Off Topic The lions are here

TeDs just feel like that!

 

A Good morning made better

 

Great post Kiwi. I won't be going this year but will watch all matches here. Went in 2005 when we lost 3-0 and Sir Clive got it all wrong and went against the Lions traditions i.e. Players had single rooms, normally a Englishman and a Welsh player who have had a bit of a set too would be roomed together. He also had two squads one for the mid week matches and those for the Saturdays meaning that he had already had his players for the tests sorted. He also had a anthem called 'The power of five' which was played before the tests, don't think anyone knew the words. Then this happened in the first test 'Less than two minutes into this match against the All Blacks on 25 June at Jade Stadium in Christchurch, the Lions lost their captain Brian O'Driscoll, who suffered a dislocated shoulder after being lifted into the air and driven into the ground adjacent to a ruck by Tana Umaga and Keven Mealamu' how it was not at least a yellow card I don't know and word went round it was planned to hit O'Driscoll early and to take him out. It would be nice to win the first test just to set it up for the next 2. Think they might target Maro Itoje this year. Great country NZ.

 

Who said the first test would be the least interesting? I remember the Bod incident well... welcome to NZ boys....

 

British and Irish Lions 2017: Warren Gatland got his selections right and they can win

please log in to view this image

By Jeremy Guscott
Rugby union analyst, BBC Sport

please log in to view this image

The Lions beat Australia 2-1 on their last tour in 2013
Warren Gatland has got it right.
I like the look and balance of the squad. The players are good enough to win the series, the challenge will be whether they can.
New Zealand at home are pretty much unbeatable. The statistics and a great deal of logic suggests a Lions win would be unlikely, but they have the best possible chance.
This is a talented squad of players. They have an opportunity to create a serious part of history against the best team in the world.
'Two-thirds of the squad was already inked in'

please log in to view this image

England captain Dylan Hartley and Joe Launchbury were two surprise omissions from the squad
The omissions from the squad are down to the level of competition for places. I am just glad it was Warren who had to do it and not me.
England captain Dylan Hartley's absence was not a massive surprise, given the quality of what Gatland is left with at hooker in Rory Best, Ken Owens and Jamie George. Dylan said himself in the lead-up to the announcement that it would be a bonus if he was selected. I guess that was him preparing himself for the news.
Gatland will have different requirements from his hooker than Eddie Jones has with England. Personally it has to be disappointing but Hartley will be prepared for it and will be thinking 'Argentina, here we come' as England tour there this summer.
The second row must have been the most talked about selection of all. So many great players, performing at a high quality in the Six Nations and in other domestic and European competition. You could look at Scotland's Jonny Gray and ask 'how, on statistics alone, can he possibly be left out?' Look at England lock Joe Launchbury and say 'how can a player of his quality be left out?' But look at who Gatland has picked in that position - Iain Henderson, Maro Itoje, Alun Wyn Jones, George Kruis and Courtney Lawes.
There were some who Gatland could not possibly leave out: Conor Murray, Jonathan Sexton, CJ Stander, Owen Farrell, George Kruis and Stuart Hogg to name a few - and there are more. At least two-thirds of the squad was inked in before selection.
'Te'o could start the first Test'

