STRIKING IT RICH: Lions concept is as overrated as Kallis was underrated

JOBURG IS A HUGE HURDLE FOR AUSSIES

“Ladies and gentleman, thank you for flying with us, we are about to start our descent and will be landing in Johannesburg in 30 minutes…” And with that, the entire Wallaby playing squad stand up and as one start to queue for the toilet in the hope they can rid themselves of their nerves.

Far fetched? Not if a conversation former Wallaby coach Eddie Jones had with some of us media people during his time as an assistant coach to Jake White when the Springboks won the World Cup in 2007. According to Jones, the anxiety in the Aussie squad’s he was coaching was noticeable from the moment they arrived in Johannesburg ahead of an Ellis Park game (it was known Ellis Park in those days).

So that’s my answer to the questions being asked about whether the Aussies will show in their next game that they are indeed busy with a revival that may lead to them doing well in the RWC they will host in 2027.

If they were starting their trip in Cape Town rather than finishing there they might have a chance. But there must be a reason they haven’t won in Johannesburg since 1963 and they haven’t been helped by their trips here becoming less frequent than they were when South Africa was part of Super Rugby.

THE HYPE AROUND THE LIONS IS HUBRIS

Then we arrive at the question of how good the latest edition of British and Irish Lions were. I thought the Lions would win the series 3-0 so the Wallabies exceeded my expectations. But was that because there has been a Wallaby improvement or were the Lions just underwhelming?

It is probably a bit of both. There’s a lot of exaggerated theory around the Lions every time they go on tour, both from the UK and Irish media who love the concept and want it to survive and their hosts who market it as a once in every 12 year occasion. But if you look back at history they have only rarely been the formidable force that justifies the hype.

Even if the Wallabies have improved, the Lions were right to set a 3-0 win as their target. Winning a series in Australia is a bit ho-hum for the Lions. In the professional era it is the only place they’ve won without a little help from their opponents. In the sense that their only other victory since 1995 was here in 1997 where the Springboks had a coach who was making his first foray into coaching.

Carel du Plessis became a much better coach later on, as coaches do with experience, but heading into that 1997 series he was completely new to the gig other than a short gig at UWC. As it was, the Boks scored three tries to nil in the second test in Durban where the Lions clinched the series with a Jeremy Guscott drop-goal.

The Lions were whitewashed 3-0 in New Zealand in 2005 and while they drew the series in that country in 2017, they were fortunate to do so. In the second test the All Blacks lost Sonny Bill Williams to a red card early on and in the final drawn game the French referee Romaine Poite made some embarrassingly poor decisions that cost New Zealand.

In 2009 it might well have been 3-0 to the Boks but for coach Peter de Villiers’ decision to field a second string team in the dead rubber game. Remember that was the “Justice4Bakkies” game. The Boks had their minds on other things, but the Lions after that game celebrated like they’d won the series.

That 2009 squad was probably the best Lions group of the professional era even though they didn’t win the series. The squad that came here in 2021 was probably better than the 1997 squad too but while the series was close, with the Boks winning 2-1 through a late Morne Steyn penalty, you have to remember that the Boks hadn’t played for two years before that because of Covid.

WHY LIONS GOING TO FRANCE WOULDN’T WORK

There’s been some talk in the UK media about the Lions needing to broaden their horizons and a lot of what has been written makes no sense at all if you subject it to a simple test of logic. For instance, one of them is that the Lions tour Argentina and warm up with games against Uruguay and Chile.

That this came from the same people who have penned pieces complaining about the lack of competitiveness in the tour games in Australia makes it laughable. Have they seen Uruguay and Chile play? Those games would see cricket scores. Ditto the suggestion to go to the USA. It’s nice to think the USA is a growing force in rugby, but reality differs unfortunately from what we may wish for.

Then there’s the clamour for the Lions to hop across the English Channel and tour France. We’re talking about a country where club considerations are so strong that the French decided to forget about world rankings points and send an understrength squad to New Zealand for their recent three game series.

