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If your local butcher chucks your club a few quid to go on an end of season tour to the Welsh valleys, were you to return and say one of the matches had to be called off due to unplayable conditions, they probably wouldn’t have much of a beef (sorry).
However the likes of HSBC and Microsoft aren’t so much sponsors, they’re more like corporate overlords.
So whatever about the sweltering heat and skin-liquefying humidity, this match was always going ahead, and even though clouds were few and far between in Hong Kong on Saturday, your best bet as a rugby fan was to look for silver linings, and in fairness they were there to be found.
First and foremost among them was the fact that this was a match where it would be hard to be blamed for doing something wrong, while your status would near Man of Steel proportions if you could manage something that could end up on YouTube. And as it turned out, even though the final score was a blow-out, there were players on both sides worthy of a red cape, and in some cases, a red test jersey.
But it wasn’t just the conditions that were going to threaten this match as an even contest…we also had the mindsets of the two squads, one who’s season was 80 minutes from completion against another who had their first chance to impress as a Lion under Gatland’s stewardship.
That gulf wasn’t so evident in the first quarter as the opening sequences were tentative, and the only incident of note was a case of raised temperatures not caused so much by the weather.
It wasn’t Schalk Brits’ punch at Owen Farrell that intrigued me when I saw the replay…rather it seemed that he didn’t throw the slap until he realised who it was ignoring his pleas to let him go!
For me, Steve Walsh was right not to send him off for the sake of the occasion, and Brits has rightly had his holidays extended by the citing commissioner. Where he failed was in not acknowledging Farrell’s part in the whole thing, if not the illegality of the hold itself, then certainly his reaction to the punch and puerile clapping of the yellow card. Perhaps a reversed penalty as well as a Brits yellow would have been more ideal?
Still…although they may be called the Barbarians, we don’t watch these fixtures to see dust-ups; we want free-flowing rugby and more importantly tries a-plenty, and we had to wait a while longer for those.
Apart from the conditions, on TV anyway the So Kon Po Stadium appeared to have a look of Thomond Park about it, with high arched stands either side of the pitch and relatively small seating areas behind each set of posts.
This analogy was of course helped by the sight of Paul O’Connell clad in a red Adidas jersey leading his troops on to the pitch and getting stuck into the action literally from the kickoff as he forced a turnover.
But then a load of Welshmen started doing things well, so the Limerick analogy ended.
O’Connell may have gotten the touchdown for the opening try, but it was on the end of a move that featured Mike Phillips at least three times. The Bayonne scrum-half played his 57 minutes like a man possessed, with his only fault perhaps being too greedy in taking advantage of the gaping holes left by the BaaBaas at both pillar and post on most breakdowns.
Still, his fellow countrymen occupying the centre positions weren’t far from the action. Jamie Roberts was always going to be hard to shift from the 12 jumper but no doubt the onlooking Brian O’Driscoll will have noted that Jonathan Davies doesn’t appear to have travelled merely for the experience. I can hardly blame the Scarlet for not wearing his scrum cap but it didn’t stop him getting involved and even got a try for his trouble.
Another area of Welsh interest was always going to be the back row…and for the most part, all staked their claim for test recognition. Lydiate was an interesting regular go-to guy at lineout time, Tipuric was his usual tenacious self at the breakdown and Faletau made some significant carries and offloads.
Perhaps a mark against Toby was his failure to keep the ball in the back of an attacking 5m scrum…the Sky commentators chose to ignore it but this Leinster blogger certainly won’t – this skill seems to be receiving decreasing appreciation from pundits yet for me is essentially what the No8 position is for and it’s an area where Heaslip definitely has an edge if Faletau doesn’t improve.
But overall, the Welsh boys were queuing up to make a mark on this fixture…Adam Jones with a diving scrum-half pass, Cuthbert with his own brace of tries, and Alun-Wyn Jones making the most of every opportunity on the pitch. Still, there was no doubt that Phillips was worthy his man of the match award.
