When the definitive story of the 2017 British & Irish Lions is written it will be the outcome of the Test series with the All Blacks that will largely determine how Warren Gatland’s squad are remembered. A frantic, unsatisfactory draw with the Hurricanes, however, has revived some uncomfortable issues, not least the bizarre logic of calling up squad replacements and then refusing to use them.
Gatland could hardly blame his players alone for allowing a 31-17 lead to slip in the final quarter of a helter-skelter contest. To a large degree it was his own fault, the consequence of his mismanaged bench policy as much as Iain Henderson’s costly 66th-minute yellow card. If it was a bad initial error to recruit six extra bodies purely on the basis of geography, it was compounded by the coach’s telling post-match admission he felt unable to use them because of the intense criticism their call-ups generated.
The consequences could ripple far beyond the dressing-room frustration at yet another midweek failure – as against the Blues and the Highlanders – to shut out a game they had virtually wrapped up. Crucially, it could even impinge on the Lions’ prospects for the second Test on Saturday, with potential Test 23 candidates such as Henderson, Courtney Lawes, George Kruis, Dan Cole, Rory Best and Leigh Halfpenny now more leg-weary than they needed to be.
What an avoidable shambles this has all been. Instead of calling up, for example, Joe Launchbury in mid-tour when a potential vacancy first arose, Gatland belatedly opted for Wales’s Cory Hill, only to decide it would undermine the integrity of the Lions to play him. Eh? Should he not have considered that before picking him? And what about those poor souls now leaving the party fewer than 10 days after arriving? Aside from Finn Russell, on the field briefly as a temporary sub while Dan Biggar had a head knock assessed, and Allan Dell last week, none of the other four reserves – Hill, Kristian Dacey, Tomas Francis and Gareth Davies – will count as proper Lions because they did not take the field.
About the only person applauding this strange business was the Hurricanes coach, Chris Boyd, whose side took gleeful advantage of a Lions team starting to plod through treacle. There may also yet be some good news for Lawes; his withdrawal after 53 productive minutes suggested he is in with a chance of featuring against the All Blacks. But if the management were already leaning that way, why not start Hill and save the Northampton man from himself? On the one hand it is a minor detail, on the other it plays straight into All Black hands.
It was a crying shame as the midweekers had their moments in other areas. Two tries from Tommy Seymour and forceful displays up front from Henderson and Lawes had looked certain to earn the squad their fifth victory in eight tour games this month, with George North having also touched down in the first half. Biggar contributed 16 points from fly-half via two conversions and four penalties, only for the game to be turned on its head by Henderson’s yellow card for a tip tackle on Jordie Barrett.
The Lions, who had to play three-quarters of the game with a reshuffled backline after Robbie Henshaw was forced off after 19 minutes with a shoulder problem that is set to end his tour, argued Henderson’s punishment was slightly harsh and definitely not a red, with the referee, Romain Poite, audibly influenced by his assistant. Boyd, however, saw it differently: “I was a bit horrified when they were talking about nothing. Clearly he was topped well above the horizontal. It was probably an orange in my mind – somewhere between a yellow and a red.”
Either way, it made life trickier for the Lions, as did Henshaw’s unfortunate departure. North was forced into the unfamiliar role of inside-centre with Halfpenny, a late bench replacement for the indisposed Jared Payne, coming on at full-back. It was just as well Poite awarded seven penalties against the Hurricanes in the first 40 minutes alone, allowing the Lions to deny the super-talented home backs the chance to strut their stuff.
A 70-metre breakaway try created and finished respectively by the Scottish duo of Greig Laidlaw and Seymour further encouraged the visitors before the Hurricanes replied with a close-range try from the flanker Callum Gibbins. The interval advantage of 23-7 was a touch flattering, a bouncing ball having fallen nicely for Henderson who put an unmarked North away for a score under the posts four minutes before half-time, but the final 40 minutes were always going to be tough for a team effectively relying on 17 or 18 players rather than 23.
When Ngani Laumape scored for the defending Super Rugby champions within two minutes of the restart, smashing through Biggar after a fine angled run from Julian Savea, a grandstand finish looked distinctly possible before a yellow card for the home scrum-half, Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, opened the door for the Lions, Seymour racing over on the left to capitalise on his side’s numerical advantage. The Lions would have scored again had North not put a foot in touch but Henderson’s yellow changed everything. The Hurricanes, suitably encouraged, poured forward and Wes Goosen and Vaea Fifita scored twice inside four minutes amid rising pandemonium. The Lions narrowly escaped with a draw but this game will ultimately be remembered for other reasons.
Hurricanes: Barrett; Milner-Skudder, Aso, Laumape, Savea (Jane, 69); Black (Goosen, 62), Toiroa Tahuriorangi (Hauiti-Parapara, 69); May (Eves, 56) Riccitelli (Apisai, 62), To’omaga-Allen, Abbott, Lousi, Fifita, Gibbins, Shields (capt; Prinsep, 56).
Tries: Gibbins, Laumape, Goosen, Fifita. Cons: Barrett 4.
Pen: Barrett. Sin-bin: Tahuriorangi, 51.
British & Irish Lions: Nowell; Seymour, Joseph, Henshaw (Halfpenny, 19), North; Biggar (Russell, 43-48), Laidlaw; Marler, Best (capt), Cole, Henderson, Lawes (Kruis, 54), Haskell, Tipuric, Stander.
Tries: Seymour 2, North. Cons: Biggar 2. Pens: Biggar 4.
Sin-bin: Henderson, 66.
Referee: R Poite (France). Att: 38,690.
