Gatland Leads The Charge

Warren Gatland will again lead the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand where his squad will be looking for a first Series win in the land of the long white cloud for the first time since a John Dawes lead side won the 1971 Series.

Many will say they don’t want Gatland as the man to lead this Tour for a number of different reasons but since the likes of Irish coach Joe Schmidt , England boss Eddie Jones and outgoing Scotland supremo Vern Cotter who is leaving his post when his contract expires in June ruled themselves out the short list was even shorter than it had been to start with.

Gatland did lead The Lions to a series win over Australia in 2013 although Australia were suffering a crisis of confidence very similar to the one they are currently facing now under Michael Cheika. Of course the task facing Gatland and the squad he assembles next April will be huge and a challenge to reverse the trend of losing Test Series against New Zealand.

2005 was the last time The Lions faced The All Blacks with Dan Carter giving an exhibition of out half play although the opening Test will be remembered for an incident 2 minutes into that game where Brian O Driscoll was lifted up and dumped on his head and his subsequent shoulder dislocation ruled him out of the final two Tests where New Zealand went on to comfortably win that Series.

Moving to 2017, Gatland will know he is already fighting against a number of coaches who have questioned the length of the Tour while a number of perspective Tourists could be ruled out of the first game due to club commitments.

Gatland will need to sit down with a number of people on his return from his time in New Zealand over the next two weeks and see can they come to some sort of agreement about the release of players and a number of other issues that have crept up in the weeks leading to his unveiling as the coach of the 2017 Lions.

These issues like scheduling and player availability have been around since the game went professional in 1995. Clubs feel they are being short changed but to represent The Lions is still even in the age of professionalism and commercialism it is still a huge honour and for the 37 lucky players who get the call next April along with the support staff, they will do all they can to finally win a Series and lay to rest the ghosts of past Tours.

The challenge facing The Lions is huge, since 2005 they have twice been crowned World Champions in 2011 and again in 2015. They have also won a number of Tri Nations and Rugby Championship crowns.

They have raised the bar even higher than it was in 2005 , Can the Lions come anywhere close to being good enough to toppling a team that is arguably stronger than the All Black side coached by Graham Henry back in 2005.

Warren Gatland and the squad he assembles will relish the chance to lower the colours of the country of his birth. This is Gatland’s greatest challenge and I am sure he will be ready to spring a few surprises on The All Blacks like he did to The Wallabies in 2013.

Who better than a son of New Zealand to try and crack the mighty All Blacks. What ever your feelings about “Gats” and the Tour as a whole let’s get behind this Tour to see can our best topple the very best New Zealand has to offer……

By

Cian Mc Gibney

07/09/2016