Jeff Probyn: O’Driscoll deserved to end his career with dignity

Okay, okay I admit it, I said that I thought the Aussies would win that third Test and the series and I was wrong. Before the tour started almost everyone was suggesting it would be a three Test whitewash to the Lions, but knowing Australian sport I was more cautious saying that I thought it would be 2-1 to the Lions.
Having watched the build-up games and first two Tests I was wholly unimpressed by the style or lack of it that the Lions had shown and thought that the Australians had played better attacking rugby.
If all were honest and fair we would acknowledge that if the Australians had not lost Christian Lealiifano 50 seconds into the first Test or they were blessed with another consistent goal kicker, they would have won the first Test which, as they won the second, would have given the series to them – but sport is not honest or fair, it is just about results.
The third Test was won on the back of one major difference between it and the other two – the refereeing of the scrum.
In the first two Tests, the many errors made by the Australians were not punished by the Lions at the subsequent scrums because the referees (Chris Pollock and Craig Joubert) allowed the Australians to compete, legally or not. However, in the third Test Romain Poite was having none of it (particularly in the first half) virtually penalising Australia off the park in crucial areas.
Even Alex Corbisiero (as good as he was) and Adam Jones must have found it hard to believe that every penalty given was in favour of the Lions after the previous two Tests.
Poite’s subsequent yellow-carding of Ben Alexander ensured that there would be no late comeback for the Australians in this Test as they expended so much energy in the ten minutes when they were down to 14 keeping the Lions contained that they had nothing left to give in the last quarter of the game.
Credit must be given to the Lions for maintaining constant pressure throughout the entire game – something they had failed to do in any of their previous contests.
I must admit to being more than a little disappointed that the result of the tour came down to referee interpretation and the differences in referee management of the scrum and breakdown area.
As a founder member of the Front Row Union Club and the Scrum Experts Lobby I have always been of the opinion that it is the front row that win or lose games and that has never been truer than on this tour.
Sadly, it was nothing to do with the skills of the protagonists but all to do with the man with the whistle and, in my opinion, all three seemed to have little or no knowledge of what they were officiating.
The scrum was an integral part of the Lions game-plan from the start and many hours would have been spent by the coaches watching videos of the Test
referees and how they manage the engagement and yet still no-one could understand when or why the referee in each match would blow his whistle.
Eventually, thanks in part to Poite, the Lions got the dominance they had sought from the tour’s start and went on to claim a historic series win, and yet after the euphoria drifted away I felt a little sad, sad because despite the win a piece of Lions history had been destroyed with the dropping of Brian O’Driscoll.
The view that Gatland was vindicated in his selections because the team won is not a view that I share particularly if the Lions aspire to be more than just another professional team. The decision to leave BOD out of the team I can understand but out of the squad, especially considering the obvious game-plan of beating the Australians up front with little or no part played by the backs, except for an impressive one-man show from full-back Halfpenny?
I understand Gatland going back to his trusted combination of Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies but what did O’Driscoll do so wrong that took him from starting line-up in two Tests to not even a place on the subs bench despite his replacement not playing for over a week?
If you also consider that O’Driscoll will never play another Lions match and maybe not even another match for Ireland, his exclusion was a particularly harsh decision for Gatland to make.
Gatland says it was purely a rugby decision based on the fact that he wanted to win and yet he has also said that given the style of play, it probably would not have made any difference if O’Driscoll had played.
A number of ex-players I have spoken to have said that Gatland got it wrong; it was a professional decision not a rugby decision.
A rugby decision would have been to pick him somewhere and let him end his career with dignity.
It has been said that this series win has guaranteed the future of the Lions.
As Lion No.369 I’m pleased but I disagree, I think record ticket sales and a tour game attendance of 389,400 has whetted the appetite of all involved for more of the same while those looking from across the Tasman sea with envious eyes will be looking forward to trying to beat that record crowd and the money they generated in 2017.