Jeremy Guscott: Lions success was even greater than ‘97

Big congratulations to everyone concerned with the Lions for a scintilating series and a well-deserved triumph. It should not be underestimated quite what an achievement it is to win a series in the modern era.
The rugby climate has changed considerably over the past 40 years from the days of Willie John McBride. The series win in New Zealand was a magnificent achievement in 1971 – still the only the side to do it – while the invincible team of ’74 made history of a different kind.
It’s hard to separate those wins from the teams that won in ’89 and ’97 or 2013. But for me this year’s team stand alone as the only side to triumph under truly professional conditions.
Warren Gatland faced a mammoth task uniting these players because he had no time with his entire squad together before departing for Hong Kong.
Not only that, he had to make the best of a string of understrength opponents. And in that respect Australia have always been the weakest of the three tours. In South Africa and New Zealand you are guaranteed some tough, physical battles to get you Test-ready.
But in Australia, once the Wallabies are withdrawn from their respective Super Rugby sides, the strength in depth just isn’t there to test a team like the Lions.
There were full stadiums with brilliant atmospheres thanks to the locals getting behind their teams – and the thousands of travelling Lions fans. But next time the Lions go to Australia there must be a guarantee that more of the warm-up games are meaningful. Only the Brumbies, Australia’s top team, gave the Lions a game for 80 minutes.
The Western Force team was weak; the Reds and Waratahs put up a fight but still hugely understrength; the Rebels more like a training run, while the Country game was a complete waste of time.
If you are looking at things from the Wallaby coach’s perecpective you can see his thinking – do I really want to risk my best players ahead of the Test series? The answer would be ‘No’. It is understandable to pull a few of your big players, the older ones or those susceptible to injury, and wrap them in cotton wool and it is difficult to find the balance. But I would argue that it would be beneficial to have a few guys facing the Lions to report back to the squad.
And if you flip it round to see it from a player’s perspective, I think it would be an easy decision for them to make.
Most guys are closer to their club mates than international ones, and the memory of beating the Lions together with them would last longer. I know what I would have wanted as a player if, say, the All Blacks were on tour and were playing my old team Bath.
Due to these issues, that’s why I think this series victory is more special than those in my day and to be successsful again in 12 years’ time, opposition teams need a serious re-think.
The Lions must have six good games before heading into the first Test – one easy and five hard. If the Australian franchises are not strong enough, and lacking their stars, playing some of the Pacific nations could be the way forward. Samoa, Tonga and Fiji would all offer a much sterner Test for the Lions.
And the powers that be must also ensure the Lions arrive with the advantage of having had at least a week together.
The administrators must take a long, hard look at the 2017 season. While it will be extremely difficult to have the players from France released early, the British and Irish Union bosses must sit down and find a way for the season to either start or finish a week earlier to garner maximum preparation time. It should not be beyond the realms of possibility to ensure the Aviva Premiership, RaboDirect Pro 12 and Heineken Cup all finish by mid-May.
If the administrators can renegotiate the distribution of television revenue with the host nation, it should help the Home Unions take the necessary steps to ensure adequate preparation time.
The Lions are the most special thing in the world of rugby. Ask any player, coach or fan and they will tell you the same. These fans would go to the moon to watch the Lions play and the tour maintains the amateur traditions while thriving in a professional world.
It is the biggest brand in rugby bar none – you would be hard pushed to find another sporting team that has such history and respect to have 40,000 fans follow them to the other side of the world. While debates will have started already as to the Lions squad for New Zealand, I think it’s extremely hard to predict how it will shape up over the next four years.
By then Wales should be a world class team – but it is more diffcult to say the same for England, Ireland and Scotland. And if you look to 2009, the stars of this year’s tour were not Test regulars – George North was at school, Leigh Halfpenny had played six times for his country while captain Sam Warburton was making his Wales debut against the USA as the Lions prepared for the first Test against the Boks.
But one thing that is easy to predict is just how formidable opponents the All Blacks will be – they always are. Dan Carter and Richie McCaw will have retired by then but New Zealand have a habit of replacing the unreplaceable, it is a machine that keeps on rolling and they will not be short of star names.
Gatland says he is unsure of what he intends to do after the World Cup in 2015 when his Wales contract ends. He probably has ambition to coach New Zealand but I think he will need to spend some time coaching in Super Rugby before that happens.
So it will be intriguing to see if he does throw his hat into the ring again and which other coaches develop into real contenders for the job.
New Zealand are the only team in international rugby that could put out an entire second-string side and still beat the majority of top nations.
And they are used to having smaller packs than their rivals. The battle up front characterised this series, with the side packing the most power coming out on top in each of the three Tests.
I’m not sure it will be the same next time. New Zealand may be in a transition period, but you know they will be tough to beat at the RWC in 2015, more so two years later – and if I were a coach, I’d love that challenge.