Future is All Black for outclassed pussy cats

BRITISH LIONS 3

BEFORE the first Test, Sir Clive Woodward has talked about defying the "odds and logic" to win but those two were easy hurdles to overcome compared with the 15 men his team faced yesterday because New Zealand dominated every phase of the opening Test to an embarrassing degree.

The Kiwis scored two tries thanks to Ali Williams and Sitiveni Sivivatu but they will spend long hours with a video machine wondering how the dickens they didn't manage a whole lot more.

Not a single player in the Lions line-up could hold a candle to their opposite number in Christchurch and for most of the 80 minutes the two teams appeared to be playing two entirely different games; the Lions were horribly laboured while the Kiwis made light of awful conditions to keep the ball in hand and play simple but effective rugby at pace.

On the basis that fate always kicks a man when he is down. The Lions needed a stroke of luck to win this first Test and instead they got a kick in the teeth because Brian O'Driscoll lasted just 90 seconds into the series. He was followed off the field - Gareth Thomas is the new skipper - and out of the tour by Richard Hill with an injured knee. Tom Shanklin is also homeward bound thanks to his own knee problems contributing to what Woodward called "a tough day all round".

"I don't think that you can overstate the loss of Brian so early. The first ten minutes seemed to go against us," said the Lions coach, whose World Cup win must seem several lifetimes away. "We lost Brian after 90 seconds and the first points came when one or two New Zealand players were in front of the ball and weren't picked up. Our players are clearly very, very disappointed so we've got to pick everyone up and character has got to come through."

O'Driscoll's injury came courtesy of his opposite number Tana Umaga and hooker Keven Mealamu who appeared to dump the Irishman out of a maul and on to his shoulder; all this happening five metres away from the ball but directly in front of the touch judge who saw nothing amiss. The Irishman dislocated his shoulder and was stretchered off the pitch in obvious distress and into hospital.

At midnight in New Zealand, Woodward announced that both All Blacks had been cited by the Lions, although match commissioner Willem Venter quickly - and, frankly, unbelievably - decided that the Kiwis have no case to answer. It is not an opinion O'Driscoll shares.

"I am in no doubt whatever that it was deliberate foul play, a double spearing," said the Lions captain. "It was a cheap shot which has put me out of the tour. But the truth is it could have been an awful lot worse because they could have quite easily broken my neck. I was turned upside down, in the air and speared into the ground.

"I tackled one of their players and then a ruck formed. I was pushing against Jerry Collins and two guys came in, they had a leg each, I got turned around in the air and speared into the ground. I knew straight away that it was serious. I had this searing pain that just wouldn't go away, I have never had a dislocated shoulder before so I did not know that is what it was, but I knew instantly that I was out of the game.

"I can hardly believe that I put so much into this and just got over a minute of play in a Test match. I have worked so hard for so long to get to this and to have it taken away by such a cheap shot leaves a really nasty feeling. I am really shocked that Umaga did that.

"It was a real disappointment that he didn't come up as I was stretchered off. I'd have thought that was a common courtesy between captains. Maybe there's an element of guilt?

"It is very hard to describe my emotions at the moment. I just cannot put it into words. I am angry because it was such a cheap shot. It was one of the most dangerous things that you can do in our game. It is why spear tackling is banned."

Intriguingly, Umaga was obviously under strict orders not to comment on the incident. "I'm unsure really, it's obviously disappointing," he said, ducking the question. "There are people who will be looking at a few incidents throughout the match so you'll know when I do."

Umaga was referring to the citing of Lion Danny Grewcock for allegedly biting All Black Keven Mealamu in the 63rd minute. He appeared before a hearing in the early hours.

If O'Driscoll's loss was an important psychological blow it did little to affect the final outcome of a match which was won and lost up front. "The tight five won it for us. I thought that they were magnificent. The Lions played as well as they were allowed," said Graham Henry.

Woodward was more specific: "Without the ball we can't do anything. It was the lineout where we lost the game."

The All Blacks' big men grabbed the lion's share of the ball; at the side of the pitch, this was true in a very literal sense as the tourists lost an astonishing ten throws, most of which were poached by Chris Jack.

Almost the entire match was played in an unrelenting deluge. Just to prove that it never rains but it pours, Paul O'Connell was sent to the sin bin shortly after Hill's injury for an offside offence committed in the shadow of his own posts.

So, with less that a quarter of the match gone, the Lions had three changes to the starting team and were 6-0 down after two Daniel Carter penalties. There might have been an absence of Scots of the pitch but there were obviously some in the stands because the sound of bagpipes echoed around Jade Stadium. Naturally enough they were playing a lament.

The Lions' lineout proved even more vulnerable in the absence of O'Connell and so Williams, the least threatening of the All Black pack, duly snatched yet another wayward throw from Shane Byrne and strode over the Lions' line from 15 yards, taking several red shirts along for the ride.

The Kiwis failed to add to their advantage for the remainder of the first half but goodness knows how as they had more than enough chances to put this match to bed by halftime.

As if the All Blacks were not giving them enough to worry about, the Lions insisted on playing the sort of clueless rugby that would embarrass a schoolboy. Stephen Jones kicked a penalty cross-field for Josh Lewsey despite the winger being outnumbered four to one by black shirts who immediately pinched the ball and raced upfield, only a Ryan Jones tackle on fullback Leon MacDonald saving the day.

Dwayne Peel had already ruined one kicking opportunity by running it and the scrum-half ruined another in the second half by knocking on. Perhaps he took the right option because, when Wilkinson finally got a shot at the sticks late in the first half, he fluffed it.

Down 11-0 at half-time, the Lions needed the first score of the second half, so naturally it was Carter who extended the home side's lead with an early penalty before Umaga and Sivivatu combined for a superb score seven minutes after the break. The All Blacks' skipper took a sweet pass from Aaron Mauger to split the midfield defence and then had the vision to spot the Fijian lurking wide on his left. A perfect long pass found the winger who stepped inside Lewsey for a magical try.

On 55 minutes, Wilkinson kicked the Lions' first and last points as the wretched elements dominated the final 25 minutes of the match.

That the Lions had somehow managed to restrict the Kiwis to just two tries was something of a moral victory in the circumstances, but it wasn't the sort of victory that Woodward wanted.