Lions require overhaul, says Gibbs

Warren Gatland needs to rethink his entire game plan and wholesale personnel changes are required for the British and Irish Lions to have a chance of winning Saturday’s series decider, according to former Lion Scott Gibbs.

A late Adam Ashley-Cooper try denied the tourists their first series victory in 16 years as the Wallabies stole a dramatic 16-15 victory in the second Test in Melbourne.

The result sets up a mouth-watering decider at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium on Saturday night after the opening two games were decided by two points or less.

But Gibbs, a veteran of three Lions tours from 1993-2001, accused Gatland’s men of freezing on the big stage and said momentum is now firmly with the Wallabies.

“I was disappointed with the performance certainly from the Lions perspective and you could see the balance of power now has slowly shifted to the Wallabies camp,” Gibbs fumed.

“Given the enormity of the challenge yesterday – 1-0 up going into the second Test – I thought that they threw the game away because they froze in the moment.

“I truly believe that because the game for me looked as if they were trying to rely on the interpretations of the scrum and certainly get some take-aways from the turnover at the breakdown.

“It was the greatest opportunity for them and they let it slip, they just tried to do enough to win that Test match and that’s just not good enough at Test level and the challenge becomes infinitely harder now going to Sydney.

“I just ultimately was disappointed with the level of application and aggression throughout that second Test and I really thought that they got caught up in the moment.”

When asked what personnel changes he would make for the third Test, Gibbs called on Gatland to change his entire back-row and said England loosehead Alex Corbisiero (calf) must come back into the side for Mako Vunipola if fit.

“Really not a good body of work for the Lions yesterday, a lot of soul searching I would guess and I think Warren Gatland needs to look at himself,” the former inside-centre said.

“He needs to look at the raw materials he has to choose from and say ‘listen we’ve got one last gasp at this and we have to go and play’.

“And I think that’s where you’ve got to bring (Justin) Tipuric, (Sean) O’Brien and (Toby) Faletau into that back-row because we’ve got to cross gain lines before we can think of starting to play smart football.”

Gibbs also believes bullocking inside-centre Jamie Roberts should come into consideration.

The Welshman suffered a hamstring strain in the tour match against the Waratahs two weeks ago but is hopeful of making his return this weekend.

“I think in broken field situations we need to have more of a carrying presence to probe and threaten the defence,” Gibbs said.

Article source: http://www.express.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/411226/We-ll-hit-back-O-Driscoll

Lions require overhaul, says Gibbs