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In mid-November, cricket’s Ashes series will commence in the same Optus Stadium where the British & Irish Lions will kick off their tour of Australia on Saturday. There are some keen cricket fans within the Lions squad who stayed up late to watch England’s compelling final-day win at Headingley, but out on the training pitch the collective priority is not so much Bazball as its oval-shaped cousin, Fazball.
Andy Farrell, the Lions head coach, has been at pains since his squad’s arrival here to make two things clear. The first is that preparation time is of the essence and should not be wasted by endlessly second-guessing what might lie ahead. The second is that the touring side can not afford to retreat into their tactical shells after their loss to Argentina in Dublin last Friday.
Those two themes are neatly entwined in a catchy aphorism often attributed to Mother Teresa and cheerfully recycled by the prop Pierre Schoeman after a full-bore practice session in warm sunshine at Hale School in Perth’s suburbs. “Yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow might never come, now is the time to live.” Schoeman says: “That’s what we do as Lions. It’s about the here and now. That’s what’s really matters.”
That means focusing on what the Lions can control rather than continuing to dwell on their costly errors and missed opportunities against the Pumas. “It’s definitely not about pointing the finger and tightening up,” says Andrew Goodman, the Kiwi attack coach. “We’ve just talked a bit about how you turn those offloads which went to ground into successful offloads. When we were successful it was because we won the collisions and sighted our targets.”
In other words, the Lions are still looking to be positive with ball in hand, rather than instantly reverting to the kind of restrictive gameplan favoured by Warren Gatland against the Springboks on their last tour in 2021. On that trip, the Lions managed two tries in three Tests and ended up losing the series and, to some extent, eroding the faith of even their most loyal fans.
The stats from last Friday – the Lions made 16 entries into their opponents’ 22 compared to the victorious Pumas’ five – certainly supported the theory that the squad has plenty of potential but, as ever, that needs to be paired with more consistent execution. Or, as Goodman put it: “Ultimately, when it comes to a Test match, it’s about winning, but we are going to develop our game so we can play at speed and give something to the fans who have paid a lot of money to come over here and watch us.
“We want to give them something to be proud of. But that’s also the way we want to play as a team, to excite the group. It will help grow the game if there are two teams attacking.”
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That mission statement has been further bolstered by the latest injury bulletins. Jamison Gibson-Park missed the Argentina game and the URC final with a glute muscle injury, but is running again while his Ireland teammate Hugo Keenan is recovering from a calf strain. “Jamison trained pretty much fully today, Hugo continued on with a bit of rehab and James Ryan was out there doing some bits and pieces as well,” said Goodman. “It’s all tracking well.”
Goodman, whose brother Chris is the general manager of Saturday’s opponents, Western Force, was also encouraged by the news that the Reds, the Lions’ first midweek opponents in Brisbane next Wednesday, will be bolstered by the release of two players from the Wallaby squad preparing to face Fiji on Sunday week. The centre Hunter Paisami, who has 31 caps, and prop Matt Faessler, capped 14 times, will be involved although six other Queensland-based players – Tate McDermott, Tom Lynagh, Filipo Daugunu, Harry Wilson, Zane Nonggorr and Fraser McReight – will remain with the main Wallabies squad.
This follows the polite but firm reminders this week about the terms of the tour agreement with the Lions hoping to encounter the strongest possible opposition in the buildup to the best-of-three Test series. That said, the former Crusaders’ assistant coach expects every opponent to be pawing the turf regardless of who plays.
“If you watch a Force team or a Reds team during Super Rugby it’s not an indication of what you’re going to get against a Lions team,” Goodman said. “It’s a once-in-a-life opportunity for most of those guys so the level of intensity is going to be through the roof.”
