Lions crushed by rampant All Blacks in First Test

June 28, 2005

Sir Clive Woodward boasted his Lions were the best prepared touring team the British Isles had ever assembled, but after the Lions 21-3 thrashing at the hands of the All Blacks in Saturday’s 1st Test, Sir Clive has a lot of answering to make up and very little time to do it. The 2nd Test in Wellington is only days away, and he has a serious job ahead of him bringing his squad up to speed. Major tinkering with team selection looks mandatory.

Christchurch had been bathed in warm sunshine all week. Ominously, the first cloud the city had seen in days parked itself over Jade Stadium an hour before kickoff, and the heavens opened. Rain would lash the players for the entire all game, and by mid-way 2nd half freezing hail was pelting the players.

The conditions were perfect for the Lions, they being slower afoot than their Kiwi counterparts, and supposedly dominant in the forward pack. Perfect conditions for forward play, and lousy conditions for slick All Black backline ball-handling. Add to that a cold night game, and this was supposed to be a tight forward-oriented affair.

Or so the pundits assumed.

It didn’t work out that way. Not only did the All Black forward pack dominate their vaunted rivals, but the whole lot of them – backs and forwards – handled the slippery ball with ease. It was a rampant performance.

The post-match talking point of the demolition was the loss of Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll in the games' first minute. Caught in a ruck near the sideline, All Black hooker Keven Mealamu and AB skipper Tana Umaga cleaned out O’Driscoll in the ruck, each grabbing a leg, lifting O’Driscoll off the turf, and letting him go. It was a dangerous play, no question. But Woodward and Tony Blair’s former spin-meister Alistair Campbell sexed it up into an overblown sideshow. Both were calling multiple midnight press conferences showing repeated video replays of what Woodward labeled a "double-spear tackle" and calling the uncompromising Mealamu and Umaga’s reputations into question. Lions fans and British press have since become unhinged, labeling the pair as thugs and shaming the game.

O’Driscoll separated his shoulder, and his tour is over. Most camera angles on the play, however, were inconclusive. The South African match official overseeing the citing found no fault, and neither player was subsequently penalized with a suspension.

Truthfully, Woodward and Campbell’s ploy looked like nothing more than a classic bait & switch distraction to take media pressure off the 21-3 smackdown and place it elsewhere. Ex-Lions players are not buying it.

Worse for Woodward, his own player Danny Grewcock, who came on as a late replacement, was suspended two months and shipped home from the tour for biting Mealamu’s finger in a ruck. This is Grewcock’s third successive suspension for foul play in his third consecutive tour to New Zealand. When Woodward continues to select aging thugs like Neil Back and Danny Grewcock into his touring parties, his cries of Kiwi thuggery fall on deaf ears, it is more of the same ole pot calling the kettle black.

Besides, the track marks on Chris Jack’s back, the bite marks on Mealamu’s finger, the stiff-arms on Justin Marshall’s head – all pretty much nullify the idea that Woodward was ever fielding a team of lily white knights in shining armor.

It was always going to be a big ask for the British Lions to take a team of aging English players – dubbed "Dad's Army" by media and critics in New Zealand – and expect them to perform at the highest level without the benefit of adequate game preparation (see previous post). There was clearly no way that senior citizen flanker Neil Back was going to get the better of his opposite Richie McCaw. It appeared Woodward’s gameplan was to get crafty Back to deliberately stifle fast ball and prevent the All Blacks from going wide and fast. It didn’t work - as the Dad's Army song goes, Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Woodward? For the most part, Back was invisible.

But by far the worst aspect of Saturday’s Test for the Lions had to be their abominable lineout. Hooker Shane Byrne had a nightmare, rarely hitting his targets, losing more throws than winning them, and gifted All Black lock Ali Williams a back-breaking try with a terrible throw. Williams pinched the ball and headed low for the line, slithering under a half-dozen tackles.

The All Blacks led 11-0 at the break, but such was their absolute domination in territory and possession -- not to mention mastery of fundamental basics -- that the lead could have been much bigger. If the Lions thought the All Blacks would slow down in the 2nd half, they were again mistaken. A penalty landed by Dan Carter and an audacious try by Sitiveni Sivivatu stretched the lead to 21-0 by the 46th minute.

The Sivivatu try was the moment of the match. From a scrum, quick ball set off center Aaron Mauger, who ran straight through Lions standoff Stephen Jones before unloading a short pass to Umaga bursting on an angle into space. Umaga then floated a huge sweeping 30-yard pass to Sivivatu on his left, the Fijian speedster stepping inside Josh Lewsey and leaving Jonny Wilkinson sprawled on the ground in his wake for a highlight-reel try. On several replays it appears that Umaga’s pass floated a marginal yard-or-so forward, but thrown at pace and so massively wide – surely one of the longest passes ever seen at this level – it went undetected.

No matter, the score counted, and no-one could really complain: the 21-0 lead was full value for the money. It’s worth noting that there were a few dodgy calls by French referee Joel Jutge – he missed several knock-ons by the All Blacks and several dangerous head-high tackles by the Lions – but overall he called the game well enough that the victory and scoreline reflected the utter dominance on the field.

At the 56-minute mark, there was still another 34 minutes to play, but for all intents and purpose, it was game over. The All Blacks took their foot off the throttle and eased to the final whistle.

The only consolation for the Lions was a Wilkinson penalty at the 55 minute mark. It showed how desperate the Lions were to score points – ANY points – if only to erase that ugly goose-egg on the scoreboard. Any team with confidence at a chance of victory would surely have kicked for the line for an attacking set-piece near the goal-line. The Lions needed tries. But realistically, the Lions had not made a serious threat against the All Blacks line all game.

The Lions capitulated, and it was hard to tell if the booing that accompanied Wilkinson’s kick was coming from the Kiwis or the Brits in the crowd. The game concluded as a formality. Every time the Lions received the ball, instead of attacking, they simply kicked the ball deep to the All Blacks back three, who were rarely under pressure and simply counter-attacked or kicked to safety and let the clock wind down.

To a man, the Lions were comprehensively outgunned. The only Lion who put his hand up and played with guile and intensity was Welsh replacement Ryan Jones. He will surely start the 2nd Test.

A great win for the All Blacks and puts them in the driver’s seat for the series, and a disastrous opening for the Lions. If they are to claw back and level this series, they have a mountain to climb. And yet … it can be done. Look forward to my update tomorrow where I will lay out the variables, the options and examine the new-look 2nd Test starting lineups.