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Lions must win first Test to have a chance against All Blacks - Brooke
By Nicholas McGee
The British and Irish Lions must win the first Test with New Zealand to have a chance of winning the series, All Blacks great Zinzan Brooke has said.
Already underdogs to beat the All Blacks in the three-match series, anticipation of an upset will only have decreased following a start to the tour that has seen them lose two of their first four games.
Warren Gatland's men have lost to Blues and Highlanders, though they did overcome unbeaten Super Rugby leaders Crusaders 12-3.
And Brooke, who won the 1987 Rugby World Cup with New Zealand and played for the All Blacks the last time the Lions beat them in a Test match in 1993, believes a strong start is pivotal to any hope the tourists have.
Speaking at the TISSOT Boutique in London, Brooke said: "I think they'll [the Lions] be competitive. Do I think they're going to win the test series? No.
"But if the British and Irish Lions win the first Test match, I think the British and Irish Lions will win the series. So… don't count the Lions out.
"The British and Irish Lions have to 100 per cent win the first Test. If they win the first Test, they've got a shot because that motivation will lift the spirit of the team.
"Because if they lose that first game, they'll go, 'let's get back on that plane'. And that will be the big thing. And if they lose the second, I can guarantee you there'll be a lot of hamstrings being pulled. There'll be hamstrings, knees, they'll be going, 'you know what? I don't need another test match'.
"That's the difference and that's the pride of the Lions, of actually making sure to keep that camaraderie together. And just one little win, just keeps that momentum, that lifeline, to go, 'you know what? We're still here, were still in the game'.
"Don't ever chuck it in. That's going to be the big test for the British and Irish Lions."
"If you want to beat New Zealand you have to make sure that the camaraderie within a group of men is very, very important.
"It doesn't matter how bad that player is, but from number 42 to number 1, being the captain, you have to have that sort of camaraderie within the group."
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Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to commentsYou always get idiots who go overboard. What else is new? I ignore them. Why bother?
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