The theory is that the French clubs would provide good tour opposition, but that is forgetting that the Lions usually tour outside of the northern season. The French club players aren’t going to postpone their much needed holiday after their arduous long season to play one tour game against the Lions, who feature players they play against often at club level.

And if you think that the French clubs would be happy to truncate the Top 14 one year so that a Lions tour could take place during the northern season then you are living in Cloud Cuckooland. That won’t happen, the clubs in France are just too strong.

One suggestion was that the Champions Cup doesn’t get played in a year when there is a Lions tour to France. Again, the clubs aren’t going to stand for that.

The writer of that piece, probably in an attempt to wind up the Kiwis, also suggested France should be the Lions’ destination in 2029 and the next All Black series should be postponed to 2033. Knowing what the Lions exist for, that’s a bit like suggesting that the England cricket team shouldn’t go to Australia in November to play in The Ashes and they should go somewhere else instead.

The Lions exist for the chance to scale their Everest, as their finest coach Sir Ian McGeechan once put it, which is to win in New Zealand or South Africa. Something they’ve only done thrice since the start of last century by the way - 1971 in New Zealand, 1974 in South Africa and 1997 in South Africa.

NEXT YEAR SEES START OF RUGBY’S ‘ASHES’

There’s a lot of arrogance around the Lions and while it might be true that for a UK or Irish player touring with the Lions is the pinnacle, the assumption that the rest of the world buys into that is probably way off beam. Yes, it is great to have the Lions come to South Africa for the cash injection to the hospitality industry, something that didn’t happen in 2021 obviously, but if you asked the average South African they would say the pinnacle for them is to see the Boks win a World Cup or play and beat the All Blacks.

The achievement of the 2009 Bok team coached by Peter de Villiers and captained by John Smit was not so much their series win over the Lions but their 3-0 win over the All Blacks on their way to the Tri-Nations title.

Next year there is a three test series scheduled here against the All Blacks. I am looking forward to that as much if not more than I have any Lions series. Scheduled to take place every six years, which means it will happen in each country every 12 years, like a Lions series, that may well become The Ashes of rugby.

IRELAND MAY BE THE BIGGEST BENEFICIARIES

If the Lions were underwhelming in Australia, and by all accounts the 2-1 victory wasn’t celebrated with the euphoria that the same margin in SA in 1997 was, then it might be down to the coach and his selections.

Andrew Porter ahead of Ellis Genge and Bundee Aki ahead of Sione Tuipulotu made no sense in the final two games of the series, particularly after their strong performances in the first game in Brisbane.

I am reluctant to go into Owen Farrell playing ahead of Tuipoluto because it’s a big call to suggest the coach backed Farrell because he’s his son, but the Lions did need an explosive player like Tuipulotu when they needed to fight back in the final test.

What is not a difficult accusation to make is that Farrell backed Irish players he knew. And he’s going back to his day job of being Irish coach after the series. How do you motivate Aki or Porter when they play Scotland or England when you have backed players from those nations ahead of them?

Perhaps the Lions need to consider moving away from coaches who are also coaches for Home Unions teams when they make their appointments. Surely there’s a conflict of interests?

But Farrell’s next objective now is to prepare his Ireland team for the next World Cup, which just happens to be in the same theatre that this series was played.

In that sense, this tour would have been a good reconnaissance mission for the bulk of the Ireland squad. Not that all of them should expect to be back in 2027 for the series suggested some of them are reaching their sell by date.

All eyes on The Rugby Championship 📈

NEXT MATCH
🆚 Springboks
🗓️ Sunday August 17 | 1:10am AEST
🏟️ Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg
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— Wallabies (@wallabies) August 5, 2025

A FIVE TEST SERIES IS GREAT BUT NEEDS BETTER SCHEDULING

The test window to the English cricket season that started with the Proteas’ outstanding win over Australia in the World Test Championship final came to an end in thrilling fashion on Monday, with India running through England on the final morning to force a draw in the series that was no less than they deserve.

