British Lions head to New Zealand knowing rugby is national game but booing their teams that play badly comes close second
Rugby nut and the NZ Herald’s travel editor offers a Kiwi’s view
THERE are few more daunting challenges in sport than trying to beat the All Black in their own back yard.
Rugby nut and the NZ Herald’s travel editor WINSTON ALDWORTH offers a Kiwi’s view on the Lions tour...
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CALL it a chip on the shoulder, if you like but Kiwi rugby fans have always loved Lions tours because they give us a chance to beat you Brits at one of your own games.
And — as a bonus — we get to boo you while we’re doing it.
From the first visit to these shores more than a century ago, a touring Lions side has always offered a chance for wild colonials to prove their worth against the Motherland.
And, over the years, they’ve proven it pretty well.
But if rugby is New Zealand’s national game, booing British teams that play the game badly comes a close second.
When the Lions come to New Zealand, we Kiwis expect them to bring a forward pack that wants a fight, a flyhalf who wants to kick the ball away and some outside backs who are happy to shiver in the cold.
We will boo all of those things.
After all, the Lions are the brawlers that introduced the ‘99 call’ into rugby.
When one of their number called ‘99’, every Lion would punch his opposite player, in the quite reasonable hope that the referee couldn’t possibly send off the whole team.
The Lions always arrive out here with a pick-and-mix selection of teams we love to boo.
The Welsh haven’t beaten us since 1953. The Scots haven’t beaten us ever;
The Irish are still nursing hangovers from the one time they did beat us, last year while the English . . . they are just born booable.
And we will reserve a special ironic cheer for the ex-Kiwis in the Lions ranks.
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Given the amount of stick New Zealanders have copped for ’pilfering’ players from the Pacific Islands, we’re entitled to enjoy the fact that your Lions squad has more players in it born on the North Island than in Scotland.
We loved it the last time you were here. Sir Clive Woodward’s hapless tourists bumbled into town in 2005 with a record number of players.
He had 44 with him when he got here and by the time the tour ended, there had been 51 Lions after we broke a few.
That tour planted seeds of bad blood that should flower in this generation.
After Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll was injured when his opposite number Tana Umaga cleared out a ruck, relations between the Lions and New Zealand hit a frostiness from which they have never returned.
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