What the 2017 Lions Can Learn from the Mistakes of the Class of 2005

The Lions schedule for 2017 was announced last week.

Amid the start of the Rugby Championship and the build up to the World Cup, talk of a tour some two years away has not gained much traction in the media.

But it is worth recalling the last tour of New Zealand in 2005 and perhaps offering a pointer or two to whoever leads the 2017 expedition as to what to avoid next time.

2005 was a different time altogether. Labour were in power after a third straight general election success, Star Wars was back in the cinemas, Liverpool were overturning 3-0 deficits to become kings of Europe and Sir Clive Woodward was still regarded as one of rugby’s finest thinkers.

Two years previously he had led England to their 2003 World Cup triumph, a success that secured him the Lions job.

Woodward’s keen eye for detail and meticulous preparation were seen as key tools that could bring the Lions success in New Zealand for the first time since 1971.

Those hopes were smashed to bits in a 3-0 series whitewash that stands out as one of the lowest points in Lions history.

Any touring team could go to New Zealand and end up with that outcome. New Zealand are simply that good.

But there were a number of specific areas of the tour Woodward led that seemed to contribute to that disastrous seven weeks in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Read on to discover the mistakes to avoid next time the Lions touch down in All Black country.

Don’t pick a bloated squad

Woodward used a huge squad on tour. His reasoning was to keep his Test players fresh and save them the hassle of travelling for midweek games, which the second string could take care of.

Sir Ian McGeechan, who led the Lions to success on South Africa in 1997 and was part of Woodward’s management team, recalled in his autobiography, serialized in the Daily Mail:

"

Clive...did not want his Test players travelling all over the country in midweek. His answer was bold, effectively creating two Lions parties, with the players dividing into two groups, one for weekend games, the other travelling for midweek fixtures. There were 51 Lions who played on tour and two enormous management teams. In theory it sounded good but it missed the boat by being far too cumbersome for a five-week buildup to the Tests. Paul O’Connell has said that the players never really got to know each other properly because they were always going their separate ways.

"

ROSS LAND/Associated Press

Don’t take a political spin doctor

One of the most widely criticised decisions on the 2005 tour was to bring along former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell.

A controversial figure in politics but deemed a first-class operator when it came to dealing with the media, on the surface it seemed a masterstroke to have such an expert in the camp should things get prickly with the local press.

It backfired spectacularly.

The infamous "speargate" incident in the opening minutes of the first Test put captain Brian O’Driscoll out of the tour and gave Campbell his chance to set the agenda—as far away as possible from an abject Lions display in a 21-3 defeat during which they hardly fired a shot.

Instead of explaining that performance, Campbell’s plan was to focus on some inconclusive footage of the actions of All Blacks skipper Tana Umaga and hooker Keven Mealamu, allegedly picking the Irishman up and driving him into the turf head first.

Whichever side of the argument you come down on as to the guilt or innocence of the two men in black, Campbell’s campaign to smear them was a drum beaten so hard and so often that the media got sick of it.

Then All Blacks coach Graham Henry was quoted by BBC.co.uk:

"I'm sure it's all part of the policy—Mr Campbell and his policies. It's another person to say the same thing the next day. I guess it's very irritating if everybody has to read that stuff all the time, but I guess that's what he's paid to do."

Then there was the allegedly staged photograph of Woodward and Gavin Henson strolling along amiably together in the week after the first Test.

MARK BAKER/Associated Press

Henson had been controversially omitted from the matchday 22 for the opening rubber in Christchurch and this was supposedly Campbell’s plan to paper over Henson’s reported upset at the decision, seeing as he would be needed for the second Test.

BBC.co.uk reported at the time:

"

The picture was meant to show that Henson's Test snub had not affected his relationship with the coach. ‘I didn't know anything about the photo. But I haven't seen it, so I can't really comment,' Henson said. When rumours of this staged photograph began to emerge, Campbell told the Sunday Times newspaper that: ‘It was a case of getting a picture done that didn't involve him (Henson) being hassled.’

"

Campbell’s entire role became a story in itself for the British and Irish media.

Paul Hayward, writing for the Telegraph at the time, wrote:

"

Campbell's presence in New Zealand was a godsend. How come? Because never again will the head coach of a touring party in sport employ a former press aide to a prime minister who has more baggage than Gatwick to tackle the utterly straightforward task of handling the media in between games of football or rugby.

"

Campbell, nor any other Malcolm Tucker-esque figure, has been seen near a Lions tour since.

Don’t try to revive old glories

Woodward’s World Cup-winning England side was famed for its methodical, measured approach to training, preparation and games.

Every situation was planned for and every reaction rehearsed. But this way of working took two World Cup cycles to produce the desired result—the Webb Ellis Cup in English hands.

Woodward tried to shoehorn the same blueprint into a seven-week schedule.

“He had revolutionised the way in which Test teams were prepared,” wrote McGeechan in the Mail’s serialization of his book.

"

Clive saw the challenge as finding a way to bring the Lions into a new age. He is famous for his attention to detail and for pulling the strings of a large, specialist and committed operation. His problem was to apply all that inside a remarkably short period of 11 tour matches….Clive, perhaps understandably, stuck with players he knew well and who had made a great impact under him around 2003. However, by no means all of them were on their best form by 2005.

"

The likes of Richard Hill, Steve Thompson, Josh Lewsey, Neil Back and Jason Robinson were not the players of 2003, although Robinson did have something of a renaissance in 2007 when he dazzled in spells during England’s march to the World Cup final of that year. Lawrence Dallaglio, too, was picked, and broke his ankle in the first tour match.

When Welshman Ryan Jones was called up as an injury replacement, he blew Otago off the park in a midweek match and earned two caps in the final two Tests with his pace and power. For a man in that sort of form to have been overlooked initially was baffling.

Leave the gimmicks at home

Perhaps even worse than the appointment of Alastair Campbell was the commissioning of a Lions anthem. In another detail Woodward saw as part of leading the best prepared Lions team in history, the 2005 Lions bucked tradition—that of not having an anthem at all and just listening to the opposition’s song before getting on with the rugby—and a special song was written, The Power of Four.

Woodward told BBC.co.uk: "It can be used to stir the passions and help build the phenomenal camaraderie that is developing between the players of the four countries who have come together as one."

Make your own mind up.

If the 2017 Lions tour is to be successful, the first thing it will need is one of the most talented Lions squads ever assembled. But it will also need a management sympathetic to its anachronistic nature and conscious that a spirit and togetherness can't be built through micro-management.

2005 could prove the most valuable lesson the next tour's coach could wish for.