Lions savaged by South African media: Captain Plod and his hobbits will be slayed by Boks
British and Irish Lions captain Alun Wyn Jones has been labelled an “overhyped plodder” and his team savaged as South African media ramp up the pressure ahead of this year’s tour that includes three tests against the world champion Springboks.
Veteran South African rugby scribe Mark Keohane has ripped into Jones and the Lions squad picked by their Kiwi coach Warren Gatland, writing off their chances of beating the Boks in July and August.
Keohane mocked the Lions squad naming where Jones was beamed in as a hologram.
"It was funny, but not as funny as Gatland’s Lions squad, which many critics felt was a joke,” the highly-opinionated Keohane wrote in his latest column for Independent Online.
“If the virtual Jones, the hologram, is something from the future, then Jones, the real thing, is something from a playing past that is far more glorious than the plodder who will lead the Lions into battle against the world champion Springboks.
"Jones, his 159 games making him the game’s most capped international, should be on pension. His Six Nations performances are overhyped. He was picked on past glories and because of familiarity, having played a decade of test rugby for Wales under Gatland."
Keohane felt Jones was no longer world class.
“He wouldn’t be in the top 10 locks in world rugby. He is well past his best and while his tenacity and longevity is to be admired and applauded, his playing pedigree isn’t what it was. He is a pensioner in locking terms, and it will turn nasty for him on the field.”
Keohane also questioned the Lions’ ability to match the physicality of the Springboks, something which Gatland has raised as essential.
“The rallying cry from within the Lions rugby fraternity is that Gatland is fighting fire with fire, bringing beasts to the republic to conquer the world champion Springboks. But I disagree. Gatland has picked hobbits to be giant slayers, and he has far too many Neville Nobodies in his squad of 37,” Keohane wrote.
He expressed his respect and appreciation for the Lions and their proud history, believing a Lions tour was “bigger than a World Cup” because it only came around every 12 years for each host country.
But Keohane feared for the 2021 vintage.
“Appreciate the tour and bow to the occasion, but don’t put Captain Plod on a pedestal and don’t add to the delusion that this is a team of world-beaters. The famed Lions travelling red army won’t be in the trenches to help these ‘nearly men’ in red playing jerseys grow an extra arm and leg.
“The Lions are in for a whipping before the kick-off in the first test against the Springboks. There is some class among the Lions, with England lock Maro Itoje, the only Lions player I’d pick in a Springboks starting XV.
“Itoje is arguably the best lock in the world, and what a statement it would have made to the majority of South Africans to have a black player lead the Lions in South Africa.
“It would have shattered any perceptions that the Lions are pasty lads from the smaller isles of Britain. We know they aren’t that, and historically you only have to go back to 1974 to know that these lads can play and can physically front the biggest South African man mountain. But that was 1974.”
In a separate column on Keo.co.za, Keohane dished out a bit of discomfort for Gatland who has taken on this assignment while coaching in New Zealand.
“Gatland, who has not not been involved with northern hemisphere rugby (as a collective) since the Lions 2017 tour of New Zealand, has looked to many of his Welsh loyalists from his 12 years as coach of Wales. Gatland’s last involvement with Wales was a 2019 World Cup semifinal defeat against the Springboks in Tokyo, Japan,” Keohane wrote.
“Gatland, since then, experienced a miserable time as head coach of the Chiefs in New Zealand.
“Gatland’s return to New Zealand was very hyped. He was returning to the region he played for all his career and to the province and region he previously coached. The honeymoon didn’t last long and when Gatland took a season out (in 2021) to focus on the Lions, his Chiefs had lost a record number of matches in succession.
“Ironically, since his departure the Chiefs have been resurgent and played the Crusaders in the final of New Zealand’s Super Rugby tournament.”