please log in to view this image

Ben Te'o has made just one start but has scored twice in eight appearance for England. He played against New Zealand's Sonny Bill Williams in Australia's National Rugby League
There are a number of first-timers that will challenge guys that have been there before.
Jared Payne is seen as a slight surprise because he's been injured.
Kyle Sinckler is a dynamic, powerful ball carrier. You have to beat the All Blacks by being confrontational. There is nothing better than smashing through defenders, running aggressively. Sinckler has the ability to produce that kind of form.
Ben Te'o's power and the damage he does will fit Gatland's style to a tee. His Welsh team was all about thrust, power and dominance. If Sonny Bill Williams starts, who knows him better than Te'o, who has played against him more than anyone in rugby league? I can comfortably see Te'o starting.
Gatland has in mind how he believes he can beat the All Blacks with the players he has available. Now he has selected those players who best fit that style. But he does also have players like Payne, Jonathan Joseph, Jack Nowell and Liam Williams who are not all smash and grab and bulk. There is some finesse and skill in that squad.
'Warburton is tried and tested'
Sam Warburton carries some great credentials and is highly regarded and respected at international level.
His performances in this year's Six Nations just got better and better, which got rid of any doubts over his performance.
His pedigree is first class, what he has won throughout his career to date stands up against some quality competition. He is proven, tried and tested. Hopefully he can lead them playing well and stay the course.
He plays in a position where he does get battered. He is likely to be at open-side flanker because another player in CJ Stander picks himself at blind-side. The All Blacks play with a great ferocity at the breakdown, Warburton knows that and I hope he is in a great position to withstand that for the series.
'You need the right blend on tour'
England and Ireland performed well in the Six Nations and autumn internationals, they knew they had a good chance of having good representation in the squad.
When you put together a Lions squad you are not always thinking of the very best players, but also the best blend to tour for five to six weeks and who can get the best out of one another. What contribution can players make outside the game of rugby?
The form of a player goes a long way to determine if they make it. When there is a close decision to be made, the personality and character of a player can get them across the line and onto the tour.
None of these players had shocking seasons, not one does not deserve to be where they are. At one time or another they have shown world-class form.
We know some will get injured, some that are selected might not make it to the plane. I know on average six to eight replacements might make their way to New Zealand for the tour. Even those who have not made the official line-up will keep themselves ready.
'Everyone has a chance of starting the first Test'
England played with last summer in Australia, the intensity Ireland took to Chicago. The intensity Wales took to New Zealand last year for 40 to 60 minutes. You combine all of that and you have got some serious intensity.
I think they're going to be a tremendous squad. In 1993 we ran them to the last Test and then they put us away. In 2005 it was a non-contest, they were way too good. This time the balance is changing, we will see how far when they get there.
In times gone by, the New Zealand side had players that would walk into a world XV, but there aren't many players who would do that now. That for me is world rugby balancing off.
It will be hard and tough, especially if they play their best players in the provincial games. But if I was part of the Lions squad I would want to face the Test players in the warm-up matches.
Full Lions schedule
June 3 - Provincial Union Team, Whangarei
June 7 - Blues, Auckland
June 10 - Crusaders, Christchurch
June 13 - Highlanders, Dunedin
June 17 - Maori All Blacks, Rotorua
June 20 - Chiefs, Hamilton
June 24 - All Blacks, Auckland
June 27 - Hurricanes, Wellington
July 1 - All Blacks, Wellington
July 8 - All Blacks, Auckland
The challenge is there and they have to rise to it. They are more than capable of giving a good account of themselves. Lions tours are one of adversity, you are not given much chance as a squad, your job is to earn the respect of a country and the only way to do that is by performing well and winning games.
They have a big opportunity to create some brilliant history.
To win would be sensational, as sensational as any series win in New Zealand in any Lions era. This is truly the biggest challenge of any Lions tour.
If I was part of that squad I would have high hopes of being successful. The question Gatland and his coaches will ask is 'why can't you win

 

British and Irish Lions 2017: Billy Vunipola withdraws from squad with shoulder injury

please log in to view this image

Billy Vunipola played in Saracens' 18-16 Premiership semi-final defeat by Exeter on Saturday
England and Saracens number eight Billy Vunipola has withdrawn from the Lions tour to New Zealand with a shoulder injury.
The 24-year-old, who has 34 England caps, had been managing the injury but it now requires further treatment.
He has been replaced by Wasps back row James Haskell, who will join the squad after the Premiership final on 27 May.
"We really appreciate Billy's honesty in making this decision," Lions head coach Warren Gatland said.
Vunipola returned to the international setup in March for the Six Nations after a four-month lay off with a knee injury.
He played for Saracens in their Premiership semi-final defeat by Exeter on Saturday and appeared to be in pain during the match, receiving medical treatment on a couple of occasions.
"Billy has been carrying an injury and feels he wouldn't be able to contribute fully to the Tour and needs further medical treatment," Gatland added.
"We have called up James to the squad and look forward to welcoming him into camp before we depart."
The Lions play their first match of the New Zealand tour on 3 June.
Scrum-half Ben Youngs withdrew from the Lions squad at the start of May after his brother's wife learned that she is terminally ill.
Analysis
BBC rugby union reporter Chris Jones
This is potentially as serious an injury blow as the Lions could have suffered.
Man of the match in the recent Champions Cup final against Clermont, a fully fit and in-form Vunipola would have walked into the Lions Test team.
James Haskell is deserving of his call-up - while in Taulupe Faletau there is a classy operator at number eight - but for the Lions to somehow beat New Zealand, they can ill-afford injury setbacks such as this

 

*hit.

