Plenty of points scored but absolutely pointless for the Lions. We were told that all the South African provincial sides would have their Springbok players released back to them so that these matches would be meaningful and that that they would engender some familiarity which would in turn breed some contempt.
n years gone by South African provincial sides would perform the job of ‘softening up’ the Lions. This was an essential part of the tour in the sense that many of these sides would have a Norman Bates, a Charlie Manson and a herd of Jolly Green Giants who could do some damage and hopefully knock out a few key players before the Test series started. Conversely, it was essential also that the Lions would be tested physically and become battle-hardened before the serious stuff started.
That simply is not the case anymore and the whole concept of this type of touring is archaic. These matches really don’t tell us anything more than we already know. These matches are a complete waste of time. It is ,however, always important to navigate the run up to the Test series without accumulating any injuries. Build a little bit of momentum and get the Test team humming, or at the very least functioning. The only positive thing we got yesterday was that nobody got injured.
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Rassie Erasmus named 46 players in his initial squad, so how many of these will be released back to their provinces? As it is 21 of those players don’t even play in South Africa so what is the point in pretending? There are nine Sharks in the squad — how many will be released for the Wednesday game? There was only one Sigma Lions player who made it in to the 46-man Springbok squad, Wandisile Simelane, and I don’t think Wandisile would have made a huge difference in yesterday’s encounter.
You would also worry about the quality of the new United League due to start in September and again whether the Saffers will bother putting their Springboks into this competition or will they just leave it until they play in the Heineken Cup?
There was, however, confirmation if required that there are some players Gatland could not countenance playing in a Test match. Finn Russell is like one of those slot machine junkies in Las Vegas who takes another spin on the machine without realising that there are consequences to his actions.
Yes, some of his cross-kicks worked, some of them didn’t, but you cannot gamble with the sort of flagrant disregard with which Russell plays the game in a Test environment, particularly in a Lions Test environment. Pull the lever, watch the machine spin and when it comes up it is fantastic. When it doesn’t, which is most of the time if you have ever been to Las Vegas, then what do you do? You go home empty handed.
You also had impressions confirmed (not that it was needed) that Johnny Hill is one of the worst second rows ever to be picked by the Lions. James Ryan did nothing yesterday to advance his cause, but Ryan even on an average performance is a far better player than Benny Hill.
We are not sure either about the Lions midfield. Owen Farrell still hasn’t managed to lapse out of his current malaise, and he seems at this moment in time to be a synapse off where he needs to be in terms of Gatland confirming him as the starting outhalf. Whatever way Farrell is playing at the moment, if Gatland were going to gamble on this tour then the bet is that Farrell will, without question, raise the level of his game when the heat is turned up.
Yesterday was the first time I spent actively looking at Chris Harris to see why he was brought on this tour. I have watched matches over the last season or two where the Scottish centre was an active participant and I am still at a loss to understand Warren Gatland’s extraordinary leap of faith in selecting a player who is prima facie so far removed from the likes of Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Brian O’Driscoll etc.
I am not sure that the Lions will receive a challenge worthy of the name before they get to the Test series but that is a problem the Springboks must also deal with as Georgia are not going to do anything to improve the performance levels of the World Champions. This will be a very difficult series to call and even more difficult to win.
Meanwhile, at the Aviva, if this Irish performance was revenge for being soundly beaten in Shizouka at the World Cup in 2019 well this dish was served straight out of the microwave.
For long periods Ireland were simply embarrassed by Japan’s pizzazz and mental agility. The Japanese still have a stronger command of the basics and their passing and handling left Ireland looking like second class citizens when it comes to this particular skill. The stats tell you that there were 11 Japanese offloads to Ireland’s four — what stats won’t tell you is that Ireland tried almost as many except they ended up being reported as handling errors or turnovers.
It is embarrassing to consider that when Ireland tried to get into the spirit of things they were hopelessly inadequate in terms of trying to master a skill that is almost totally alien to them. Anticipation is the key concept here. Most Irish players are looking for a clearout as opposed to receipt of an offload when an Irish ball carrier is tackled. When the ball does get popped up it’s treated as if it is a successor to the Delta variant.
What sort of team could Ireland be if they had Tony Brown as their backs and skills coach? It is in games like these that Mike Catt’s limitations are cruelly exposed. Ireland survived because they were just about certain that they would physically wear Japan down and close the game out.
Joey Carbery looked like a partially interested bystander and he was outplayed by his opposite number Yu Tamaru, whose breath of vision and full array of skills and confidence in his team’s ethos and game plan contrasted poorly on Carbery’s paucity of control and lack of ideas. Is that Carbery’s fault or Catt’s? Why does Ireland’s brightest flame and sharpest sword look so bereft of direction and clarity?
To compound things, when Chris Farrell came off in the 42nd minute they moved Carbery to first centre to accommodate Billy Burns at outhalf. We already know that Burns is not an international class . . . anything. What was the point of shoving Carbery out of the point of control as he was looking for traction to reassert himself as an international class out half again?
Meanwhile, Jonny Sexton watching from the stands is thinking that he can now play into his 40s, not because he wants to, but because he has to.