As for the Irishmen, well only O’Connell started and both his presence and contribution made arguments against him starting the tests pretty much indefensible. Conor Murray provided an almost seamless transition when he came on for Phillips, something that probably earned him a spot on the tour in the first place.
The Leinster boys didn’t exactly stand out with their cameos, though despite a few missed conversions from out wide Sexton did provide a good quick pass for Cuthbert’s second.
On the Barbarian side of things, only one player seemed to really get what the black and white hooped jersey stood for- Joe Rokocoko. Not only was he outstanding in open play, especially when he sidestepped Faletau on the way to letting in Fotuali’i for my try of the match, but he also excellently denied Tipuric a try at the other end by holding him up over the line.
Elsewhere for the Baabaas, Laulala made some good tackles but for the most part it looked as though even Dai Young in the coach’s area was counting down the clock hoping to return an air-conditioned sanctuary!
But going back to the Lions, and in particular the test selection, I have to admit that I am still finding it incredibly difficult to make a case for not only any Scotsman to start, but also Englishmen as well.
Stuart Hogg is a fine player who has a great future ahead of him, but unless Leigh Halfpenny has a complete meltdown between now and the tests he can only be seen as injury backup at best – besides I’m sure Kearney the Elder might have a part to play as well. As for Richie Gray, well on this performance anyway, I felt Alun-Wyn wanted it more.
But where I feel the Scots are missing out most is on the wing. My first response when Dimitri Yachvili denied Sean Maitland an early score with a soccer-style slide tackle was : “Shane Williams would have gotten to that”. Then I remembered how I felt when I heard Maitland was named to this squad ahead of Visser, who while also a “pseudo-Scot” actually put in the hard yards in Northern Hemisphere rugby to earn his test call up and certainly excelled doing so.
I also think Tim Visser would have gotten to that.
Finally, we have the English contingent. Farrell kicked most of his goals as you’d expect but his temperament (or lack thereof) in open play makes him an easy target for the Wallabies to disrupt our gameplan.
Vunipolo and Stevens seem to be midweek fodder at best, Ben Youngs won’t have been happy to see Phillips & Murray do so well while his brother screwed up his first dart and has a determined Rory Best breathing down his neck.
For me, the only Englishman in the current squad you could make a starting case for is Tom Croft, though Gatland’s love of Lydiate calls that likelihood into question as well.
But there is of course another, and he is probably back in Toulon licking his wounds after his club much like Clérmont got “Castres-ated” in the Top14 playoffs. If Jonny Wilkinson is to feature on this tour, for me the decision needs to be made NOW, before the Australian leg kicks off.
Sexton is no stranger to uncertainty surrounding his test position from his early Ireland days, but until we know for sure what Gatland wants from Wilko, it can’t be good for him or indeed the camp as a whole. So I say fly him over now, rule him out altogether or at very least announce he is only on injury standby, but definitely make an announcement before Wednesday.
On a lighter note…one thing the Lions need to work on as they prepare to make the final hop to Oz is their big screen bench antics. When there’s a lull in play late in the game and the camera focuses on a player who had done well in the match, I want to see more hands appearing from either side of him mussing his hair and poking his ear…it’s expected down there, get on it lads!!!
Also the crowd didn’t exactly appear to be getting too heavily involved until Tom Jones “Delilah” came over the loudspeakers, but whether that was down to heat exhaustion or a large “prawn sandwich” contingent I’m not quite sure.
Overall, this wasn’t exactly a classic contest, but just like any Lions encounter, it leaves us fans with plenty to talk about. I sign off with my test 23 as it stands now and I eagerly await being “Force-d” (sorry again) to rip it apart and start from scratch after the next match in Perth, where surely things won’t be quite as sticky and no doubt the tour organisers will then tell us the Hong Kong stopover was more masterstroke than heatstroke. JLP
Halfpenny, Cuthbert, O’Driscoll, Roberts, North, Sexton, Phillips. Healy, Hibbard, Adam Jones, O’Connell, AW Jones, Croft, Warburton (c), Heaslip. BENCH : Best, Jenkins, Cole, Gray, O’Brien, Murray, Farrell/Wilko, Hogg.
