In his opening column for Talking Rugby Union, former British and Irish Lion Lee Mears discusses the Covid disruption, why both teams might be ‘underdone’ ahead of the first Test and the key selection takeaways so far.
I think squad unity is always massive with the Lions, but now it needs to be stronger than ever because of the Covid-19 situation. You are on tour as a squad and training to build a team, but you are fighting external factors. In a way, if you look at pro athletes, we love a battle when our backs are against the wall and I guess you are always looking to try and find something that can really leverage that emotional element.
We know sport is so emotional so battling Covid-19 as well as taking on the world champions in their own backyard and not being allowed to do the normal things you can do on tour, it can galvanise them.
I know that can go one of two ways, but I think Gats [Warren Gatland] is a master tactician around how he has picked the right people who tour well as well as picking people who offer something to the group socially and on the field. I think he has been very wise with his selections and when I got to speak to him during the build-up to the series, he talked about it been more important than ever to get that blend right and I think this situation has highlighted that.
I was massively against moving the tour to the UK to begin with. I fully admit I said ‘you have got to tour’ and ‘it should be in South Africa because that is what it is all about!’ I suppose I was humbled when I spoke to someone when they said they couldn’t afford to go to South Africa, New Zealand or Australia so the chance of seeing the Lions in the UK would be a one off.
That rattled my cage a little bit and made me realise the bigger picture, but at the same time, nobody knew what the situation was like in South Africa. It changes on a sixpence. Unfortunately, we haven’t got that crystal ball and we didn’t know that the Euros would be allowed 60,000 fans at Wembley and there would be people at Wimbledon.
??"We’re doing everything we possibly can to make sure this Tour will go ahead and we are determined to make sure it goes ahead."
— British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 8, 2021
- Ben Calveley, #LionsRugby Managing Director #CastleLionsSeries #LionsSA2021 https://t.co/6x9XzHqH5f
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I think my preferred option before the tour was to push it back a year to let spectators be there, but obviously sponsorship, TV rights and all those reasons probably meant that couldn’t happen.
It is just a shame because you want crowds as a player but also, I think South Africa will be gutted they can’t have crowds. Saying this, I always look on the bright side and sport is an amazing thing. I think for the country, this series is something to look forward to when you are in a pandemic. Rugby galvanised the country in the World Cup for different reasons and it might galvanise not only the players, but the nation once again.
Before doing my first column I was thinking because of steak and South African meat, whether this will be the tour of being underdone?! Both teams will be slightly underdone because of everything out of their control which isn’t their fault.
Playing the Sharks for me in 2009 was so special and one of my best memories because of the amazing stadium in Durban and scoring a try in that warm-up game. Playing the franchises is an important part of the tour, but I think what you have seen so far is that there are not many players of Test quality in the provincial sides.
The Lions are playing the best of the best, full internationals and they are coming up against the South African teams, but it is not like New Zealand. They are not troubling you and they aren’t throwing up too many tests for you physically, but then all of a sudden it hits you when you play South Africa as it did with us in ‘09.
That first game shows the step up and it is a whole different world in that Test arena. It was a big shock and I guess that is the only negative at the moment with the scorelines so high in the first two games.
Let’s go back to being positive!
It is really interesting in terms of selection at the moment because you do so much training and I think that is a huge focus for Gats. I think you do get to see who is bringing up the levels and the standards and he will have an insight into every player, but as I know him, if you are performing well, he will pick you. I think he has learnt that you don’t need to go on reputation.
I think there are boys who have put their hands up and are showing the coaches that they are ready. Of course, Josh Adams has been amazing on the wing. When I spoke to Gats beforehand, he said this boy knows where that tryline is! I think he just sniffs it out!
???? up and running! pic.twitter.com/rp5zafItop
— Ali Price (@AlistairPrice) July 4, 2021
Ali Price I thought played really well on Wednesday night and that is a really interesting selection. Conor Murray is now your tour captain and has huge amounts of experience, but I wouldn’t have said early on that that starting berth was nailed down so I am watching it with real intent.
I think it was also brilliant to see Louis Rees-Zammit, Duhan Van der Merwe and Josh all in the same backline. All three of those boys are playing outstanding rugby, but I am really pleased to see Anthony Watson starting on Saturday too.
I suppose the good thing about building up to playing South Africa is I am not sure they are going to massively change their gameplan so I think Gats will be looking at those combinations in training. I think if we were playing New Zealand or Australia, we know they can change things up but I think South Africa are going to bring the sort of usual gameplan.
They haven’t changed much over the years, but this is what I love about this three Test series because whoever wins the first one, someone has got to change something. You can’t just keep doing what you are doing the next week. It is very unusual to have three Tests back-to-back which is what makes it so special.
On to Saturday and for the Lions, if you want to watch two areas that they need to work on in the next couple of weeks, I’d say the scrum. It is a key area and we know that because it happened to England in the World Cup final. Also the fact is that we haven’t scored from a driving maul or dominated a lineout drive yet so that is something that needs to be improved.
Those are two of the hardest areas when you are bringing groups together from different nations to get right because each player will be used to different styles and coached different ways. I guess the good thing about playing the Sharks twice, you can see which areas the Lions will have improved and where the Sharks have spotted any weaknesses so Gats will hopefully learn something this weekend.
Lee Mears was speaking to TRU's Chris Heal
