Warren Gatland is kidding no one when he says there is not much difference between playing the Super Rugby teams and the All Blacks. He’s trying to take the pressure off his players but they’ve just lost to the Blues, who haven’t beaten another Kiwi side all season. Test level is a different, much bigger beast and when it’s the full-blooded All Blacks against the Lions the levels of pressure and intensity will go right through the roof.
While losing to the Blues was a blow it wasn’t fatal and now they come to the pivotal point of the tour. The team to face the Crusaders looks more like a Test side and, if they win, the Blues loss is forgotten. The problem, though, is that the Blues have given New Zealand rugby a taste of blood and the Crusaders will be looking to get a piece as well.
The Crusaders are 14-0 for the season and you cannot overstate what they mean to the region and the city of Christchurch. There’s still a lot of rebuilding going on. I’ve got mates who are engineers there and they say there are still some places that are unlivable, there are still aftershocks. But the Crusaders’ form gives the city a big lift. You think back to 1905 when there weren’t too many heroes around for New Zealanders to look up to, but the Originals really changed that. For Christchurch, their heroes are the guys in black and red.
It was great to see the Lions visit the memorial – Gatland is really getting it right off the field, having the players to engage with the community. New Zealanders will love that and respect that the Lions are getting around, seeing the kids, seeing people who have had a hard time – it’s putting a smile on their faces.
On the field what will make life so difficult for the Lions is that the Crusaders don’t know when they’re beaten. They beat the Highlanders recently with a last-minute drop-goal and they are strong defensively. They won against the Hurricanes by putting so much pressure on Beauden Barrett that they pretty much took him out of the game. That doesn’t bode well for a Lions side struggling with their attacking shape.
The Crusaders have picked eight All Blacks to start and that includes their tight five, but they can also shift the ball into the wider channels. It just comes down the skill level in contact, the ability to offload and they’re really strong and powerful at the ruck. They’ve got a good scrum – Owen Franks, Joe Moody, Codie Taylor are All Blacks – but the scrum battle is a bit of a red herring. In New Zealand the scrum is about getting the ball in and out. As long as you can make sure the ball is available for a good platform to attack off, that’s fine.
Behind the scrum the Crusaders could really do some damage. Richie Mo’unga is playing brilliantly at No10. He marshals the team around the field, he has got a bit of X factor and the Crusaders are reaping the rewards of his form. Then they have Israel Dagg and David Havili, who is in scintillating form. He’s at centre against the Lions but he’s been playing at full-back and was unlucky to miss out on the All Blacks squad. Players like that mean the Lions can’t afford to be inaccurate with their kicking because they are coming up against the best unstructured teams in the world, the best when it comes to counterattack.
It’s not just the first-phase counterattacks. It’s when they get tackled, then how they move into their shape two or three phases after that – they are so good when the opposition is a bit disrupted in their defensive system.
Towards the end of the Blues game there were times when the Lions could have plugged the corners but they kicked a bit aimlessly and that is all it takes. The Blues secured the ball, it was one phase then a Steven Luatua offload, a Sonny Bill offload and that’s the game. New Zealanders thrive on that.
They are more patient than you think, they’ll kick it back and they’ll wait for that poor aimless kick and then boom, they are away.
Having said all that, this is a massive opportunity for the Lions and on the plus side we haven’t seen much of Owen Farrell or George North yet. I thought Farrell would be at 12 before the tour started but he’s now the man to lead them at 10. He’s on form and he has the respect of the boys around him. If you’re a Lions supporter you just hope he comes through the next couple of games without an injury.
North can be their X factor player, you want him to get his hands on the ball early and as often as he can. Get him in there running at Mo’unga’s channel – first phase, off the back of a lineout or a scrum. Against the Blues the Lions weren’t getting that penetration in the midfield, they looked lateral.
New Zealand teams are not the greatest in the world defensively but the Blues found it easy to drift across and use the touchline as a shadow. Unfortunately, the big problem at the moment is that a strong set-piece is not going to be good enough to win against the All Blacks. The Lions need to start offering a lot more than that.
New Zealand’s Nick Evans, who faced the Lions in 2005, will write for the Guardian throughout the tour
