British & Irish Lions tour: what tests will they face in South Africa?

It’s amazing how one’s fellow hacks improve when you find yourself in agreement with them. Stephen Jones of The Sunday Times has irritated me more often than not over the years, and just as long ago, John Reason of The Daily Telegraph had me muttering angrily. Jones indeed irritates a lot of people if one is to judge by the comments his articles provoke. But he has been about for a long time, and, if I have often been tempted to dispute his judgement, I’ve never doubted his knowledge of rugby.

Now today, instead of getting things wrong, in my opinion, he has made a call that seems, to me, absolutely right. The British & Irish Lions scrum-half for the First Test next week should be Ali Price, not Conor Murray, who looked so slow and ponderous against South Africa A on Wednesday. Jones’ reasoning is clear; the Lions need to play a fast game to beat the Springboks. Price is suited to that, and Murray isn’t or no longer is.

Some thought Price fortunate to be in the tour party. Indeed he might not have been selected if England’s Ben Youngs hadn’t made himself unavailable. Not everyone in Scotland would have picked him. Indeed, some who follow his club, Glasgow, consider George Horne, who has also been capped by Scotland, the better player.

Ali Price, however, offers more variety than Horne, more than Murray too. Always lively, with a sharp break and good box-kick, he has become an excellent reader and manager of the game, something apparent in Scotland’s victories at Twickenham and the Stade de France. It says much for the trust Gregor Townsend now places him that, unlike most scrum-halves now, he has regularly played the full eighty minutes of a match. His control of the end game in both these wins away from home was exemplary.

Warren Gatland has, of course, reason to trust Murray. But as Lions coach Gatland has gone on form rather than reputation, and on the evidence of the tour so far, Price looks the form scrum-half. Of course, things may look different if he has a bad game against DHL Stormers today, but at present, he looks like the best option at 9 for the Lions.

The tour, already a short one, has, of course, already been disrupted by Covid and the usual run of rugby injuries. The only thing certain about the Tests to come is that there will be more uncertainty. That the series now being played is a triumph of will and determination in both camps.

The British & Irish Lions short run of score-whenever-you-please matches was brought to an abrupt haul on Wednesday by a South Africa A team. 

The team was at least as close to being the XV that will start the First Test next weekend as the side that Gatland was able to field was to being the Lions Test side. That said, a 13-17 defeat shouldn’t in itself be too worrying.

Still, it might be thought a salutary reality-check, even if I doubt whether such a check was needed. Nobody, least of all Gatland and Gregor Townsend, can have supposed that the Lions would have things easy in South Africa. Still, I guess that this defeat will have done the Lions a service. Easy victories are inadequate preparation for a Test series. They took a bit of a beating on Wednesday; it will do them a bit of good.

Of course, the star of the show was the remarkable Faf de Klerk, who performed to make the hailing of young Antoine Dupont as the best number 9 in the world look a tad premature. Faf ran the show just as he did in the World Cup final, and if the Lions are to win, they must find some way of shackling him. Easier said than done when he operates behind a mighty Springbok pack.

The British & Irish Lions management will be anxious to see Ireland’s Robbie Henshaw come safely through his first match since the one against Japan before they boarded the plane for South Africa. Henshaw, equally comfortable at 12 and 13, was the outstanding centre in the Six Nations, and at present, it looks as if the best centre partnership would have him at 12 and Chris Harris of Gloucester and Scotland at 13. 

That would leave no place for Owen Farrell unless the injury which has seen Dan Biggar drop out of today’s match is more serious than it seems. In this case, with Finn Russell, Ali Price’s half-back partner and flatmate in his Glasgow days, still nursing a tender Achilles tendon, Farrell would undoubtedly be preferred at 10 to the youthful Harlequin Marcus Smith. Smith’s late call up was such a surprise to him that he thought the phone call from Authority meant he was in some sort of trouble.

Of course, it’s still possible that Covid will be the winner of this series, but I’m hopeful that Rugby will beat the virus, and all three Tests will be played. One thing we learned from the Six Nations; you can have a cracking Test match even in an empty stadium. We’ve already seen one small miracle, captain Alun Wynn Jones’ return to the tour after dislocating his shoulder three weeks ago. Maybe this is a sign that the Gods are smiling on this improbable series.