All Blacks mop up tepid Lions - now for the Tri-Nations

July 13, 2005

The Lions were well and truly humiliated at Eden Park in Auckland, losing the Third Test to an All Black side missing stars Richie McCaw and Daniel Carter, and having Jerry Collins and captain Tana Umaga spending 10 minutes apiece in the sin-bin.

That’s a three-nothing blackwash by an aggregate score of 107-40. Oh, and if Lions coach still wants to talk of the Maori game as the proverbial “fourth test,” it doesn’t look any prettier – of course, the Lions lost that game too.

The BBC provides a good overview of the tour and performs an autopsy on Sir Clive Woodward asking the question, "Legend or loser?"

Woodward has heard the cat-calls, but remains defiant. Despite his team getting swept, he calls the Lions tour a "success" and insisting he "wouldn't change a thing." Oh, except for one thing: next time he'd bring seventy players.

It always beggared belief that Clive Woodward hired Alistair Campbell to be the team's media advisor. But now more grisly details are beginning to emerge, and it's getting uglier...

If leaks are to be believed, it now appears that Campbell and Woodward deliberately set up Lions' center Gavin Henson for a photo shoot ambush where a cameraman was told to secretly hide behind bushes with a telephoto -- unbeknownst to Henson -- in order to manipulate the player, the media and squelch rumors in the UK of internecine warfare in the Lions camp.

And worse, before the pivotal 2nd Test, Campbell -- a propagandist truth-spinner who has never played a game of rugby in his life -- was brought in to deliver a motivational speech to seasoned international Test match veterans. Apparently they were disgusted.

"The inference was players had lacked desire in the first Test. One was said to be so furious he received an apology under the door of his hotel room."

If this is how Sir Clive conducts business, Southampton football fans have every reason to be worried.

The Lions players return to Britain for the summer and rest their weary bodies for the off-season.

The All Blacks, on the other hand, need to re-focus and prepare themselves for the up-coming Tri-Nations.

Rokocoko placed third in the Hanan Displays Handicap at Flemington on Saturday (Race 3 - scroll down), before zooming back into the All Blacks squad at the expense of Doug Howlett who has been dropped.

The Tri-Nations looms as a titanic Tasman struggle.

Barely hours after the ABs were dismantling the Lions, Australia destroyed the South Africa Springboks 30-12 in the First Test of the Nelson Mandela Challenge, racking up five-tries-to-nil in front of 61,534 fans in Sydney.

Wallabies flyhalf Stephen Larkham looks like he’s at the top of his game again. The wily veterans' match-up against the All Blacks new star and player-of-the-series Daniel Carter tantalizes.

The Springboks meanwhile, have a lot of work to do if they are to rebound for the decider in Johannesburg. Coach Jake White responded to his team’s embarrassing performance by dumping prop Lawrence Sephaka, flanker Danie Rossouw and utility back Brent Russell.

Lastly, the best letter of the week, directed at The Sunday Times blithering rugby typist Stephen Jones:

The Sunday Times

July 10, 2005

Sport Letters

As a Briton living in New Zealand, I have a favour to ask. No doubt the home nations will give the All Blacks a hiding in November, but until then is there any chance that Stephen Jones could button it vis-à-vis the inferiority of Super 12 rugby and the inability of All Black forwards to tackle or compete at the set-piece? It's getting a bit embarrassing down here.

Tim Webster, Christchurch