Lions Tour 2009
The Lions That Failed To Roar - Again
28/06/09 21:59 Filed in: Sport
Yesterday’s failure
by the British and Irish Lions to close out the
second test, having led for most of the match,
handed the series to South Africa. They will play
the third test next Saturday for pride alone.
Should they lose, it will be the second series
whitewash in a row for Britain and Ireland’s elite.
If this happens, then surely there will have to be
a major reassessment of how future Lions tours are
undertaken.
As it stands, the host union holds all the trump cards. They are playing at home, are an established side with players all well used to one another, and are in the middle of their season. In contrast, the Lions play every Test match away, have only six weeks or so to gel together as a team, and are at the end of their season. This is where the problems lie.
Rugby is a team game, with each player having a defined role. Successful teams are those which have an established core of players with plenty of experience playing alongside one another. Some of these players may be better players than others, but in the end the team should be more than just the sum of its parts. It takes more than just a talented squad of players and a top class coaching outfit to create a Test-standard team from scratch. And it certainly takes more than six weeks to achieve it. It’s not just the fact that they have to play one of the Tri-Nations teams each tour. You could try the same experiment with an equivalent squad from the Southern Hemisphere and they would have a hard time beating the best teams in Europe in Dublin, Paris, London or Cardiff.
When the Lions get on the plane to cross the equator every four years, they will have just finished a gruelling season. The Magners League, Guinness Premiership and the Six Nations will all have taken their toll. Chances are they have had to peak twice in the course of the season already, for club/province and country. And now, when they should be thinking about heading off on their summer holidays, they have to peak once more as they face one of the top three Test sides in the world. Let’s face it, they’re knackered! Look at how many of the squad have picked up injuries so far. There is only so much punishment the human body can take, even elite athletes such as the Lions players. Summer tours should be for development sides and emerging players, not high-octane, full-on Test matches played by top players with 35-odd matches under their belts that season.
The last Lions Tour win was in 1997 in South Africa. Professionalism was in its early days, and the game was very different to what it is now. Looking at the way things are going, that feat is highly unlikely to be repeated any time soon. As I said back in 2005, the IRFU should have a long, hard think about its participation in future tours. Our pool of world-class players is just too small to risk them being injured.
As it stands, the host union holds all the trump cards. They are playing at home, are an established side with players all well used to one another, and are in the middle of their season. In contrast, the Lions play every Test match away, have only six weeks or so to gel together as a team, and are at the end of their season. This is where the problems lie.
Rugby is a team game, with each player having a defined role. Successful teams are those which have an established core of players with plenty of experience playing alongside one another. Some of these players may be better players than others, but in the end the team should be more than just the sum of its parts. It takes more than just a talented squad of players and a top class coaching outfit to create a Test-standard team from scratch. And it certainly takes more than six weeks to achieve it. It’s not just the fact that they have to play one of the Tri-Nations teams each tour. You could try the same experiment with an equivalent squad from the Southern Hemisphere and they would have a hard time beating the best teams in Europe in Dublin, Paris, London or Cardiff.
When the Lions get on the plane to cross the equator every four years, they will have just finished a gruelling season. The Magners League, Guinness Premiership and the Six Nations will all have taken their toll. Chances are they have had to peak twice in the course of the season already, for club/province and country. And now, when they should be thinking about heading off on their summer holidays, they have to peak once more as they face one of the top three Test sides in the world. Let’s face it, they’re knackered! Look at how many of the squad have picked up injuries so far. There is only so much punishment the human body can take, even elite athletes such as the Lions players. Summer tours should be for development sides and emerging players, not high-octane, full-on Test matches played by top players with 35-odd matches under their belts that season.
The last Lions Tour win was in 1997 in South Africa. Professionalism was in its early days, and the game was very different to what it is now. Looking at the way things are going, that feat is highly unlikely to be repeated any time soon. As I said back in 2005, the IRFU should have a long, hard think about its participation in future tours. Our pool of world-class players is just too small to risk them being injured.
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Heineken Cup Draw & Other Stuff
09/06/09 20:58 Filed in: Sport
Despite the presence of an Italian team in Munster’s pool, this will once again be a tough assignment for the two-time Heineken Cup Champions and current Magners League champions. Perpignan are the current Top 14 champions, and Northampton won the Challenge Cup this season. However, in comparison to recent seasons, it is somewhat more favourable.
Meanwhile in South Africa, Ireland lost another Lion. Stephen Ferris has been ruled out of the rest of the tour after suffering a knee injury, and his place has been taken by Welsh captain Ryan Jones. Ferris joins a growing list of Irishmen who have been forced out of the tour, either through injury or suspension. So far, along with Ferris we have lost three Munstermen - Tomás O’Leary, Jerry Flannery and Alan Quinlan, and with Gordon D’Arcy joining the squad, the Irish contingent has gone down from 14 to 11.
The Lions
28/05/09 22:18 Filed in: Sport
The Lions Tour kicks
off this weekend, with the first match against the
Royal XV at Phokeng. Five more matches against
regional sides follow, and the first Test against
the Springboks takes place on 20 June.
