This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with details…
So it happened. On a chilly and damp night in Christchurch on Saturday, the cream of the north took on the best non-international team in the south. They played typically mean northern rugby, stifled, kicked, chased, held their discipline… and the tour which was heading south at quite a pace suddenly changed direction.
All of which meant that the Ed. gave your correspondent special dispensation to pen this vague assortment of ramblings after the Highlanders game rather than before it, mostly to see whether Saturday’s monumental effort was sustained and/or sustainable. I still don’t know.
A couple of things are for sure: jet lag/travel fatigue is gone, and form is quickly panning gold from dirt. Jared Payne has had a tour to forget so far, while Greig Laidlaw’s perfectly decent form is being rendered insignificant by the varying talents of Conor Murray and Rhys Webb.
Liam Williams, Tommy Seymour and Jack Nowell are slipping down the pecking order too. The nugget that is Stuart Hogg will be missed dreadfully. Jonathan Joseph is great on attack, but Jonathan Davies is better defending.
Up front, there is a similar story. It’s hard to find spaces for all the form back-rows, especially considering that Sam Warburton is, as captain, virtually nailed-on to start at seven. But Taulupe Faletau and CJ Stander have excelled.
If Courtney Lawes has been properly concussed, that means there are only three form locks – Alun Wyn Jones, Iain Henderson and Maro Itoje – to fit into two Test jerseys. Picking props is harder than picking a broken nose at the moment, although you probably wouldn’t leave out Dan Cole right now. No hooker has really stood out either.
Back to the game itself: it was intriguing. In contrast to Saturday, the Lions looked to have a much more sure idea of their attacking options, which were surprisingly varied.
Wide flat kicks, the ubiquitous high balls and tight chase lines, chips into space as the Highlanders rushed up, wider balls behind decoys and flatter gain-line passes to tight forward pods were all used, all with degrees of success. So often was it varied in fact, that at times, the Lions looked to be playing a more ‘New Zealand’ kind of game. The team and its ability to make decisions is definitely evolving and the increase in try count is testament to it.
Making the right decisions is paramount in modern Test rugby. A fair bit has been talked about Rob Howley’s (and Eddie Jones’) soundbites about emerging from the rugby chaos and trying to recreate that chaos in training.
Many are the moans from the outside of it possibly being a little too unstructured. But it breeds decision-making of quality if backed up by calm and measured video analysis, which seems on the evidence to be both happening and working.
The evolution needs to be backed up now by improved basics. Warburton instantly identified the Lions’ breakdown after the game as a problem area, saying “…we gave away too much possession at the breakdown, second arrival wasn’t there quick enough in the first half…We just turned over too much ball on attack.”
It was absolutely spot on too: three first-half penalties were given away by the clean-out rucker arriving too late, and compounding the error by not getting his shoulder under the would-be pilferer to knock him off the ball.
In the second half, some mental fragility took a hold. It’s reasonably common knowledge that the average player is mentally at his least concentrated just after his team has scored.
Test coaches and elite players should be both aware and strong enough to not fall into this trap, but both second-half restarts after Lions tries were marred by schoolboy errors, one where nobody claimed the kick and one where Payne inexplicably spilled the pill, both taking his eye off the ball and displaying dreadful body position.
Small moments, but in a game that was lost by a point, small moments make a big difference and there’s nothing that douses morale like putting yourself under big pressure just after scoring.
Don’t underestimate the evolution of the Kiwi rugby examination of the Lions’ armoury too. There was no mistaking the sea change in the Highlanders’ search for chinks during the second half, which revealed further that the tourists – oddly for a team that looks to have its kicking game in fine shape – do not appear happy under high balls.
The New Zealanders are better in terms of positioning themselves aggressively (on the Lions’ side of the ball as it comes down for the catch) and timing their jumps for the contest better.
Matt Duffie milked a yellow card from Liam Williams last week by doing this right (an AFL background helps) and none of the Lions back three tonight won those contests outright. Paradoxically of course, the one time Malakai Fekitoa got this wrong, Tommy Seymour picked it off for the try. Underestimate this part of the game at your peril.
Those technicalities need working on now and obviously the All Blacks themselves will present a far stiffer trial for all of them.
One of a myriad of Whatsapp chats in the wake of the game posed the very fair question: Have we seen enough from the Lions to suggest they’re ready?
Right now I would answer: No, but we’ve seen enough to suggest they could be by the time the first Test comes around. Which is a heck of a lot more than we had seen a week ago…
Loose Pass is compiled by former Planet Rugby Editor Danny Stephens
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