked.
There was certainly nothing unlucky about the Blues’ winning try, an example of what the Lions so lack – ambition, allied with execution.
Referee Pascal Gauzere, unlike Angus Gardner on Saturday, was perfectly prepared to let the Lions play their game in the tight, but they never properly exerted their advantage in scrum, lineout and maul. Even that failed them in the end, Rory Best (again) missing his man at the crucial last lineout.
The Lions attacks again largely died in midfield, where neither Dan Biggar nor Jonny Sexton (again) could generate any threatening attacking ball, despite Rhys Webb’s sparky service. They never looked like a scoring a try in open play, while every time Reiko Iaone – a probable All Black starter – got the ball Jack Nowell was in bother.
Nowell’s first Lions experience was not a great one, but what 160 minutes of this tour have proved so far is that the so-called “Lions pedigree” used by some to justify some selections for this tour is irrelevant; there’s virtually nothing from Australia in 2013 that applies to New Zealand in 2017.
Of the “essential” experienced men from four years ago, only Justin Tipuric last night has justified his pick. Leigh Halfpenny has kicked his goals, but the Lions are not short of goalkickers, they are desperately short of cutting edge.
Next up are the best team in Super Rugby, the Crusaders. Unless there is a massive turnaround in three days, it’s only going to get hotter on the Tour From Hell.
