The Springboks should maul the Lions

 
Spiro Zavos Columnist

By , 23 Apr 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert

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Auckland, July 9, 2005. Lions squad during the minutes silence before the British and Irish Lions v All Blacks third test at Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand. AAP Image/Geoff Dale

Auckland, July 9, 2005. Lions squad during the minutes silence before the British and Irish Lions v All Blacks third test at Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand. AAP Image/Geoff Dale

The bookmakers, wealthy gentlemen who literally put their money where their mouth is, have given big odds against the British and Irish Lions averting a 3 – 0 Bokswash in the coming Test series.

It’s hard to go against the bookmakers and predict anything other than the Springboks giving the Lions a severe mauling.

But if there is any coach in the United Kingdom who can bust the odds against the Lions, it is Ian McGeechan.

McGeechan has a superb record for the Lions as a player and a coach.

He was a shrewd, smooth-running centre for the 1974 Lions when they won the series against a Springboks side that was inhibited, morally and intellectually, in a rugby sense, by the enormity of the apartheid system.

He was coach in 1989 when the Lions defeated the Wallabies, and in 1997 when an inept Springboks side, coached by an even more inept Carel du Plessis (one of the greatest Springboks as a player), was defeated.

The Lions’ victory in 1989 gives a strong clue as to the type of game McGeechan favours, and the players who he has selected for the 2009 trek through South Africa.

The Lions defeated the Wallabies at Sydney to keep the rubber open with dubiously thuggish tactics.

My colleague on The Sydney Morning Herald, Evan Whitton, described the nature of this victory in the memorable line that infuriated the British media contingent: “The scum also rises.”

There is more than a hint that these tactics will be revived in 2009 with the selection of the hard man Paul O’Connell as the captain of the side. O’Connell is a confrontational player who is not averse to belting the opposition or stomping them when his blood is up (which is most of the time).

It was his wild-eyed dive into a maul under the All Blacks posts that stopped the rampant Lions from gaining an unassailable lead in the opening minutes of the second Test at Wellington on the 2005 tour.

He is rather like the enforcer Martin Johnson, who McGeechan selected as captain in 1989, even though he’d never captained a side.

McGeechan said he wanted someone imposing to stand beside the Springboks captain when the coin was being tossed.

To my mind, this is McGeechan-talk (he can make tough things sound like apple pie wisdom with his lovely Scots accent) for warning the Springboks that the Test series will be attritional rugby rather than the flamboyant rugby played by the Lions up to the McGeechan era.

English critics like Stuart Barnes have bemoaned the fact that there is not a great deal of flair among the 37-strong squad. However, this misses the point.

The McGeechan way, going back to his successful stint as coach of Scotland, is a boots and all approach to winning. So this is likely to be a fiery series.

My reasons for going with the bookmakers and believing that that the Lions will struggle to win the Test series is based three factors.

First, South African rugby is at one of its high points. Most of the Rugby World Cup winning players are still around. And they have set themselves, according to Victor Matfield, for this Lions series.

Aside from a flaky coach, Peter de Villiers, and a lack of depth in the first five-eighths position, there are great players, especially in the loose forwards, that will enable a terrific side to be put on the field.

Second, the itinerary has been constructed in a way that difficult for the Lions to cope with. The Lions are shunted from altitude to sea level for first six matches of the tour, the first Test at Durban and a Wednesday match. Then the tour ends with two Tests at altitude at Pretoria and Johannesburg, just in case the Lions win at Durban.

Third, the Lions have a history of being notoriously factionalised.

It was the English players who rebelled against Graham Henry in Australia in 2001. Some of the Welsh players sulked under Sir Clive Woodward in 2005, something that has happened on most Lions tours.

McGeechan has tried to rein in the Welsh factionalism by having Warren Gatland as an assistant coach. But the non-selection of Ryan Jones, the captain of Wales, will not be taken well by the Welsh contingent.

One of the reasons why no fewer than ten Irish players, including O’Connell, have captained the Lions is that the Irish are generally regarded as being able to get on with the Welsh and the English, who generally can’t get on with each other, even when they are playing for the Lions.

But all this theorising.

There is history to be made one way or another by McGeechan and his squad. The first game starts at Rustenburg, in the heart of Afrikaner country, against a Royal XV on May 30.

Let the Lions roar!

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