Lukhanyo sums up what makes Lions the biggest challenge

No-one will deny that the Rugby World Cup that is played every four years is the biggest event in the sport but Springbok centre Lukhanyo Am has neatly summed up why a series against the British and Irish Lions might pose an even bigger challenge.

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To put it in a nutshell, while the Boks will have gone to the World Cup in Japan in 2019 with a reasonable idea of the playing style the teams they were to play against would come up with, you just can’t do that with the Lions, who are a team that represents four different individual rugby nations.

Bok World Cup winning coach Rassie Erasmus and his management team would have studied the All Blacks, England, Wales, Australia, Ireland, Scotland and France in intricate detail in the period building up to the 2019 tournament. There was minimal chance of any major surprise. Not only was there lots of video footage of those teams playing, the Boks also had plenty of experience of playing those teams.

With the Lions there might be some assumptions based on the recognised playing style of the head coach Warren Gatland and the individual players that make up the squad. But you can’t assume too much, for an experienced and astute coach like Gatland would adjust the suit to fit the cloth. Meaning he would let the resources he has available to him dictate the game-plan he employs.

Or to put it another way, with the abundance of riches he has available to him at the Lions, he can select around the game-plan he would prefer and not have that dictated to him to the extent it may have been when he was coaching Wales.

LOTS OF MIDFIELD OPTIONS

World Cup winning midfielder Am was asked at a Zoom press conference during a break in the Bok training camp currently being held in Bloemfontein what he expected from the Lions centres that have been selected in the touring squad.

“It is difficult to say what to expect because while I know the individuals and styles the Lions centres play for their nations, you can’t be sure when it comes to a Lions tour,” Am answered.

“They may play a certain style for their individual nations, but the Lions team and environment and the players around them is all completely different so you can’t be sure they will play the same way you normally see them play. We are preparing for what we think they might do, but we can’t be sure.”

Am is right. While there seems to be an assumption in some quarters that Gatland might go with the established Irish combination of Bundee Aki and Rob Henshaw, much will hinge in that regard on how he deploys Owen Farrell. The England captain is surely one certainty to play in the tests because of his metronomic place-kicking ability, but while he has been included as a flyhalf, he has played most of his recent international rugby in the No 12 jersey.

Indeed, that was where he played in the 2017 drawn Lions series with the All Blacks, when Jonny Sexton, who didn’t make the cut for this tour, was wearing the No 10. There is a school of thought that Gatland will go for Welshman Dan Biggar as his flyhalf, with Farrell alongside him to provide the two flyhalf 10/12 decision-making axis that is so coveted by coaches in modern rugby.

If Farrell lines up at inside centre, it will provide a different midfield dynamic to having Aki there, and the selection of Farrell might bring his fellow England centre Elliot Daly into the equation as a potential No 13.

TOUR GAMES WILL PROVIDE A BETTER IDEA

Of course, the identity of the flyhalf will also have a big influence on how the centres play. If the creative Scot Finn Russell is given the No 10 jersey, the Lions will telegraph an intent to put a greater emphasis on a running game against the Boks.

But the Boks brains trust headed up by national director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and head coach Jacques Nienaber won’t know who is going to line up against them until the selections for the first test are made. And as Gatland has chosen a good all-round squad with the ability to be versatile when it comes to game-plan, the Boks won’t really be able to start anticipating and studying the Lions until they start the tour and play against provincial opposition.

If you watch the documentary that is currently being shown on the Supersport Rugby channel, Living with Lions, which covered the 1997 Lions tour of South Africa, it is very evident just how important the games building up to the first test of the series are in respect of the Lions not only establishing their team spirit and culture but also their template and combinations.

The bottom line though when it comes to the challenge facing the World Cup champions was well summed up by both Am and by assistant coach Mzwandile Stick this week.

“When you play against the Lions you are playing against a team selected from a squad that is made up from the four best players in their positions from four different nations and that means that the first choices have world class back-up,” said Stick in explaining why the Boks will have to put in an even higher and more sustained work-rate in the series than they did in the World Cup final against England.

That is what makes a series against the Lions so unique and makes beating them such a challenge in an era where perhaps the focus on the World Cup every four years and the way professionalism has levelled the balance of power between the northern and southern hemispheres has made the individual Home Union teams so much stronger than they were.