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SPIRO'S Lions Diary: The Welsh Lions are a big gamble, boyos

30th April, 2013
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Warren Gatland with his Lions captain Sam Warburton. (AP Photo/ David Davies, PA)
Expert
30th April, 2013
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The 2013 British and Irish squad was announced by the team’s manager, the fabulous Scots fullback Andy Irvine, in alphabetical order.

From fullback, wingers (no Chris Ashton), centres (veteran Brian O’Driscoll in), flyhalves (no Jonny Wilkinson, a mistake in my view), halves, props, hookers (no Rory Best), second-rowers and loose forwards (no Chris Robshaw).

In a triumph of media planning, the last player named was Sam Warburton. Warren Gatland then came forward to announce that Warburton was the captain of the side.

There are 15 Welsh players in the team. And three of the five members of the coaching staff – Warren Gatland, Rob Howley and Neil Jenkins – are involved with the Welsh national side.

So I am calling the side, right now, the Welsh Lions and making the fearless prediction that loading the side with Welsh players for an 11-match tour is an indulgent gamble that could backfire on the side.

To begin with, Warburton is an over-rated player and captain, in my view. He took what was described as the best side ever to leave Wales to Australia last season and came away with a 3-0 series loss.

And this series loss was against a Wallabies side that had no James Horwill and over 20 possible Wallabies out with injuries over the period.

As Wayne Smith pointed out in The Australian on Monday, Warburton was out-played by David Pocock in the 2012 Test series.

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Moreover, he has played seven Tests against Australia and has won – none of them.

There is a real question mark over the effectiveness and quality of Warburton’s play, although Gatland told the world-wide television audience watching the announcement of the team that he was one of the few players guaranteed of a place in the starting side.

This could only be the case if the Lions play two number sevens on the side, with Dan Lydiate as the other flanker or Justin Tipuric.

Lydiate and Tipuric are more impressive loosies than Warburton, in my opinion.

When Warburton was asked by the compere for his thoughts on being captain, he made what I thought was a revealing and daft comment:

“I’ve got a strong Welsh contingent of leaders I can rely on,” Warburton said.

Imagine what Brian O’Driscoll, who would have been my captain, or Paul O’Connell, another strong candidate for the captaincy, must have thought about this.

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The thing about Welsh players is that, historically, with the exception of the Lions sides in the 1970s to New Zealand and South Africa, they have been poor and unsuccessful tourists.

They are inclined to stick together and form a Welsh rump in Lions sides that invariably, anyway, face a seemingly insurmountable task of trying to mix together players from four cultures.

In fact, make that seven cultures. This Lions side has players from Wales, England, Ireland and Scotland, as well three players with an Islander background (Manusamoa Tuilagi whose name Irvine struggled to pronounce and whose first name is the name of Samoa’s national side, Mako Vunipola, Toby Faletau), two New Zealanders (Dylan Hartley, Sean Maitland) and a South African (Matt Stevens).

The success of the tour will be dependent on Gatland somehow getting the oil and water of these different cultures to somehow mix.

Graham Henry’s Lions of 2001 could not achieve this on their tour of Australia. Sir Clive Woodward failed in 2005 in New Zealand.

The 2009 Lions in South Africa with the Scots coach Sir Ian McGeechan got the players to play like Lions possessed, a team of real unity, but still lost the series.

The thing about the Lions, and history is quite clear on this, is that the sum of the parts is generally less than the sum of the individual talents in the side.

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Unless matters are handled very expertly, there could a schism of England players as there was on the 2001 tour especially if they believe (as they did in 2001) that there is something of a Welsh conspiracy against them in the selection of the Test sides.

The older players in the side are past their prime and the younger players, including the captain, are yet to hit their prime.

When one of the coaches was asked about the getting the ‘chemistry’ of the side right, he talked about ‘establishing combinations’.

Wrong answer, in my view.

There will no doubt be a huge emphasis when the squad comes together in a couple of weeks on forging a united Lions side out of the disparate parts.

This exercise has to work for the Lions to be successful against the Wallabies. But I would argue that loading the team with Welsh players and officials is not a promising start to their great journey into rugby history.

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