posted May 6, 2008

Henson did not play well on the Lions tour - partly because he was injured and partly because he did not get on well with anyone !

As regards the selection of players in certain positions, I could not agree more.

There were not enough games to discover who was the best performing players in any position !!!

And that is my point !!!

You can't gel a team from four different nations in four weeks without causing disharmony.

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posted May 6, 2008

There were enough games - Woodward simply misused them horribly. I'm not so much worried about disharmony - more plain awful selection. If the Lions coach cracks some egos in order to select the best side then all the better. On the last tour the words, 'Jonny, you are just not playing well enough at the moment' would have been a good place to start.

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posted May 7, 2008

I don't think the players felt that and it is difficult to believe otherwise because the teams generally did not play well.

The reserve team played better but possibly because the opposition was not so good and also because certain players were playing better than the equivalent in the first team - Hodgson, Shaw, for example.

Overall the first team did not play well because there was not enough playing time and training time.

Leadership and esprit de corps were also missing which is due to the disjointed nature of a Lions team unless there is an obvious clear leader.

Witness how many Lions players ignored what was happening to BOD in the first minute of the first test including Alfie. That certainly would not have happened if there had been a true esprit de corps which is never easy with such a short timeframe and the number of nations the Lions represent in this day and age. Just watch the tape.

Wilko was not playing well - but who was the alternative for goal kicking? And I still remember that tackle on Howlett !!!

On another point - How important is the Celtic league if players are pulled out to go on a Wales training trip?

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posted May 9, 2008

Nig - "The reserve team played better but possibly because the opposition was not so good and also because certain players were playing better than the equivalent in the first team - Hodgson, Shaw, for example"

In that statement you have said everything that needs to be said. McGeechan managed to unearth some players on great form during the tour and went unbeaten. It wasn't all about the quality of opposition either. Both Jones and Hodgson are capable kickers and both were playing better than Wilkinson. There was just no need for him to be involved in the Lions team. It was pure familiarity and favouritism that led to his selection.

You say "I don't think the players felt that" but BOD has just gone on record making exactly the same point as I'm making - selection was the problem, not the length of the tour. Yes, it's difficult to gel a team in a few weeks but not impossible. The right coach is needed and simply put, Woodward was not the right coach.

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posted May 12, 2008

I would never rely on Hodgson as a kicker and I don't believe Jones was in great from on that tour.

Hodgson was the best performing fly-half. I would have picked him and gone for Wilko as i-c - who else was there?

No one put their hand up owing to the shortage of time.

It is very easy for BOD to say selection was the issue and not other factors - i.e. blaming someone else but not focussing on the real issue of playing time because all the professional players know that they can't really make a plug for more games as it is not practical in this day and age.

However, if selection was an issue why did not BOD say something !!!!

He was the captain after all ! And clearly selection of fly-half and centre positions was going to be critical for him.

So I am not convinced by that one jot. How could the captain of the Lions team who plays in midfield not have a key voice in selection of the midfield !!!

I notice that there was no comeback on the issue of a lack of team spirit !!!

Just watch the tape and see the number of players running by - including Alfie - as BOD is being raised up. International sportsmen have very good peripheral vision and good hearing, and it beggars belief that no one on the Lions side stepped in to stop it.

After all, that stupid line-judge was shouting loudly enough!!!

Another manifestation of poor team spirit is that no one in the first test highlighted to the referee the cheating by the All Blacks at the line-out.

They must have noticed the extra man at each line-out bar one !!! So why did they not club together and speak to the referee ?

The cheating was so blatant. Imagine yourself playing a game of rugby and the oppo use the hooker as an extra lifter beyond the line - what would you and your mates normally do?

I am sorry but I do not buy this nonsense about the Lions. Too few games, not enough time to mould a team, too much petty jingoism especially from the Welsh - the Lions will never be the same again and to try and pretend otherwise is a nonsense.

Have you noticed what is going to happen next year?

The premiership play-offs clash with the start of the tour !!!

How are you going to fix that !!! So much for the tradition of the Lions !!!

