League: Bluey's plan will make difference in tight one

Brian McClennan

Game four of the Tri-Nations and we wait with bated breath to see what Brian "Bluey" McClennan will wheel out as his fourth game plan, the Kiwis' structure in attack and defence changing markedly with each encounter.

Game one: Attack Darren Lockyer, take advantage of the rust from injury that kept him out of the latter games for Brisbane and rob him of confidence, keep him out of the play.

Game two: "Welcome to the Jungle," the Black Wall Call, Australians lifted bodily and carried and thrown back into their own in-goal.

Game three: Attack Great Britain vice-captain Brian Carney with the high ball. Use the shortened field at Loftus Rd to kick deep, even if the ball goes dead, because the Lions then start well within their own territory.

Game four: We find out on Sunday morning.

The Lions are in something of a panic, needing desperately to win. They refuse to name their team, there is talk of a third different halves combination after they failed to get any territorial gain from field kicking and the backline sparked only in fits and starts.

It's the sort of pressure the Kiwis are usually under.

But McClennan will not be picking his plan late. He may have done it months ago.

While much has been made of the passion that McClennan brings to the job and how he has enthused the Kiwis, there is way more to the 43-year-old. He has demonstrated in the past few weeks that he's been thinking about this series since, if not before, he took over from Daniel Anderson in May.

He's analysed video and digested the strengths and weaknesses of individuals in the Kiwis, the Kangaroos and Lions. He's identified the pressure points he wants to attack. He's formulated defensive scripts.

Best of all he has managed to convey the game plan to his troops, he's instilled it and he's kept them to it when times have been tough. As Stacey Jones said after they lost narrowly to Australia in game two following a run of tries, the players couldn't wait for the break so they could listen to Bluey's plan to turn things back their way.

He's made clever replacements at the right time during games and between games, resting the fatigued, injecting new enthusiasm and taking away from opposition coaches any plan they might have been devising to press the weak spots.

It's nothing new to the Mt Albert club chairman Tony Sadgrove who has watched McClennan lead those Lions to two Bartercard Cup titles.

"He's been thinking about this ever since he was appointed, asking people what they think about this or that and taking it all in. Everyone thinks his success is all about passion. But it's got more to do with the research he does, his preparation. He's much more intense than people think - he believes the old saying that if you fail to plan you plan to fail," Sadgrove said.

There are no whimsical or last-minute decisions, Sadgrove said. "He would have been planning for games without Stacey Jones, without Lance Hohaia. He will have worked out all the 'what ifs'. He will have done more research than anyone."

Among that, he asked the New Zealand referees boss Ian Macintosh to scout the English referees, so he knows where they are pedantic and where they are lax, how big a 10 metres they keep, what they penalise and what they let go.

He has maintained a comfortable calm in the Kiwis camp. Not complacent, but not easily disturbed by events such as the withdrawal of Lesley Vainikolo or Hohaia's injury.

"He keeps things very simple," Sadgrove said. "And he just won't talk about the negatives. It's typical of the New Zealand psyche to look at the dark side of things but he just won't have it, Bluey's the one always looking at the light. Players being unavailable won't have fazed him."

The passion is there though too, Sadgrove agrees. "He's personally felt the pain that every league fan has over the last 10 years as the Kiwis have struggled. He feels it deeply. He wanted to do something about it."

McClennan's father Mike is in England following the team. There's no doubt Mike will be having his two cents worth on the attack and defence and, as with everyone else's advice, Bluey will take it in, chew it over and extract the valuable bits. As McClennan himself says, it doesn't matter how good your game plan is if you can't get it across to the players - it's not what you say, it's what they hear.

Clearly he gets it across and clearly the players now have faith in executing his plan, which all adds that valuable ingredient of confidence as they go in to a game they can afford to lose by 17 points and still make the final of the series.

Mental laxness would appear to be the only way they can lose on Sunday - Great Britain aren't good enough to beat them unless New Zealand let them.

The uncertainty in their camp is evident in the failure to name a team on Tuesday, as is standard practice. Suggestion is that there will be a third halves combination after Paul Deacon and Kevin Sinfield in game one, Deacon and Iestyn Harris in game two, neither pairing able to get kicks away and Richard Horne favoured to come into the side.

Carney won't drop bombs like he did in game one. Great Britain will be better across the park regardless of who plays. It will come down to who wants it most. There won't be many points in it at the end.

Bluey's planning should be the difference in a tight one. Can't wait to see what plan it is.