 

****ing brilliant.

 

Yes, big loss.

 

No surprise really considering the intensity of the matches our top players are competing in at home, the two Premiership semi-finals were exceptionally tough matches and there's only so much the bodies of these amazing athletes can take. I'm surprised we don't have far more injuries to top players considering some of the hits they take...

 

Lions tour: Gatland's squad 'too Welsh' to defeat All Blacks, says Eddie Jones
MARC HINTON
Last updated 10:11, May 29 2017

please log in to view this image

PAUL CHILDS/REUTERS
England coach Eddie Jones expects the All Blacks to win the upcoming series against the British and Irish Lions.
Advantage All Blacks, says England rugby coach Eddie Jones. These British and Irish Lions, just hours away from touching down in New Zealand, are simply too Welsh to defeat the best team on the planet in a series.
Jones, whose opinions are never short of a thinly buried dig at someone or something, reckons the Lions, who arrive in New Zealand on Wednesday, will "struggle" to beat the All Blacks because of the Welsh coaching influence in the touring squad.
You don't have to dig too deep into the tourists' media guide either to realise his principal target in this theory is none other than head coach, and New Zealander, Warren Gatland, who when he's not leading the Lions on safari is in charge of the Wales national team.

please log in to view this image

DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES
Warren Gatland chose 12 Welshmen in his 41-strong squad for the 10-match tour of New Zealand.
As ever, when it comes to Jones' comments on international rugby, his words have to be taken with a grain of salt.

• please log in to view this image
  
  GETTY IMAGES
  Wales captain Sam Warburton is also the captain of the Lions.
  Whilst the wildly successful England coach, who has lost just one international since taking charge after the 2015 World Cup failure, has plenty of respect for Steve Hansen's All Blacks, Home Union rivalries also come into play here.
  Gatland chose 12 Welshmen in his 41-strong squad for the 10-match tour of New Zealand. England, meanwhile, have 16 in the touring squad, Ireland 11 and Scotland just two.
  It may well be that Jones believes his dominant England squad deserved a bigger representation. Or possibly just that he doesn't like Gatland's coaching style.
  
  please log in to view this image
  
  "I think it's going to be very tough for them," Jones told former England international Brian Moore on his Full Contact podcast with The Telegraph newspaper's website.
  Ad Feedback
  "They picked their squad to play a certain style based on the influence of the Welsh coaches.
  "They are looking to attack like Wales, with big gain-line runners, with not much ball movement. You'll struggle to beat the All Blacks like that.
  "If they win the first test, they could win the series. If they don't, it might be a tough old series for them."
  Jones, who had some success against the All Blacks in his time as Australian head coach, explained what he viewed as the keys to defeating the New Zealanders.
  "The All Blacks are not only a physical contest, it's a big mental contest. You've got to be very disciplined in the way you play, you've got to chip away at them, you've got to keep pressure on them and you've got to exert pressure in areas they don't like, which is traditionally the close set-piece plays.
  "But then you have to have the ability when you create opportunities to turn them into points.
  "Ireland did it really well, [but] I think the LIons are going to struggle."
  Jones also spoke glowingly of the All Blacks when asked whether he would like to play Hansen's men more than the scheduled one time they're due to meet before the next World Cup.
  "Once a month would be good," he told Moore. "The more you play against the best team, the more you learn where you need to improve, and they are the best team in the world.
  "Until you play them you never know where the gaps are, what you need to work on and where you're better than they are. It's disappointing, but we don't control that."
  - Stuff

 

Eddie Jones, doncha just love him? As an Aussie I don't suppose he gives a toss about the Lions, but a perfect opportunity to have a dig at the Welsh.