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posted May 12, 2008

Come back on team spirit is easy - there was none. Woodward ensured that by taking 50 odd players on the tour and pretty much telling 25 of them that they would not feature in the test matches regardless of how well they played. Jerry Guscott wrote a good article on the Sunday Times setting out exactly my points - so that's BOD and Jerry Guscott disagreeing with you as well!!. The fact is that Woodward was frankly an inept people manager on the tour and misunderstood how a Lions tour differs from a England tour.

The clash with the Premiership play-off is obviously regrettable but what has that got to do with the future of the Lions exactly?? It is an administrative mistake that can be easily cured in future - saying that it's the death knoll for Lions rugby is ridiculous. It will be perfectly possible for the English players involved to meet up with the squad afterwards and I'm sure the Celtic players can cope without them for the first week or so of preparations. Not ideal but also not the end of the world.

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posted May 12, 2008

As a practical suggestion to the admin issues with the Premiership clash, how does this grab you:

1. Jenkins
2. Ford
3. Horsman
4. Hines
5. O'Connell
6. Leamy
7. M Williams
8. Jones (Capt)
9. Blair
10.Hook
11.S Williams
12.Henson
13.Shanklin
14.S Lamont
15.L Byrne

16.Jacobsen 17.Flannery 18.O'Callaghan 19.Hogg 20.Phillips 21.BOD 22.Kearney

Doesn't look like a bad starting point. Also remember that if it were this season the likes of Sheridan, Easter, Strettle, Tait, Kennedy and Geraghty would have been available from the start were they deemed good enough.

If you think that spells the end of the lions then by all means, bury your head further in the sand next summer and ignore it.

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posted May 13, 2008

Woodward could be inept at people management but a strong leader could keep him under control such as Dayglo or MJ.

BOD clearly could not influence SCW in any way altogether.

If the team spirit was that shattered what does that say about the players?

I still cannot understand how the 1st XV's team spirit was so bad that they ran away whilst BOD was getting the official NZ execution - bizarre as it is that NZers still deny it. The extraordinary thing about it is that BOD could have been paralysed.

Much as I enjoyed following the Lions up to 1997, even allowing for the disasters in team spirit and bad captaincy on the 1993 and 1983 tours respectively, IMO the recent Lions tours have seriously undermined the England team's development, and from that very selfish viewpoint I frankly can't be doing with it.

As regards the mess-up with fixtures - it does not indicate clever planning does it?

And to compromise is not ideal as regards players arriving on tour.

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posted May 13, 2008

I'll happily side with you as regards BOD's leadership. I don't think he was a particularly good captain and I didn't get the feeling Woodward particularly valued his opinion. It seemed to me as if the link between coach and captain wasn't what it should be. But again, that does not spell the end of the Lions concept. Nor does it mean that McGeechan and Ryan Jones will share the same faulty leadership.

As regards England's development - I would suggest that the 1997 tour seriously progressed the development of Hill/Back/Dallaglio and in particular launched the career of Matt Dawson. Jason Leonard has gone on record saying it was that tour which made him realise (losing out to Wallace and Smith) the steps he had to take to become a 'professional' player.

Likewise I believe this tour could be the making of the likes of Hartley, Kennedy, Haskell, Croft, Care, Cipriani or whoever else could make the Lions team. If the Lions are victorious and these young players feature then it is an invaluable experience for them individually and would expose them to some seriously top coaching at international level from McGeechan/Edwards (I'm making that assumption) the likes of which most of them have not experienced.

As regards the compromise at the start of the tour and the fixture congestion - of course it isn't ideal. But I don't think any of the players I've named above are 'compromise' players regarding the tour and as mentioned earlier, the English contingent affected will depend on who makes the playoffs. In reality we may only be talking about a small number of players.

Have faith, if McGeechan is named head coach and brings Shaun Edwards with him, the Lions will not replicate the Woodward fiasco. I'm not predicting a whitewash or anything stupid but the series is up for grabs.

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posted May 15, 2008

Very fair points.

The Lions have a relatively good record in SA of late and I see the SA team going off the boil in the next year or two.

The mad helter skelter years for England have probably come to an end owing to the new England/club raprochement and the development of the new players coming on stream.

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