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The greatest trick Gatland's Lions could pull on this tour

British and Irish Lions in training

A surprise player boost to the Lions’ Dublin training camp may distill a little extra team spirit – but the tourists still head south more in great hope rather than ‘massive expectation’, writes James Harrington

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The loss of Billy Vunipola for the Lions’ tour of New Zealand is a major blow. But it’s a fair bet that coach Warren Gatland’s disappointment has been mollified at least a little by something else – namely the sudden and unexpected availability of 10 extra tourists for this week’s training camp in Ireland.

Saracens and Leinster losing their respective semi-finals freed Owen Farrell, Tadhg Furlong, Jamie George, Robbie Henshaw, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Jack McGrath, Seán O’Brien, Johnny Sexton, and Mako Vunipola, for fitness, training and bonding sessions at Carton House, near Dublin.

Those surprise extra 10 take Gatland’s available player tally to 30 – nearly 75 percent of his total squad for the tour. It is more than double the number he had at the first camp in Cardiff. And, given just who is coming, that just might give the Lions a shot at creating something that may, in the right conditions, smell like team spirit. Just a little bit.

That would be the greatest trick Gatland could pull on this tour. It was one Clive Woodward conspicuously and embarrassingly failed to do in 2005. And it’s one that v2017 Lions have the smallest window of opportunity to perfect before the first match on June 3.

His Imperial Galactic Rugby Overlord Steve Hansen warned about the pressure of the ‘massive expectation’ of Lions’ supporters. What pressure is that, exactly, your galactic imperiousness? There’s no pressure on the Lions. Six wins in 38 Tests against the All Blacks does not deliver much in the way of expectation of any description. And certainly not ‘massive expectation’.

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Hope, on the other hand, there’ll be plenty of that. There won’t be enough available free space in the entire country to store all the hope that the Lions’ and their 20,000 legion of fans will bring in their hearts. But, expectation? Nope. There’s none of that.

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What the Lions do have on their side is, literally, the great unknown and – if they can generate enough of it between now and mid-tour at the latest – team spirit.

The Lions v2017, for all that 16 of them toured Australia four years ago, have never played together. There’s no video of go-to lineout moves; no footage how the scrum will work (or not); or how Sexton and Joseph may play off each other (or not); any of it. There’s just the jigsaw identification of how they could work (or not), based on internationals and club matches involving the players on opposing sides, or in different competitions.

Until the June 3 match in Whangarei, there’s little evidence of what may be in store for Hansen and his cohorts to begin to study. Whether that actually makes a difference in the Tests is a moot point. A 16 percent success rate against the All Blacks suggests pretty strongly it probably won’t.

Besides, if what the Lions do in New Zealand is set to surprise for the hosts, it’s because will be at least as much of a shock to the tourists.

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Even with his stronger-than-expected tour party get-together in Dublin, Gatland will only get all his players together in the same room less than 24 hours before they pick up their boarding passes for the flight from Heathrow.

His Wasps, Exeter, Munster and Scarlets contingent will be unavailable before then as their clubs have the small matter of finals to contest. Toulon’s Leigh Halfpenny, meanwhile, has a Friday-night Top 14 semi-final against La Rochelle to negotiate before he’s allowed out with the Lions.

That’s why having the Saracens and Leinster crowd for an extra week is such a pleasant surprise for the party. Both sets of players know all about team spirit – and both could help instill it in the Lions.

A decent slug of that could offset the tourists’ laughably inadequate preparation time ahead of the first of their demanding-as-hell warm-up matches. Add a splash of the great unknown, a dash of hope … and suddenly you’ve got the makings of a heady tour cocktail – maybe even a pan-hemispheric allblacksblaster.

Probably not, in all seriousness. But hope springs eternal. And Lions’ fans have a lot of that…

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O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 3 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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