Nick Cain: Gatland defies the abuse to hit jackpot

What the 2013 Lions tour revealed is that for all the power inherent in the concept of the four Home Unions united, unity within the touring side is still a fragile beast. Even when you win a series.
Just how fragile was reflected in the tribal and factional warfare over Warren Gatland‘s dropping of Brian O’Driscoll for Jonathan Davies in the deciding Test, and the way that social media exacerbated the fall-out. This was especially true of the acrimony between Welsh and Irish fans, although the English and Scots also stirred the pot.
The admission by the Lions head coach that he had found the “vitriol” that spilled over once he had axed O’Driscoll hard to take, and that it had made him reflect whether the international coaching arena was for him, was a revealing commentary on the new media world.
Gatland added this observation on the relationship between pro sport and social media in the wash-up Press conference last Sunday:
“We are all going through the way things evolve and change, and how social media changes your whole perception on things. So, it’s been a bit of a learning experience – and the fall-out can be pretty aggressive and anonymous.”
However, initially, the reaction to O’Driscoll being left out of the 23 for the third Test was the preserve of traditional media, with two Irish legends, Willie-John McBride and Keith Wood, condemning Gatland’s decision.
McBride said that (former) Wallaby coach Robbie Deans would be “laughing” at the “absolutely amazing” decision to drop O’Driscoll. He said in an interview on the BBC’s World at One programme: “I must admit I am quite gutted today because Brian O’Driscoll in my book has been the greatest player Ireland has ever seen.
“You should pick a team with the best players in it and for me the ethos of the Lions is slipping,” added McBride. “I don’t think this is the concept of the Lions that I know, but let’s see what happens on Saturday, we will all eat our words if we win.”
Wood’s view was that Gatland had “made a terrible mistake”.
The former Ireland hooker said: “You could say he is picking on form, but he has picked an unbelievably direct team, with very little guile, specifically to play this game-plan. The Lions is about getting the best of quality out of the players of these islands, not having an intransigent game-plan that is low on subtlety but simplistic from the start.
“I just feel it has been incredibly hard watching because we are not seeing that spark we are used to seeing from the Lions because it is trying to play a game-plan that I do not know suits a lot of the players. It suits the Welsh players, and that is why there are ten of them playing. It is really, really frustrating.”
Even Sir Ian McGeechan, a close friend of Gatland’s, expressed reservations, saying he would have re-united the 2009 Lions centre pairing of Jamie Roberts and O’Driscoll.
However, what set the comments of these Lions luminaries apart from the tidal wave of social media comment that followed, was that they, like journalists, are accountable for what they say or write because it appears under their name. The views were trenchantly critical, but there was no denigration of Gatland on a personal level.
By contrast the vast majority of social media comment – most of it reasoned and reasonable, but a significant minority bile-ridden and abusive – is, as Gatland pointed out, anonymous.
One answer might be for message boards to publish only those views that have a genuine name supplied (verified by email address), thereby sifting out the nasty trolls who hide behind pseudonyms.
The one thing that no-one, troll or otherwise, can dispute is that Gatland is a gambler who has the courage to back himself in a tight spot. The gamble at loose-head in the first and second Tests came very close to backfiring, but where his decision on Davies over O’Driscoll is concerned he was on the money.
Many of those who worked themselves into a froth over O’Driscoll being dropped, regrouped after the Lions had thumped Australia, arguing that O’Driscoll would have done everything Davies did just as well…and, in any case, it was the forwards that won it.
In the process, they conveniently overlooked their championing of BoD because he would provide leadership of the sort that Alun Wyn Jones supposedly could not. Yet, it was the Welsh lock who commanded the forwards and rose impressively to the captaincy challenge.
Alun Wyn Jones was another Gatland gamble that paid off.
As for O’Driscoll, at 34, having the legs in attack to do anything that the 25-year-old Davies could, no-one can offer definitive proof. However, what we do know is this. Davies had an excellent game, and, to date, has not been given credit for his part in Jonathan Sexton’s try.
For the record, the Welsh outside-centre beat two Wallaby tacklers – Christian Leali’ifano on the outside, and then Joe Tomane on the inside – before sending Leigh Halfpenny down the touchline to give the scoring pass to Sexton. It was the game-breaker, giving the Lions a 29-16 lead, and Davies was at the heart of it.
As Gatland put it: “When you go somewhere, you go there to win. That was our whole primary objective.”
The O’Driscoll call was that of a gambler, but a calculating one who put winning ahead of sentimentality. And, above all, the Lions needed to win.