British and Irish Lions 2017: Fringe players hoping to impress in the match everybody wants to avoid
The players may be stating publicly that they are desperate to play in every match, but playing so soon before the first Test generally indicates a spot on the subs bench
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Your support makes all the difference.For the British and Irish Lions, Tuesday’s match against the Chiefs should be the game that no one really wants to feature in.
The players may be stating publicly that they welcome any chance to pull on the Lions shirt, but by starting the mid-week match before the first Test, it generally means you’ll have the day off come Saturday.
That may not be the case for the likes of Elliot Daly and Liam Williams, whose Test ambitions are very much alive, or CJ Stander, with the Ireland No 8 hoping to claim the back-row replacement role should he miss out on the starting line-up. But for most of the players, this week is a bit of a unique one.
The 23-man squad that faces the Chiefs cannot afford to take their eye off the ball to focus on the upcoming Test series, otherwise they will be turned over and any momentum from the 32-10 victory over the Maori All Blacks lost. Yet just how important is this match to the overall tour?
The same fixture four years ago saw a pieced-together Lions squad – one that featured an aging Shane Williams and the English trio of Brad Barritt, Christian Wade and Billy Twelvetrees once they had been flown in from the other side of the world – come unstuck against the Brumbies, only for the Test team to go on and beat the Wallabies in the first Test at the end of the week.
To add to this, the Chiefs will also be fielding an understrength side. With six players called up by the All Blacks and another four players unavailable due to their appearances for the Maori on Saturday, they will be without many who have guided them to sixth place in the Super Rugby table, with the likes of Aaron Cruden and Anton Lienert-Brown absent.
So how do the coaches go about preparing the players for a game that on the grand scheme of things is one of the less important fixtures on the schedule?
“We have to be careful this week of not over-coaching,” assistant coach Andy Farrell said on Monday. “We've got to be careful of making sure that the plan is crystal clear for them, so they can be on point come Saturday and already it's been great that we've had a few days already to get some basic stuff in them through the week and we've got to get that right.
“Come Thursday, Friday it will be over to the players and we've got to make sure that their heads are crystal clear on who they're going to go about this game.”
It’s clear that attentions are already on the first Test, even though the Lions need to get this game out of the way before they can head back to Auckland to prepare for the Eden Park encounter.
Farrell and the rest of the Lions coaching staff would not be doing their job if they didn’t have one eye on the All Blacks, and the former England centre believes that the Lions will need to raise their game to a level that they have never reached before if they are to shoot down the reigning world champions.
“It's going to be a hell of a game,” predicts Farrell. “I know we'll turn up and we're a good side brimming for a big challenge. Mentally and physically we'll be ready. It'll be interesting to see how the two teams marry together, the chemistry of that, who adapts well on the run. That's what the All Blacks have been very good at over the last period of time. We've got to be aware of that.
“Physically I don't think we've disappointed so far. Will we need to up our game? Certainly we will do. I think we're going to have to take ourselves to a place that individually we've not been to before. But the boys realise that and are excited by that challenge.
“I think the game has cranked up. The All Blacks have certainly got better over the last four years and are reigning supreme at this moment in time. We've got to get close to that, haven't we?”
Farrell also issued a positive update on Leigh Halfpenny’s recovery, with the full-back so far on course to overcome the blow to the head he suffered on Saturday in time to start the first Test alongside Farrell’s son, Owen, who will return from the thigh strain that kept him out of the weekend victory over the Maori.
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