Tour brought more talk than action

Clive Woodward

On the last Friday in May, in a conference room at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Auckland, we watched the video razmatazz and heard declarations that this was the best prepared Lions side to hit New Zealand.

The Power of Four anthem boomed out. Manager Bill Beaumont and coach Sir Clive Woodward did likewise, while their huge playing and support staff all attended a media conference that could have been mistaken for a revivalist meeting.

In the same venue yesterday, assistant coaches Andy Robinson and Eddie O'Sullivan tried to convince a much smaller audience that the Lions could win a test tonight at Eden Park. Maybe they will, but the evidence has been unconvincing.

The day after the Lions arrived, the Crusaders and Waratahs played a Super 12 final with the sort of skill to unhinge the tourists.

The Lions watched the game, but may not have believed that style would hurt them.

Robinson yesterday admitted the British and Irish teams would have to look at incorporating a style where players used their skills under pressure to create a quick, wide game.

The shame of this first Lions tour to New Zealand in the professional era was that the rugby scarcely reached the atmosphere generated by the marvellous Lions fans.

Apart from a short spell of 15 minutes against Bay of Plenty, those fans should feel short-changed, while New Zealand felt underwhelmed by the Lions' impotence.

Sure, they ran into some All Black excellence, but the Lions did not deliver on the pre-tour optimism. Highlights were minimal . . . the opening burst at Rotorua, the work of Charlie Hodgson, Dwayne Peel, Matt Dawson, Gareth Thomas, Lewis Moody, Martyn Williams, Ryan Jones, Simon Easterby and Simon Shaw - with the last three not included in the original squad.

For Woodward to bang on during the visit about so many Lions players having outstanding tours was insulting, as discourteous as the carping about Tana Umaga's involvement in Brian O'Driscoll's injury.

That incident involved spin-doctor Alastair Campbell in a big way. His mere presence created a distrust, that things were not as they seemed or were portrayed, and the repeated attacks on Umaga reinforced that belief.

Players' columns gave no insight. The columns were vetted, and the players have signed gagging orders until mid-November unless they want to lose some tour payments.

However, as one radio programme told European listeners this week, only Daniel Carter inflicted more suffering on the Lions than Alastair Campbell.

There had to be some reflection that the tour and Campbell existed more for Woodward than the Lions. There was always a sense that this trip was skewed too much towards Woodward and not those who served him.

It seemed Woodward had become even more lofty, more managerial while the game had moved away from him. He chose not to give combinations more matches. His pre-determined first test selection derailed the tour, and there was no recovery.

Meanwhile, Woodward worried about removing references to the All Blacks from any discussions, entertained Prince William and got cute with the haka.

Everyone will move on. Campbell will go back to politics or the IOC, and Woodward will head off to Southampton where he will become immersed in his passion for soccer.

Woodward said after the second test that he would not change a thing.

When he writes his tour report, you would like to think, for the future of the Lions, he would admit his flawed strategies - that a reliance on a dated English side, a distended tour squad and a media manipulator were not the answers.