The British & Irish Lions have been hammered on the field and, in the Brian O’Driscoll affair, they have been humiliated in the corridors of sporting justice. Furthermore, Woodward’s poor selection for the first Test has been ruthlessly exposed. It would be a milestone of all Lions history if they do square the series in Wellington next Saturday. For various reasons, just for a start, the four key tourists are either diminished or out of the picture entirely. In order — Lawrence Dallaglio is long gone, Gavin Henson is preposterously banished to the midweek team, Jonny Wilkinson is harming the team by his continued presence and O’Driscoll is invalided out. Four gems, all either misused or absent. What can he do? Where can he go? Woodward is a wonderfully positive character. Those of us lucky enough to be in his fourball at a recent sponsors’ golf tournament were impressed by his relentless optimism. He chivvied the weak players in the quartet, he demanded, almost with an anger, that the tournament continue despite lashing rain. He has been insisting for months that the only way for the Lions to win is to attack, not simply to contain. Stuff it up their All Black noses and be bold.
So what happened last week? I was stunned rigid when Woodward announced his Test squad at the start of the week. I was stunned again when he announced his starting Test team. Jocularly, he asked me in midweek what I thought of his team. I had to point out that I would have chosen only seven of his 15 starters. Woodward smiled and observed that this gave him even more confidence in his selection. All good fun, but, by the end of the week, neither of us was laughing. He had sacrificed players who could carry the battle to New Zealand — Henson, Tom Shanklin, Andrew Sheridan, Steve Thompson, Danny Grewcock, Ryan Jones, Lewis Moody. All of them would be in my starting team. Woodward’s policy seemed to be conservative and seemed to incorporate every single one of the England 2003 World Cup team who was still on active playing service. It felt wrong at the time, it felt worse yesterday in Christchurch and it seemed to betray Woodward’s own attacking instincts and optimistic demeanour. It was impossible not to feel for him last night.
Perhaps he does retreat under pressure. Perhaps he was too influenced by other voices. This is a closed Lions camp, so we cannot be sure why, for example, the splendid Henson was banished to midweek. Some people say that he does not communicate well enough. Fine. Give him a throat spray. Others say that O’Driscoll was uncomfortable playing outside him. Fine. Leave out O’Driscoll. It seemed strongly to me that Henson and Sheridan and others were being left out on specious grounds.
I am always highly suspicious of the hothouse atmosphere created in top coaching circles. Take a player. Watch him in a match. Assess him. That is all there is to it. Yet, it seems to me that some players are dragged into hothouse discussions, into an arena where every coach is desperate to be heard, to be deemed a wise man, to be deemed to be thinking out of the circle. By the time he has had his say, by the time that statistics are misinterpreted, then an entirely wrong picture emerges of a player who, to the naked eye, has just had a superb game. Woodward opted for the effluent of the hothouse, for paralysis by analysis, and has paid a heavy price.
His only chance now is to set his attackers free. This is absolutely not what fools call a youth policy. It is a policy to choose the men in form and the men who can take the game to New Zealand. It is time that Jonny Wilkinson was left on the bench and that Henson arrive to play alongside Stephen Jones. People in private may have prattled about Henson’s alleged deficiencies. So far on tour, he has been the Lions’ longest kicker, their hardest tackler and their most incisive midfield runner.
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Sheridan must be unleashed to attack the New Zealand scrum, to spend time using his enormous power and enthusiasm. It is a desperate shame that Shanklin is injured and unable to take O’Driscoll’s place, because the Welshman has had a fine tour to date. The usual suspects form a queue to replace O’Driscoll at outside-centre. There is Shane Horgan, who is palpably not up to the task. There is Ollie Smith, who has been improving on tour. But Josh Lewsey has proved to be brilliantly versatile at all levels of the game and should be dragged in from the periphery to play a part in the midfield. Elsewhere, Geordan Murphy should be brought in to add some dash at full-back and Lewis Moody, with a warning that he should begin immediately to unleash his potential, should take the place of Neil Back on the open side. Ryan Jones should have started in front of Richard Hill yesterday, he should have been on the original tour and he will at least give the Lions some kind of dependable weapon on the blind side of the scrum.
But perhaps above all, the scores have to be made off the field. There is mental healing to achieve and, in that, all the coaches and all the senior players have to make a massive contribution. The standard of on-field leadership on this tour has been absolutely lamentable. On occasion yesterday, Ryan Jones was waving fiercely in the direction of his teammates, attempting to wind them up during one of their many flat spots. The Ospreys back-row forward has only been in New Zealand for a week or two and has not even been a Lions Test player for a whole match. Surely, in this highly-experienced team, there should be enough leaders to guide Jones, rather than having him demand from others.
There is also the question of incoherence. The Lions, as I have said before, need a massive party for the style of tour on which they are embarked. But it has often seemed that the team are still strangers to one another. Certainly, there are black marks throughout this for the coaches and, especially for the top coaching team headed by Woodward and including Andy Robinson, Eddie O’Sullivan and Dave Alred. Robinson is seen as a fine forwards coach, yet the forward play and the lineout in particular have been appalling. O’Sullivan is seen as a backs specialist, yet the back play has been incoherent. Alred is seen as a kicking guru, but, Henson and Ronan O’Gara apart, none of the Lions has been able to kick his way out of wet paper bag.
So no panic chaps. It is just that everyone in this Lions party has exactly six days from now to avoid humiliation, to avoid a permanent tarnishing of their sporting reputations and to achieve anything remotely like the shot at glory which any Lions tour conveys. Otherwise, these Lions are in danger of rivalling the 1966 party as the worst ever. That is a profoundly chilling thought.
And it is another reason to attack. The supine and passionless Lions we saw yesterday were always going to slide to defeat. They made a precise, passionate and, yet, non-glorious Kiwi team look like world-beaters. The removal of Henson from centre stage was the symbol that Woodward had possibly denied his own character by becoming introspective and conservative. The return of Henson and a few other blasters this week will at least signify that Woodward intends to restore his reputation and reinvent his team in his own image. Or perish in the attempt.