As a rugby fan, I should be eagerly anticipating the action following all the hype in the build up to the 2009 tour. The best of Britain and Ireland taking on the World Champions - surely that gets the blood stirring? Well, no it doesn’t, really.
When my teams, Munster and Ireland, are playing, I change from the mild-mannered individual I normally am into a raving, ranting lunatic. In our house, a big Six Nations or Heineken Cup fixture just wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t get a severe talking to from my wife about my composure during the game. I kneel in front of the TV, willing the pack to force their way over the line. I waken sleeping babies in neighbouring houses when I celebrate an Irish or Munster try. The vilest of curses emanate from my mouth when opposition score. Back in March, when Stephen Jones was placing the ball to take that last penalty against Ireland that would decide whether we would win a Grand Slam or not, I couldn’t stay in the room, I was so wound up. Why? Because it is a tribal instinct, and depending on who is playing, either Munster or Ireland is my tribe.
Now, I hope that the Lions do well on this tour. There is a big Munster and Irish contingent involved, and naturally I would like to see them succeed. (Also the fact that the test series is against South Africa, a team in which I really struggle to find any redeeming features. They may well be world champions, but they won the 2007 RWC by sheer luck. They didn’t have a single tough match in the whole tournament, and managed to avoid playing New Zealand, Australia and France, all of whom would have beaten them out the gate.) I will probably watch the test matches, and maybe even one or two of the other matches as well. But I will not put in the same amount of emotional investment that I would in an Ireland or Munster match. If they win - great. If they lose - no big deal.
The Lions, in
its current format, will never be my tribe. I
simply cannot buy into it. I know that for the
players, a Lions call-up is a huge honour, a
test-match start is even bigger and the captaincy
is even greater still. Ireland is contributing more
players than any other participating union this
time around, yet the impression is that we are an
afterthought. Since the tour to Australia in 2001,
the official name of the touring party has been
known as “The British and Irish Lions”, and
informally as “The Lions” yet still we sometimes
get forgotten. Above is a screengrab
from the official Lions
site from today, where Paul
O’Connell is described as the captain of the
“British Lions”.
Rugby has changed immeasurably since the advent of professionalism following the 1995 World Cup. I don’t think the Lions concept had developed sufficiently in that time. Why does it remain just the three British unions and Ireland? Why not expand it to include all unions from the Six Nations? Why does it have to be the Lions against one Southern Hemisphere nation per tour - why not a combined Six Nations Lions versus a combined Tri Nations equivalent predatory feline? Could we get Argentina involved? Could we stage a match in Japan? Could we get the putative Tri Nations predatory feline to tour Europe every second series?
If all Six Nations were involved in the Lions, I might get excited about it. But as it stands, my inner lunatic will stay within for now.
As a rugby fan, I should be eagerly anticipating the action following all the hype in the build up to the 2009 tour. The best of Britain and Ireland taking on the World Champions - surely that gets the blood stirring? Well, no it doesn’t, really.
When my teams, Munster and Ireland, are playing, I change from the mild-mannered individual I normally am into a raving, ranting lunatic. In our house, a big Six Nations or Heineken Cup fixture just wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t get a severe talking to from my wife about my composure during the game. I kneel in front of the TV, willing the pack to force their way over the line. I waken sleeping babies in neighbouring houses when I celebrate an Irish or Munster try. The vilest of curses emanate from my mouth when opposition score. Back in March, when Stephen Jones was placing the ball to take that last penalty against Ireland that would decide whether we would win a Grand Slam or not, I couldn’t stay in the room, I was so wound up. Why? Because it is a tribal instinct, and depending on who is playing, either Munster or Ireland is my tribe.
Now, I hope that the Lions do well on this tour. There is a big Munster and Irish contingent involved, and naturally I would like to see them succeed. (Also the fact that the test series is against South Africa, a team in which I really struggle to find any redeeming features. They may well be world champions, but they won the 2007 RWC by sheer luck. They didn’t have a single tough match in the whole tournament, and managed to avoid playing New Zealand, Australia and France, all of whom would have beaten them out the gate.) I will probably watch the test matches, and maybe even one or two of the other matches as well. But I will not put in the same amount of emotional investment that I would in an Ireland or Munster match. If they win - great. If they lose - no big deal.
Rugby has changed immeasurably since the advent of professionalism following the 1995 World Cup. I don’t think the Lions concept had developed sufficiently in that time. Why does it remain just the three British unions and Ireland? Why not expand it to include all unions from the Six Nations? Why does it have to be the Lions against one Southern Hemisphere nation per tour - why not a combined Six Nations Lions versus a combined Tri Nations equivalent predatory feline? Could we get Argentina involved? Could we stage a match in Japan? Could we get the putative Tri Nations predatory feline to tour Europe every second series?
If all Six Nations were involved in the Lions, I might get excited about it. But as it stands, my inner lunatic will stay within for now.