Tenacious Maori claim lion's share

Lions Tour of New Zealand/ NZ Maori 19 Lions 13: At the end of the first quarter, Matt Dawson received the ball from a Lions ruck outside the Maori 22 and also a human missile in all black by the name of Corey Flynn.

What happened next was so instructive. Five Maori forwards drove over Flynn, Dawson and ball, their torsos parallel to and scarcely a couple of feet off the ground, with choreographed aggression.

Clive Woodward and some of his coaching staff - Andy Robinson, Gareth Jenkins and Ian McGeechan - spent much of yesterday poring over the video nasty against the Maori in Hamilton on Saturday, with almost exclusive focus on the tackle/breakdown area. They take the aforementioned Maori clip as a template.

"The biggest thing is the breakdown, because you just can't play without the ball there," admitted Woodward yesterday, in what is already becoming a dog-eared theme to the tour. "And we've got to look at what we're doing as opposed to what they're doing, because I don't think they're going to change, so we've got to work out what we're going to do.

"Clearly what's happening at the breakdown is a concern, whether it's technique or not getting the right numbers there, we've got to look closely at it.

"I'm convinced we've got the personnel in this touring party to deal with it and I'm just looking forward now to Wednesday," said Woodward, implying the challenge now rests as much on his coaching ticket. Maybe they'll send for Jim Telfer and his famous nose-to-the-dirt rucking drills.

It appears to be a manifold problem. For starters, literally, and as forecast before the tour began, the Lions have generally struggled to impose themselves in the collisions, and this was particularly so against the Maori. And, heaven help them, they've still to bump into the human battering ram that is Jerry Collins and his sidekicks Rodney So'oialo and Richie McCaw in the All Blacks' back row.

Indeed, a striking feature of this tour is how much more dynamic New Zealand backrowers are in contact, whereas the pick of the Home Nations' crop are closer in kind to their secondrow brethren.

Here again, Lawrence Dallaglio looks sorely missed just for his presence, not to mention his leadership, and with Simon Taylor homeward bound too, the options aren't plentiful.

Either taking hits or putting in tackles, the Lions need to start doing so with more variation and explosiveness, stepping off one foot just before contact to either beat the tackle or take on the shoulders rather than full impact.

Then there's the question of numbers. The Maori arrived at the breakdown quicker and lower and rucked harder and more cohesively. Paul O'Connell readily conceded the Lions' problems at the breakdown were down to a lack of aggression and a lack of numbers.

"There seemed to be a lot more black shirts there than red shirts," Woodward conceded with an ironic smile. "We'll spend the morning going through every contact situation, especially with Andy, Gareth Jenkins and Ian McGeechan, who are very experienced in this part of the game. We've got to look at it and see what we're doing on the coaching front and put it right.

"I've been very keen to keep everybody fresh, but maybe we should just up the ante in training a little bit; maybe we've lacked a little bit of contact work we've been doing on the training paddock. But as we get closer to Test matches maybe we should stop making excuses.

"We've had three games, we know what it's going to be like and I don't think the referees coming in (to referee the tests) are going to be any different from the way they referee over here. So you've just got to be smart. We've got some new players coming in - Neil Back will be coming in and it will be interesting to see how he stacks up with all that's going on."

Having mentioned Martyn Williams and Lewis Moody as other contenders for the number seven jersey, Woodward admitted that in McCaw and Marty Holah, who was "outstanding" against the Lions in Hamilton on Saturday, the All Blacks were "spoilt for choice, so it's a big call".

Woodward also said a Test team was starting to form in his head and that the meeting with Wellington on Wednesday was "now a big game". He admitted that, while they're attempting to play a high-tempo game, they would also have to have a look at their "decision making".

An isolated pick-and-go by Richard Hill - easy pickings for the poaching Holah - came to mind. Woodward also highlighted the number of tap penalties the Lions took, particularly the ever-probing Matt Dawson, though the most ill-conceived was one by Michael Owen.

Granted, one of Dawson's trademark taps nearly led to a breakout that put Martyn Williams through and would have led to a match-winning try by Josh Lewsey had he not been taken out off the ball by Piri Weepu. Paul Honiss didn't catch that one, but it would have been a complete steal.

However, the use of these tap penalties, along with the plethora of indirect penalties and incomplete scrums, all contributed to the Lions' failure to lay any foundations. Of some consolation was the resilient defence, MacDonald's try apart, the signs that the beefiest Lions front row in history had some genuine scrummaging power until Andy Sheridan's self-inflicted departure, and the fitness levels, which again saw the Lions finish strongly for the third game running.

But, by then, the game was virtually beyond reach.

It's said that you learn more in defeat than you do in victory, in which case the Lions' setback may be more beneficial than the All Blacks' facile 91-point over Fiji the day before. They've certainly plenty to chew over.

SCORING SEQUENCE

15 mins: Jones pen 0-3; 17 mins: Hill pen 3-3; 25 mins: Hill pen 6-3; 37 mins: Jones pen 6-6; Half-time: 6-6; 59 mins: MacDonald try, McAlister con 13-6; 68 mins: McAlister pen 19-6; 75 mins: O'Driscoll try, Jones con 19-13.

TEAMS

MAORI: L MacDonald: R Gear, R Tipoki, L McAlister, C Ralph; D Hill, P Weepu; D Manu, C Flynn, C Hayman; R Filipo, S Holneck; J Gibbes (capt), M Holah, A MacDonald.

Replacements: C Spencer for Hill (42 mins), G Feek for C Hayman, D Braid for Filipo (72 mins).

LIONS: J Lewsey (London Wasps, England); T Shanklin (Cardiff Blues, Wales), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, Ireland, capt), G D'Arcy (Leinster, Ireland), S Williams (Neath Swansea, Wales); S Jones (Clermont Auvergne, Wales), M Dawson (London Wasps, England); A Sheridan (Sale Sharks, England), S Thompson (Northampton Saints, England), J White (Leicester Tigers, England); S Shaw (London Wasps, England), P O'Connell (Munster, Ireland); R Hill (Saracens, England), M Williams (Cardiff Blues, Wales), M Owen (Newport Gwent Dragons, Wales).

Replacements: S Horgan (Leinster, Ireland) for D'Arcy (22-29 mins), R O'Gara (Munster, Ireland) for Jones (30-36 mins), G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues, Wales) for Owen (42 mins) and for Sheridan (49 mins), S Byrne (Leinster, Ireland) for Thompson (72 mins). Not used: B Kay (Leicester Tigers, England), S Easterby (Llanelli, Ireland), D Peel (Llanelli Scarlets, Wales). Sinbinned: Sheridan (39-49 mins).

Referee: Steve Walsh (New Zealand).