Ronan O'Gara's Tour Diary: I hadn't known Clive Woodward until this tour but I'm beginning to see how his mind works and at the minute I'm liking the way his mind works, because he's constantly facilitating the players in decision-making.
If he picks his team on a Monday, then on a Thursday he can change it. I wouldn't have seen any other coach work that way. It's quite interesting.
The 22 for Southland were named on Sunday but then last night he watched the game, reviewed it with the coaches and felt that a few of us had enhanced our chances for the Test team. He mentioned about six of us, and I was one of them, but he just felt he'd picked the right 22 for the first Test.
You don't mind that. At least they reviewed it and it leaves you thinking the door is still ajar.
The build-up to the Southland game hadn't been too bad for me because I was one of those who travelled back on Saturday night, but it was tough on those who had to travel from Dunedin to Christchurch on Sunday and on to Invercargill on Monday, with just one session going into the match.
Mentally it takes it out of you. Fellas like Denis (Hickie) and Geordan (Murphy) were pretty wrecked, and with the pace of the game it was pretty tough on the back three.
At the time it was considered we didn't perform that well, but reviewing the video it wasn't as bad as first thought. We threw away the ball too often, but there was some great play. I was quite happy with the way I performed but I think some fellas just didn't play too well and it affected everyone. Some forwards were offloading before contact and Southland were physical, so we paid the price for that. All I can do is control my own situation and I was happy enough.
The missed kick against Otago had irritated me, because it was kickable, and it took the sheen off a good 10 minutes, so I was relieved to kick six out of seven, only missing the one from halfway. But that's the pressure you're under out here. You've got to aim for near perfection every time, and the kicking out of hand has been good all tour. But the Southland wingers were lying so deep it was like kicking to three fullbacks. They've cottoned on to us. We should have made more yards out wide than we did.
The most pleasing thing for me was that I made my tackles. I'd been stewing on the three missed tackles against Bay of Plenty, and because of that I've missed out on consideration for the first Test. I got myself ready for that side of the game. Sometimes you can prepare for the composed, cohesive, quarterback role in your head and that cap doesn't fit out here.
I had been vice-captain from the start and then I captained the Lions for the last 20 minutes. That was brilliant. I didn't really have time to think of it, but by that stage it had become a difficult game, so we took any three-pointers going and kicked any slow ball into the corners.
John Hayes loves this place. He played for two years in Invercargill and the highlight of the tour was Hayes speaking in an official capacity at the after-match function, and to quote his wife, "he spoke more tonight than he did at our wedding". And he spoke maybe 30 words. It was well worth it though. The game might have been disappointing but the Bull stole the show.
The mindset now is just to see how Saturday goes. I think the first Test is the big one for us. I would be confident of a big, big performance, otherwise we could be looking at a long few weeks out here, but I think the boys will do the business.
Obviously the All Blacks are all big names and they could almost intimidate you when you think of them, but it's different when you actually play them.
Like, when I was watching the Maori game and thinking, "Jeez, that's some pace they're playing at" - but then when you went in it was easy. Sometimes they're held in an esteem they shouldn't be. Leon MacDonald is a good player but that's all he is. He's not Christian Cullen at the best of his form, in my opinion.
These fellas look great when the ball is on a silver platter but if you analyse bits of their game when they're under pressure they're a different team. If we can get on the front foot and slow down their ball, we could see a different side to them.
This is a Lions team that has only been seen for a small bit in the Wellington game and I just think there's going to be blast-off on Saturday. They'll come flying out of the traps, because there hasn't been much to go by and they've had a good week's training. This is the one we're all targeting.
(In an interview with Gerry Thornley)
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