Murray Kinsella reports from Dunedin
THE LIONS WILL move back to the North Island of New Zealand on Wednesday, with many of Warren Gatland’s squad carrying the bruises and frustrations of defeat to the Highlanders but others feeling the excitement of the first Test being just 10 days away.
While being beaten is never welcome, particularly in the circumstances the Lions managed to achieve that on Tuesday, the result in Dunedin will have very little effect on the grand scheme of things.
Some players have ended their Test hopes, others have taken a step forward, but Gatland and his coaches will firmly believe they are going to be able to field a confident, cohesive and dangerous side against the All Blacks at Eden Park in two weekends’ time.
Rotorua is their next port of call, with the Māori All Blacks sure to provide a fierce challenge on Saturday, a week out from the first Test. With Colin Cooper having selected an especially exciting backline, the Lions will be tested defensively.
And while they will look to move on swiftly from events in Dunedin at the brilliant Forsyth Barr Stadium – Irish venues could certainly learn from studying the roof here – there are a number of valuable lessons for Gatland and his players. Chief among is not giving up a big lead.
“At any level, but certainly at this level, that’s not acceptable,” said Rory Best afterwards.
As if the Lions didn’t know already, discipline is vital in New Zealand. Having improved against the Crusaders by giving up eight penalties, the Lions took a major backwards step in Dunedin in conceding 12, many of them coming after they had built their 22-13 lead.
“There was a string of four penalties and when you’re giving away field position, 40, 50 yards every time, it hurts you,” said returning captain Sam Warburton, who grew into the game and showed that his Test prospects are not finished.
Gatland, meanwhile, joked that the Lions would prefer to have a French referee in charge all the time – Mathieu Raynal was on the whistle for the Crusaders clash – as they got on the wrong side of Australian Angus Gardner.
“We have gone single figures on Saturday, I think seven penalties against, and double figures tonight, with eight or nine penalties in that last 10 or 12 minutes.
“That really hurt us and we have to make sure we are better in those moments because that sometimes is the difference between winning and losing games.”
Two of those second-half penalties came at scrum time against replacement tighthead Dan Cole, including the one that allowed Marty Banks to kicking the winning points for the Highlanders.
The scrum had been seen as one area where the Lions could prosper in New Zealand but they have now had intense battles with the Crusaders and Highlanders, although Gatland didn’t agree with Gardner’s calls.
“I looked at the two penalties against Dan Cole and I think the first one is a penalty to us,”said Gatland. “I think their loosehead has gone down and he [Gardner] has seen a different picture.
“There’s no doubt they got some ascendancy in the second scrum penalty and I accept that, but the first one forced an error and it’s been our scrum in their 22, and I was disappointed with that call. But look we’ve just got to take those on the chin.”
A dominant scrum performance against the Māori All Blacks is now a must for the Lions.
Defensively, they had some excellent moments in Dunedin but they were stretched at times by the Highlanders’ kicking game and this will have been a key lesson before facing the All Blacks, who employ similar grubbers, kick passes and contestables.
Gatland needs his wings and fullbacks to step up and be aggressive in this department, and it will certainly be a key element of this series.
All Blacks out-half Lima Sopoaga and Highlanders inside centre Teihorangi Walden led the way with several clever grubber kicks, and the Dunedin-based side’s coach Scott MacLeod revealed afterwards the intention behind the tactics.
“There wasn’t anything we saw in the Lions specifically, I thought they covered the backfield really well,” he said.
“What we wanted to try to do was create one person with that ball, and then we’d try to outnumber that and have a crack at the ruck and the breakdown, and try to apply pressure there.
“We thought if we did that in the right parts of the field then the Lions were staunch enough to want to play out.
“They spent a lot of time just playing in their half, and that’s where we wanted to play the game, so we were happy with the outcome.”
Gatland and co. will have taken note. The Lions defence did give up two tries to Waisake Naholo and hooker Liam Coltman.
The latter score was from a close-range maul and the Lions had no complaints, but they felt aggrieved about Naholo’s try, with Alex Ainley having cleverly closed off Robbie Henshaw’s access to a possible tackle on the barnstorming wing.
“To be honest, I think I would have got a good shot on him [Naholo] if their player doesn’t change his line,” said Henshaw.
“If you look back at the footage – I asked a couple of guys – he definitely steps. He doesn’t stay in his position. He steps into me. I don’t know. It’s the TMO and the officials who deal with it. Certainly, I think if he [Ainley] hadn’t stepped I would have got to him.”
Of course, the Lions were at similar themselves so it’s difficult to have any sympathy for them, and it’s another aspect of the game to learn from.
More positively for the Lions, they scored three tries through Tommy Seymour, Jonathan Joseph and Seymour, having dotted down only twice in their opening three games and Gatland will have liked the finishing edge.
But closing out games like these is key for the Lions and, as they shift to Rotorua and move into Test mode, that will be the prime point to emerge from Dunedin.
“If we get to Saturday or the following Tuesday, or Saturday week more importantly, and we go 22-13 up and we don’t put a foot on the throat, that is what New Zealand teams are good at,” said hooker Best, who called the defeat “a bit of a hiccup.”
“When the game breaks up and you give them a chance the get back in, you give them half a sniff and they take it.
“I think if we get 22-13 up with 20 minutes left to play, that’s a point where you have got to get really strong, really exit and probably you have to be more clued in than at any other time in the game because that is when they are the most dangerous, whenever you feel you are out of sight of them.”
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