 

Lions Tour: Spine tingling cultural exchange opens the Lions tour

please log in to view this image

KEVIN NORQUAY
Last updated 13:57, May 31 2017
The Lions respond in song to the powhiri held at Auckland Airport.
It took just a few minutes for the British and Irish Lions to send shivers up Kiwi spines, with their singing of the Welsh hymn Calon Lan a beautiful response to the Maori challenge.
Dressed in suits and ties, the Lions stood quietly as a Maori cultural group performed a powhiri, pulling their waka to shore in a metaphor of greeting, then laying down the first of many challenges the Lions will face.
The response from the touring party was just as dramatic, even if performed standing still en masse in formal clothes, in stark contrast to tattoos, feathers and traditional Maori clothing.

please log in to view this image

FIONA GOODALL/ GETTY IMAGES
Lions captain Sam Warburton receives a hongi on arrival at Auckland Airport.
Calon Lan was chosen by the Lions players for this tour, as a song to follow their New Zealand greeting. It is a Welsh hymn written in the 1890s. A hymn it has become associated with Welsh rugby, sung before almost every test match involving Wales.
READ MORE:
* All Blacks unveil their Lions tour jersey
* Tour itinerary: Game by game
* Stuff team: Meet the rugby reporters
* Tour history: Scrums, scandals and flying oysters

.lions-pointer{ background-color: #ba0001; width:100%; max-height: 40px; margin-top: 14px; margin-bottom: 14px; text-align: center; background-image:url(https://assets.stuff.co.nz/interactives/2017/05/lions-pointer/lions-bg.jpg); background-size: cover; background-position: center center; } .lions-pointer a{ width: auto; height: auto; } .lions-pointer img{ width: 98%; max-width: 450px; height:auto; max-height: 40px; margin-right: 20px; }

please log in to view this image

This Lions team has a Welsh captain in Sam Warburton, with former Wales coach Warren Gatland as coach.
Taken literally, Calon Lan means a clean heart or a pure heart.
Since its transformation from hymn to rugby anthem, the meaning has shifted and is now more about being true to yourself and to your team.

please log in to view this image

CHRIS MCKEEN/ FAIRFAX NZ
The Lions are welcomed at Auckland Airport.
After their rousing first steps on to New Zealand soil, the Lions were greeted in the public waiting area, by fans three or four rows deep.
Ad Feedback
Fans adorned in British Isles red yelled out the players' names as they arrived one-by-one, and some stopped to chat, with Jerry Martin using a wildly flapped Irish flag as a player magnet.
In one neat sidestep of the day's cultural theme, the Lions arrived not by British Airways, Air New Zealand or Aer Lingus, but on a Qantas flight, leading one wag to comment "the kangaroo, a well-known symbol of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales".
The Lions clear customs, meet fans in the Auckland Airport arrivals hall.

please log in to view this image

FIONA GOODALL/ GETTY IMAGES
Lions coach Warrren Gatland recieves a hongi on arrival at Auckland Airport.

 

How not to win a Lions series: Discord & disarray, 12 years on

please log in to view this image

By Tom Fordyce
Chief sports writer

please log in to view this image

The 3-0 series defeat by New Zealand was the first time in 22 years that the Lions lost every Test match on tour
British and Irish Lions 2017
Date: 3 June - 8 July Venue: New Zealand
Coverage: Live text commentary on every match on the BBC Sport website and mobile app.
Selection rows and tactical confusion. Discord and disarray in the ranks. Horrific injuries and endless rows about them. Strange songs, lost and lonely players, a head coach sinking under a toxic mix of expectation, miscalculation and hubris.
Twelve years on from that disastrous British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, the whole thing still has a nightmarish quality about it, leavened now by a gallows humour.
All that could go wrong did go wrong. Much that most thought could not, did too.
As the Lions return to face the All Blacks for the first time since that brutal evisceration, the major figures in the 2005 tour have been reflecting on their unhappy experiences for a BBC Radio 5 live special. This is 'how not to win a Lions series'. And it is not a pretty tale.
The selection
England had finished the 2005 Six Nations in fourth place. They had ended the 2004 campaign mid-table. So when coach Sir Clive Woodward announced that 20 of his 44-man squad were from his home country - and that three more Englishmen would join the party, once fit - the arguments began to rage.
Never before had so many players been taken. Seldom had a Grand Slam-winning team provided such a small proportion as Six Nations champions Wales did that year.
But Woodward had a plan. And even a decade on, he is unapologetic.
"We had just won a World Cup, and we've got an amazing England team," he says.

