AUSTRALIA’S WORLD CUP winning coach of 1991, Bob Dwyer, believes one word can sum up the Warren Gatland coached British and Irish Lions.
Cheats.
“You don’t have to be smart to cheat, you just have to be a cheat,” he says after detailing a long list of areas where he believes the tourists “systematically” set out to break the laws of the game.
The ex-Leicester coach made the shot across the bows in an interview with The Weekend Australian in which he attempted to rally his countrymen against a familiar foe, bloody New Zealand.
“After having seen the Lions in action on tour is that it doesn’t come as any surprise they’re coached by a New Zealander because they play outside the laws of the game as every New Zealand side does.”
Dwyer omitted the minor detail that the Wallabies too will have a Kiwi coach at the helm for this series. And the absence of Dylan Hartley through suspension wasn’t enough to save the squad from being tarred with the same brush as the Northampton hooker who, Dwyer suggests, made an art-form of popping up in the scrum.
And he doesn’t stop there: Dwyer’s rant covers everything from Richie Gray sealing off at the breakdown to Mako Vunipola’s scrummaging and the use of blockers both in attack and when receiving kick-offs.
It’s a good tirade – you can read the full account of it here – but all we want is for Jim Telfer to come out and throw the grenade right back at him. That way, we can enjoy a good old-fashioned over 70s slagging match.
And, in the end, isn’t that what rugby is all about?
