Coaches accuse Lions of cheating

The phoney war gathers pace as accusations in the Australian media of supposed Lions wrongdoings continue daily; indeed it just seems too darned good not to be orchestrated.

Having moved on, for the moment at any rate, from the dirty Lions of 1989 to Eddie Jones's claims of Lions skullduggery in advance of Australia A's win over the sheepish tourists on Tuesday, yesterday the Australian newspapers quoted Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen and New South Wales coach Bob Dwyer at length, under various headings such as "Lions are cheating, say rival coaches", "Dwyer hits at Lions' low tactics" and "Macqueen and Dwyer say infringing Lions should be whistled off the park".

Ye Gods. Did those dastardly Lions put somebody in hospital or kidnap someone? Actually, Macqueen accused the Lions of twisting the scrum before the putin and of impeding opposing catchers in the lineout before landing.

"I felt the Lions had been getting away with that. But it was well policed in the Australia A game. It was good to see that being picked up. Hopefully that solves those problems leading into the first Test."

Meanwhile, Dwyer claimed the Lions had a negative, spoiling defensive mindset. "If they don't want to give away penalties, then stop doing illegal things. Their whole defensive pattern is aimed at slowing the ball down at the breakdown." However, Dwyer added that the Lions had played outstandingly with the ball. "The pace and accuracy of their game is first class."

In response, Lions forwards coach Andy Robinson declined to comment as to whether these comments were a ploy to influence the referees but he did admit that the scrums were a concern.

"We've put a lot of emphasis on the scrum but at present half the scrums are ending up with free-kicks and penalties. The scrum is an integral part of rugby union, but at the moment it seems to be like rugby league, with non-contestable (scrums), which is affecting the very nature of the game."

They will meet with match referee Scott Young today. "There are some technical difficulties we've got at the moment in terms of interpretation. In the Northern Hemisphere we like to scrummage, and looking at Tuesday night's game we weren't allowed to scrummage at any stage."

Robinson said the Lions would own up to conceding penalties at the breakdown, though denied they were persistently infringing as much as Macqueen and Dwyer were claiming, particularly at the scrum. "And if you look at what happened at our driving play from the lineout I think we were impeded every time because the only way the Australians could stop us was to drag down, and part of that was very dangerous 'cos the guy rolled on the ground, which is highly illegal."

This one could run and run.