LIONS MISSING EDWARDS Scrum-half’s absence problem for tourists

Press, 1 June 1977, Page 20

LIONS MISSING EDWARDS Scrum-half’s absence problem for tourists

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KEVIN McMENAMIN

The impressive win over Taranaki last Saturday should have instilled fresh confidence among the Lions; it may also have shifted the emphasis on possible weaknesses in the side.

For the first three games it was the full-backs and the wings who seemed the most likely weak links. The wings have still to prove that they can do more than just run. but Andy Irvine, by his dashing display at New Plymouth, showed that the Lions have at least one full-back who has a flair for attack. It is doubtful if the second full-back, Bruce Hay, will ever be seen in the same light. A short, stocky man. Hay is the type of full-back often found at the New Zealand provincial level: sturdy and reliable. He is no agile runner of the ball as is Irvine.

During the first two weeks of the tour, the

British press party with the team would sometimes, and with good reason, ponder on the men left behind. It was an sive array of names—players either not available or not wanted—staiting with J. P. R. Williams and taking in Gerald Davies, Gareth Edwards, Mervyn Davies. lan McLachlan and Fergus Slattery. Roger Uttiey was added to it when injury prevented him from filling the role of forward leader that had been reserved for him. But if there was one man whose absence was most loudly bemoaned in the early games it was J. P. R. Williams. As one British writer remarked: “New Zealand would have dropped this high ball tactic by now if J.P.R. was here; he just loves them.” Equally regretted was the missing counter-attacking

skills for which Williams is famous. Irvine has a long way to go before he can be compared with Williams, but at least he has made a start. He will probably have many high kicks to take in the weeks ahead and if he can survive the mental as well as physical test this constant ploy places on a full-back, he should serve the Lions well.

If it was full-backs that the Lions had cause to worry about in the early days of the tour, it could now be half-backs who give the greatest cause for concern. Gareth Edwards may well have replaced J. P. R. Williams as the man the British press would most like to see stepping off a plane. The two half-backs in the party, Brynmor Williams and Douglas Morgan, are big men by usual halfback standards. They are

also “heavy” men in the sense that they lack the nippyness of a Sid Going or a' Lyn Davis. Williams, who started the tour as the likely test choice, is further handicapped by being a dive-passer, which means he needs vital seconds to get back on his feet and rejoin the play. In the two games he has had to date, against Wairarapa-Bush and Taranaki, Williams has provided a slow service to his backs, a big drawback to a team which requires quick movement of the ball to excel.

Morgan has not been a great deal swifter and his passing has also lacked accuracy. Morgan, of course, has a very handy second-string to his bow. Of all the Lions goalkickers, and there are still some untried as yet, Morgan would be the closest

to Phil Bennett as the most accurate from handy positions.

The Lions have already shown an ability to quickly pinpoint their deficiencies and correct them. The lineout work has improved dramatically since the “disaster” (as one British writer described it) at Napier and the tight forward play is progressing steadily. The backs are moving into their passes better and there are signs that the high ball will soon become less of a bogey; match-day practice may ensure this.

So it is now a sharpening in the transfer of the ball from forwards to backs that the Lions must look for. It could be a serious chink in their armour if allowed to go uncorrected, for anything that slows down Phil Bennett will make the task of the All Blacks a good deal easier.