SPIRO's Lions Diary: Foley does Australian rugby a disservice

Michael Foley has done a disservice to his star players and to Australian rugby by playing a weakened Western Force side last night against the British and Irish Lions.

If coaches aspire to greatness, and one presumes that Foley is in this category of coaches, they first look after the interests of their players.

The example of this is Wayne Bennett.

Bennett is a sort of player-whisperer. He has the gift of being able to get inside the minds of his players and get them to play better for him than they do for anyone else.

This player-whispering gift expresses itself in Bennett’s invariable attention to the important details in the private and on-field life of his players.

Bennett would never have denied Kyle Godwin in particular and several others usual Force starting players the chance of a rugby life-time of playing against the Lions, as Foley so callously did.

The South African-born Godwin will be the next long term Wallaby inside centre, probably starting on the end of the year tour to the UK. He is 21. He may just stay in Australian rugby long enough.

But who knows where anyone is going to be in 2025?

Foley has worked against the interests of the Wallabies, too, in his decision to punish some of his senior players from enjoying an experience of a life-time.

His argument that he wants to keep his stars for Sunday’s match against the Waratahs at Perth is nonsense.

I know that my colleague David Lord has defended Foley. But I believe his argument that the scheduling by the ARU of the Super Rugby match so soon after the Lions match gave Foley no alternative just does not stack up.

There is nothing on in the Force-Waratahs match. Neither side has a chance of making the Super Rugby finals. But there was a great deal riding on the Force-Lions match.

Foley should have honoured the occasion by playing his strongest side. And then, after the game, see who might be available for Sunday’s match.

The way relatively long tours like this Lions tour work is that the visitors get the benefit of forming combinations with the various games the team plays leading up to the Tests.

The advantage the home side has to counter this is that the Wallaby coaches get the chance (perhaps) to test various players and ways of playing against the Lions.

But by taking McMeniman and Godwin out of the Force side, Foley denied the Australian coaches of a chance to seeing how these two players would play against an international side.

Foley, also, has given the British rugby press another free kick to penalise Australian rugby, a chance they have picked up with relish.

Typical of the response of the British media was the accusation by Sir Clive Woodward that the under-strength Force side ‘devalued’ the tour. Australia may never host another Lions tour, Sir Clive ranted, if Australian rugby continued to treat the tourists with ‘contempt.’

A friend of mine in England sent me an email saying that he was taping the match while he watched Yorkshire playing Notts in a country cricket match.

I suggested in a return email that the Lions might be declaring by half-time. In fact, the score was a handsome 27 – 3 in favour of the Lions. But not quite a blow-out.

The scoreline was pushed out to massacre proportions, though, at the end of the match with the Lions putting in a strong second half and taking the match 69 – 17.

And what about the Lions?

Stuart Barnes in a comment before play started insisted that Jonathan Sexton was the most important player on tour for the Lions.

He is the only Test quality five-eighth in the party.

Sexton was excellent in everything he did: his running was sharp, his kicking was accurate and his passing pin-point.

If I had a criticism it is that he stands quite deep. This worked alright against the Force. But against a side with a rush defence, the deep alignment could created problems for the Lions. His tackling, too, is more Quade Cooper than Dan Carter.

Brian O’Driscoll is still a terrific player. His slashing runs have been replaced by subtle passing skills, efficient finishing and intelligent defence.

The Lions maintained their Hong Kong habit of jersey-pulling. And there was a biting allegation made against them by the feisty Brett Sheehan.

The Lions scrum, at this stage of the tour, early days admittedly, did not look to be over-powering.

There was a lack of the mercurial and the very fast about the Lions overall play.

Leigh Halfpenny, as well as being a live-wire at fullback, kicked magnificently, slotting goals from the sideline with an awesome accuracy.

The Lions would have defeated the Western Force whoever played for the locals.

But it was a pity, make that a travesty (for once I agree with the British rugby writers) of a tour match that the inevitable came against a second-rate home side that had never played together before last night.

We need to wait and see how the Reds handle the Lions to get a gauge on how good this Lions side is.