please log in to view this image

Jonny Wilkinson was a key part of the England team that won the 2003 World Cup
"I was looking at the other countries, especially at the likes of Brian O'Driscoll and Paul O'Connell [both Ireland] and thinking, if we can put a few of these guys into the England team, then we can beat New Zealand.
"It's not about numbers or being bloated. It's about getting your Test team prepared for the first Test match.
"You need your top-five superstar players on top of their game. O'Driscoll, O'Connell, Jonny Wilkinson, Richard Hill, Neil Back, Lawrence Dallaglio. And it just didn't materialise."
Injury would take care of some of those. Others never got the chance. Gavin Henson had just kicked Wales to a first Grand Slam in 27 years, but he would not be part of Woodward's first-choice XV.
"The selection was something we never got to grips with," says Eddie O'Sullivan, then-Ireland head coach, one of Woodward's assistants on the tour.
"There were a lot of people in selection meetings - all the coaches, referee's advisor. There were 11 people in the room. It was very unwieldy.
"That was one small part of it. The bigger part of it, in retrospect, was whether we should have built the Test side. We kept changing every day. Clive in his head kept moving things around, and would then throw this team at the All Blacks.
"His curve-ball, which he didn't tell us about until the last minute, was playing Wilkinson at inside-centre and Stephen Jones at 10. That was fine, but we never actually practised with that combination. We went into the Tests with a combination that wasn't really tested, and I think that was a strategic flaw."
The tactics
Woodward's England had won the World Cup in Australia two years before by controlling matches through a dominant set of forwards, kicking their penalties and then cutting loose through tired defences late on.
In New Zealand, no-one was ever quite sure of the plan. And that included the coaches.
"I always found Clive engaging, and a man who thinks outside the box," says O'Sullivan.

please log in to view this image

The team were originally captained by Ireland's Brian O'Driscoll, but he was replaced by Wales' Gareth Thomas after injury
"But it was hard to engage with Clive because we had so much going on - so many players, so many staff. I just felt from the off that we never got our arms round the thing. I think Clive was struggling with that.
"We never sat down and actually nailed down a strategy to beat the All Blacks. No-one said, 'This is what we have to do'.
"And to me that was surprising. We almost played the All Blacks without a clear strategy of what was required to defeat them. We never got to that clarity of vision, and that became evident in the Test series.
"Clive was working at Formula 1 pace around everything. Getting time to drill down on the stuff that as a coach you want to drill down on proved very difficult."
The opening Test in Christchurch was the first time that particular XV had played together. Woodward made 11 changes to his match-day squad for the second. Two of his three starters in the back row for the final three tests had not even been part of that original 44-man party.
The spin doctor
It wasn't only the playing party that was bigger than ever before. Woodward took 28 support staff with him. Among them, as head of communications, was Alastair Campbell - the controversial former press secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who resigned in 2003 during the Hutton Inquiry.
"I said to Clive, 'I think I might be too high profile for this, and the press might not let it work,' remembers Campbell. "And he said, 'I don't care'.

please log in to view this image

Alastair Campbell (right) gave an unpopular speech to the players, accusing them of not trying hard enough
"Clive became absolutely fixated. We had a meeting at a service station on the M1. A bloke working there spots us and asks if he can have a picture of the two of us. I said, 'Do you mind doing two separate photos?' So he did. And Clive said, 'That's why I need you, that's why I need you…'"
Campbell would later be described by then-All Blacks coach Graham Henry as "a person who doesn't know the game and doesn't have any passion for the game".
Campbell would also give a speech to the players on that tour accusing them of not trying hard enough - something which infuriated many, not least O'Connell, who admitted in his autobiography that he considered knocking Campbell out.
The players would have their revenge, both in newspapers afterwards and in controversial fashion on tour.
"We were coming out of a press conference," recalls Campbell, who was still helping Blair in advance of that summer's general election. "I think it was Steve Thompson and Paul O'Connell. Matt Dawson might have been involved.
"Anyway, they debagged me. It's a very juvenile thing these rugby players seem to like to do, but they pulled my trousers down. Schoolboy error, I hadn't done the laces up on my tracksuit bottoms, down they came.
"More importantly, my BlackBerry went flying out of my pocket. And it vanished. On that BlackBerry was a note, that said, 'To TB, cc GB - Transition.' Tony Blair, Gordon Brown. I was bricking it."
The split
Lions touring parties are not solely about the Test series. Matches against provincial sides both precede the Tests and come between them.
The most successful tours have seen less heralded names take the chance of impressing in the lower-profile matches to win selection for the Tests. Not in New Zealand.
"I was chairman of the midweek massive," says [ex-Wales outside centre] Tom Shanklin, about the obvious split that appeared in the squad.
"It was funny when they were reading out who was going to be on which bus. Bus one would be 'Wilkinson, O'Connell, O'Driscoll'. You're waiting for your name to be read out.
"Then bus two would be, 'Andy Titterell, Ollie Smith, Shanks…