The final game at The Oval was a great advertisement for the five day format, as indeed was the WTC final, but there were questions to be asked afterwards about the scheduling of the games. For once all five games in the England/India series went into a fifth day, which made it almost impossible for the two sides to arrive at the final deciding game at full-strength as there were such short recovery windows between games.

England captain Ben Stokes had to sit out, as did his fast bowling spearhead Jofra Archer, while India’s world champion bowler Jaspit Bumrah was never going to play more than three games in the series once it was announced that five games would be played in not much more than six weeks.

A five test series such as the one that kept so many people enthralled with 25 days of absorbing cricket was great for the format and I just wish South Africa still played series of that length - they did back in the day against England - but the games should have been more spaced out.

KALLIS WAS A MONSTROUS TALENT

When Ben Stokes took five wickets in an innings and scored a hundred in the same fourth test match he joined a small band of players who had managed the feat. One of them was Jacques Kallis, who did it twice. When Joe Root took a catch to pass Rahul Dravid for the most catches in tests, 211, it was again Kallis who appeared in the group who featured among the most prolific catchers. Kallis took 200 catches.

I think of Stokes as the best batting allrounder of this era in test cricket, but compare his stats with those of Kallis - 14 test centuries for Stokes, 45 for Kallis. Admittedly Kallis played more games, but look at the averages - Kallis 55, Stokes 35. When it comes to his bowling stats Kallis was also phenomenal for someone who was remembered mostly for his batting - 292 wickets at an average of 32 apiece. Stokes, who in this recent series was often the spearhead of the England attack, has taken 230 wickets at 31.6 apiece. So they're close when it comes to bowling.

The impression was often created that Kallis wasn’t properly appreciated in this country but listening to the overseas commentators talk about him illustrates the acclaim he had globally.

Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who was second to Kallis’ third for the most runs accumulated in a test career (Sachin Tendulkar is top) before they were both overtaken by Root, described Kallis as the greatest cricketer ever in terms of his allround ability, and it is true that in terms of statistical dominance in his various crafts only the legendary Gary Sobers comes close.

For the record, Sobers played 93 tests, just over half of Kallis’ 166, and ended with a marginally superior batting average to Kallis - 57 against 55. But he was behind Kallis when it came to bowling, with an average of 34 against 32.

Kallis has the second most test centuries behind Tendulkar, with Root, 39, closing in on his 45. Root’s batting average in tests is currently 51. Although he bowls a bit of spin, Root wouldn’t be classified as a genuine allrounder.

NOTHING FOR SHARKS FANS TO CRY ABOUT


So what happened to the Sharks? The question was asked at a get-together on Sunday by someone who knows his rugby but clearly hasn’t been paying much attention to the Carling Currie Cup.

In a nutshell what happened to the Sharks, and let’s call them by their real name in this competition, the Sharks XV, because it reflects the Durban union’s emphasis on development, is the same thing as what happened to Western Province.

I saw the word “debacle” in a headline to one of the stories about WP’s loss in Joburg and it just doesn’t fit. Considering the WP team was made up of so many players new to this level of rugby, and were in fact captained in their first game by a player making his WP senior debut, the 40-19 defeat wasn’t something to cry over as the Lions team they played against were much more experienced.

WP and the Sharks are putting a strong emphasis on the Currie Cup as a chance to blood completely new players. And at the same time, players who might be used in the URC are being given a chance to have a proper off-season.

I made enquiries about the whereabouts of JC Mars, the young WP fullback who Stormers coach John Dobson rates highly. He isn't in the squad but is just 20 and could conceivably gain something from playing in the development competition.

I was told he is in the URC squad and Dobson has decided he needs a proper off-season and pre-season, something he apparently hasn’t had since he left school. That is wise thinking, and it presumably explains why someone like Jonathan Roche, who played a handful of games for the Stormers last year, is not playing in the Currie Cup.

John Plumtree has a similar policy at the Sharks. If the aim was to go out and win the Currie Cup at all costs, both unions could play much stronger teams from fringe players who don’t get to play much URC or Champions Cup but are instead giving those players a proper offseason. And it’s the way it should be.