Head coach Clive Woodward said that the British and Irish Lions tour had reached a make-or-break point after his side were tamed on Saturday in a shock 13-19 defeat by the New Zealand Maori.
Woodward, the mastermind behind England’s World Cup success, has his heart set on a Lions Test series win in New Zealand, rating it as the pinnacle of achievement in rugby.
But after massing an army of nearly 50 players and nearly as many support staff to win the battle down under his confidence was shaken when a near Test-strength Lions side was comprehensively beaten by the Maori.
”In the cold light of day we need to see how we played technically and tactically, this is going to be the make or break of this tour,” Woodward said, acknowledging that the six-point margin ”flattered” his side.
”We need to know why we’ve lost and go from there. There were lots of areas we’ve got to work on.
”It is very difficult when you spend so much time defending in your own half.
The magnitude of the challenge facing the Lions in the Test series was not lost on Woodward when he compared the Maori side’s preparation with that of the full All Black side.
In their one warm-up game the Maori beat Fiji 29-27, while a week later the All Blacks beat Fiji 91-0.
For Woodward, those results mean he has a lot of thinking to do before he settles on his Test line-up.
”I’m disappointed to lose, but we’ve got two more games to finalise our Test team, but we are a long way off our Test team tonight,” he said.
”We will be judged on what happens in the Tests and this was a bit of a reality check for us.
”There were some players off the field who will clearly be in the Test team and I believe we have the personnel to do something that not many people have done in the past.”
Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll, who scored the Lions only try in the match, also had no argument with the loss to the Maori and said it was up to his side to react positively if the rest of the tour was to be a success.
”They played smart rugby and territory we weren’t smart enough ourselves and I think the correct result came about,” he said.
”We have a lot to look at and see where we went wrong and try and learn from that.
”This is a real make or break for us. There have been Lions sides that have lost this early in the tour that have come back to win the Test series, so we’ve got to keep faith in that.” – Sapa-AFP