please log in to view this image

Tom Shanklin was one of several players who felt the side was divided
"There was that divide straight away. All the big dogs on bus one. You knew that you weren't in the selectors' thoughts."
Matt Dawson was on his third Lions tour, a series winner in South Africa eight years before, when he had come from the reserves to take a starring role, one of the narrow losers in Australia in 2001.
"You were split in terms of location too," he says. "Those bus one players would do rehab in the morning, while the others would go to the park to do tackling drills.
"In the first couple of weeks that sets the tone for the tour. I knew at best I would be on the bench. In a Lions capacity that simply doesn't work.
"There were two very distinct styles of playing between midweek and weekend. Looking back, that was where the coaches needed to grasp the nettle, to say as a Lions squad we are playing this way.
"It was very difficult to move from one squad to the next. Even if I know I'm not going to be playing, the coaches have a responsibility to make me feel like I still have a chance to play."
The anthem
There is no Lions anthem. When four discrete nations come together once every four years, none is needed.
Unless you are Sir Clive. Known for his maverick thinking, the coach decided to commission a new song, only three weeks before his team left.
He had never met the composer Neil Myers, apparently selecting him because he liked the music he had done for a Sky Sports trailer of the tour. When Myers came up with The Power of Four, in under a week, Woodward then sent bracelets printed with the title to all his players.
"It didn't go according to plan," says the self-deprecating Myers.
"It was one of my first big jobs to do, and the politics wasn't really made clear. The concept is a good idea; the way it was implemented maybe wasn't.
"The first time the players and fans heard it was a week before they flew out. I felt as if I needed more time. I'm not sure I would touch it again."
When the Power of Four was played before the first Test in Christchurch, not a single Lion sang along. Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones later quipped that he would rather have sung the Power of Love.
"Your work is a personal thing, and if it doesn't go down well then you do take it to heart," says Myers.
"You can't please everybody, but in this case I couldn't please anybody."
The injuries, and their aftermath
Twenty minutes into the opening tour match against Bay of Plenty, Dallaglio broke his ankle. His tour was over. In the first Test his World Cup-winning back-row partner Hill would also suffer a tour-ending injury.
In all, seven replacements had to be called up to fill the depleted ranks. But no injury was as critical - or controversial - as the dislocated shoulder suffered by captain O'Driscoll in the opening minute of that first Test, when he was upended by All Blacks centre Tana Umaga and hooker Keven Mealamu.
The loss of the tourists' talisman was one thing. The aftermath was quite another.
"The one thing I'll take away from that tour was how vicious the media were," says O'Driscoll's friend and fellow Ireland star Shane Horgan.

please log in to view this image

Fans let their feelings be known at New Zealand training sessions
"I'd never experienced anything like it in New Zealand; maybe that's because I'm Irish, and we generally get a great welcome wherever we go. But the New Zealand media was a fifth column for them. They were part of the All Blacks organisation.
"It was just amazing to me how that incident was changed from one where Brian was the victim of a horrific tackle, extremely dangerous, at the very least extreme recklessness from the two players who inflicted it upon him, that was then turned into somehow our people were whingers for bringing it up."
O'Sullivan revealed afterwards that O'Driscoll thought he was going to die, twisting just before impact to land on his shoulder rather than head.
"The lesson for me this time is to not care about trying to win the hearts and minds of the people over there," he added.
The loneliness
Lions players had always roomed together, seldom with men of the same nationality. It was about bonding as much as budget, forming fresh relationships as much as breaking old cliques.
Woodward saw it differently. He had given his England players their own rooms, reasoning that they deserved the space and peace. His Lions would be given the same luxury.
"You do need to invest in each other, invest in relationships," says O'Connell, who would go on to captain the Lions four years later.

