AT one point last week, a casual observer of events on the other side of the world could have been forgiven for believing Charlie Chaplin was coaching the Lions instead of Warren Gatland.
Sir Clive Woodward had classed the tourists beach recovery day in Noosa as a big mistake, while Keith Wood went further, calling the omission of Brian O’Driscoll a terrible mistake. Willie John McBride suggested the Australian media had convinced the Lions to drop O’Driscoll.
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Right on cue, the general secretary of the Parochial Tendency, Austin Healey, waded in, describing O’Driscoll’s omission as “madness” and going on to lambast the make-up of Gatland’s side for the third Test, which included ten Welshmen.
“There will be animosity but it won’t be overt,” he told the world on the eve of the series decider. “There will be a lot of players like Ben Youngs and Tom Croft who are unlucky not to be playing. I know I’m only mentioning English guys here but you have to because they are the ones that are not in the team.
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“There are few Irish guys as well, like O’Driscoll, who will be devastated. This is the end of someone who is possibly one of the greatest ever to play the game. He would have been thinking about this day for the last ten years, but it’s been taken away from him.”
Warming to his theme, he summed up: “For the past few tours the Lions has lost its way. I don’t know what they’re going on tour for now.”
The performance in the final Test answered that question emphatically, in the process providing a devastating riposte to critics who see the Lions as an anachronism in the professional era.
After the 41-16 rout of the Wallabies at the ANZ Stadium, there is even a case for suggesting an apology to Gatland from the three Ws, Woodward, Wood and Willie John — www.talkingnonsense.com — wouldn’t go amiss.
Healey can just climb back into his box.
The win in Sydney didn’t just clinch a series. It refreshed an entire concept. It was the rugby equivalent of pressing the F5 button on a computer, bringing everything up to date and providing material for a new home page featuring images of modern-day icons such as Leigh Halfpenny, Adam Jones, Alun Wyn Jones, Alex Corbisiero and Jonathan Davies.
Had the Lions lost last weekend, they would have once again been on the defensive, trying to justify themselves. A trip to New Zealand in 2017 would have appeared daunting in the extreme. Conceivably, they could have gone 24 years without a Test series triumph. Healey and his ilk would have been impossible to silence.
But a lot of those clouds were chased away with that four-try triumph.
Northern hemisphere rugby certainly needed a series win.
Derided by many in the south as being stodgy, predictable and second rate, it had required something special to regain respect and credibility.
The travelling hordes never lost the faith.
But after defeats for the tourists in Australia in 2001, New Zealand in 2005 and South Africa in 2009, there were some who might just have wondered if the Lions could ever win again in the professional age, that their future was to remain a triumph of hope over experience.
It had reached the point where the comedian John Bishop’s remark about the lot of an England football fan was starting to come to mind.
“Being an England football supporter is like being the over-optimistic parents of the fat kid on sports day,” Bishop memorably said.
More than a few Lions fans might have to started to empathise with that view before they headed Down Under six weeks or so ago.
Not any more.
Now there will be optimism aplenty.
There is a World Cup in England in 2015 and the home nations will approach it with revitalised belief in their ability to compete with the best the south can offer.
Wales should have particular grounds for hope.
Indeed, it isn’t moving from optimism to fantasy to advance the view that Gatland’s side have a fair chance of lifting the Webb Ellis Trophy.
They are in a tough group that contains England and Australia, but having just supplied ten players to the starting line-up of a team that put 41 points on the Wallabies in their own backyard, Wales need to believe they have as good a chance as anyone.
Back to the Lions. The trip that has just finished wasn’t all wine and roses. Many of the provincial games were devalued by the hosts fielding understrength teams, while the decision not to nail Australia’s captain James Horwill with a ban, after he trampled over Alun Wyn Jones, left a sour taste.
The Turkish-bath game against the Barbarians in Hong Kong, pleasing for sponsors but ridiculous for players, was another absurdity that should never be repeated.
And if they are serious about competing against New Zealand, the Lions hierarchy would do well to appeal to clubs, provinces and regions to customise the 2016-17 season to allow the tour squad enough time to prepare properly for the challenge of a lifetime.
But all that is for the future.
This week is the time to bask in the warm afterglow of victory.
From Gatland and the dignified Sam Warburton down, all involved deserve huge credit for restating the value of one of British sport’s most important institutions.
Article source: http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1627904/ballarat-loses-to-melton-in-victorian-rugby-union-second-division-b-grade-clash/?cs=12
Lions" silence doubters and boost northern hemisphere rugby
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