please log in to view this image

Woodward said his work with the Lions "was not the top" of his coaching career
"You need to spend a little time together socially, and that's one of the things we probably didn't get the chance to do.
"The best thing you can do for team morale in any team I've been involved in is win matches. When you're winning matches, team morale is great. When you're losing, it can be very tough.
"If you're in South Africa you go on safari together. You can be in Sydney playing a Lions Test, and a lot of the city and country won't be bothered about it. It's very hard to be that way in New Zealand.
"We roomed on our own, and it was a tough tour. In Wellington there was a really nice bookshop with good cakes, and I used to go there in the evenings on my own and read a book, have a cup of coffee, eat a few cakes.
"It was a very tough period in my career, and a bit of a lonely one too."
The ethos
Maybe nothing could have won that Test series for the Lions. New Zealand's Dan Carter was in his first flowering, Richie McCaw became the world's best open-side. In Umaga, Ali Williams, Conrad Smith and Jerry Collins the All Blacks had the outstanding players in their positions.
Maybe. Others would argue that the collective magic that defines the best Lions tour was absent, lost in the coach's desire to replicate what had worked so well for England, weakened by an atypical attitude to an institution that so many adore.
"The Lions, to me, was not the top of my playing career, was not the top of my coaching career," states Woodward.
"Playing for England was, coaching England to a World Cup was. That was what I was about. I liked the Lions, but I sometimes think the Celtic countries put too much emphasis on it, that it's the top of the tree, whereas I don't think it is.

please log in to view this image

The New Zealand side was full of talented players - who performed to their very best
"It's a strange thing when you look at it logically - you play away from home, you've got a scratch team, and you've got to go to New Zealand. I've always said, if you're going to coach a Lions team, do it against Australia number one, then South Africa number two. New Zealand - the history there isn't good. There were a lot of people close to me telling me not to do it.
"I was saying, I've got to be totally focused on the Test matches. We've got to get rid of all this rubbish about touring, and all getting on, and being all happy happy. We've got to win. Because that is how you are remembered.
"I was very clear. When I presented this to the Lions committee, all these guys were nodding, because they wanted me to do the job."
The job did not come off. Among the more darkly comic memories is the chorus of Flower of Scotland late in the final Test of the 3-0 whitewash when hooker Gordon Bulloch came off the replacements' bench with 10 minutes to go, the first Scottish involvement of the entire series.
"I think I'm good at building teams," says Woodward, "but the Lions isn't about building teams. It's one moment in time, and you've got to do it in a different way.
"That's what I'm most annoyed about looking back - I should have been even more pragmatic about it. You can't be prepared. You haven't got the time to be prepared.
"The hurt was huge. Any sensible person wouldn't have done it. But the template was right. You needed to take that many players. You do need two different teams. I think the template should have been copied.
"Did we lose a Test match because the players didn't room together? No. Did we lose the first Test because we picked Jonny ahead of Henson? No. I don't regret taking Alastair Campbell. He was fantastic. That was one of my better decisions.
"Four years later they changed it back to sharing rooms, and midweek team, and all this wonderful Lions thing. They still got beat."

 

'Ring-rusty' Lions making hard work of seeing off their easiest opponents of the tour, even Farrell has missed a not-to-difficult penalty...

 

The Lions have looked very, very rusty and the NZ Barbarians have 2 minutes to get a converted try to win it.

 

The lions have survived and win 7-13. Sexton, who I think is a magnificent player was awful in the first half. Farrell made a difference when he came on, but overall they were terrible against a feisty NZ Barbarians side.

Hopefully we can put it down to jet lag etc!!

 

I know they probably flew first class etc, but it's a massive trip to NZ and they only arrived 48 hours ago. I can't see what is to be gained by playing so soon after getting there. Hansen has pointed out that most of the squad could have got there at least a week earlier and that he would not have accepted the game and social/event schedule for the All Blacks.

Read an interesting article on the Lions yesterday. The concept was expected to fold after the game went professional, but is still going really strong. The speculation was that it's because the players buy into it as a unique challenge, and that the NZ, Australia and South African public love it as a chance to beat the whole of the 'old country'. Have to say that I agree with Keith Woods pre and post match criticism of Gatland's selection for the last Lions test against the Springboks, which the Lions won with nearly a full Welsh team. Wood was saying if the Lions aren't a blend of players from the British nations, what's the point? With the Ryder Cup the Lions are one of the last bastions of putting Day to Day rivalries aside to cooperate in something bigger.

I would love the Lions to do well (very slim chance) but I'd be much more excited by England beating the All Blacks in a series.

 

Nz get the tv rights and ticket sales
Made 24 million in 2005 series
Maybe ,40 million this time around
Already signed a contract for 2029