Howley insists bonding is the way to success

THE PAIN that creased his face and the sobbing anguish that seeped out on being told his tour was over are two graphic images of Rob Howley familiar to those who have watched the documentary of the 1997 Lions tour to South Africa, entitled Living with the Lions 1.

Howley dislocated his shoulder in the fifth match of that tour, ending his participation and four years on misfortune visited him again, this time while playing in the second Test with the Lions against Australia. Rib damage brought the curtain down prematurely. The Welshman hasn’t been able to watch the footage of the 1997 tour but laughs when recalling that his children have.

He’s once again in South Africa with the Lions albeit this time as backs’ coach, a role he feels should allow him to make it to the end of the tour. He laughed: “I’m sure with the tracksuit on I am able to stay away from the physicality.”

The composition of head coach Ian McGeechan’s backroom team has a distinctly Wales/Wasps hue, guaranteeing a compatibility factor that Howley believes will allow a consensus approach in fast tracking the development of units and combinations within the Lions squad.

He explained: “I can only describe (how) the players (felt) when they arrived on Monday and Tuesday (of last week) and saw only one coaching team starting off on a point and knowing where we want to go; I think that gave the players great confidence and I’m sure having seen the last three or four days of hard work that they have bonded.

“The chemistry is there and many of you would know on a tour that chemistry is going to be really important. We all know that coming up to the fourth or fifth week when the pressure is on the chemistry, that work ethic that has been put in will be a foundation for that success or failure.

“We spoke about giving the players every opportunity to put their stake on a Test jersey. The easiest thing, if I put my player’s hat on, was being selected for the 36 (man squad). Now it is how good you are, how we are going to challenge you to get into the 22, the 15. That’s the challenge that lies ahead for them in the next few weeks.”

And indeed for those selected in Saturday’s game against the Royal XV, a composite team that one local paper described as a mish-mash of Section B players. Howley was more diplomatic in anticipating the challenge that the Lions’ first opponents are likely to pose.

“The game on Saturday is the next game and (therefore) the hardest game. I think if you have had the experience of wearing a Lions jersey, you’d appreciate it’s a unique opportunity for the Royal XV. Not many players have an opportunity to play against that badge. It’ll be a hard game, that’s the message we are transmitting to our players.

“They expect every game to be physical and hard. That’s what we anticipate and that’s what South African rugby is about. I think it is really important to get the units and combinations together from the first moment.”

GRIQUAS BACKBONE ROYAL XV TO FACE LIONS

ELEVEN PLAYERS from the GWK Griquas have been included in the starting line-up for the Royal XV team to play the Lions in Rustenburg on Saturday.

Coach Chaka Willemse opted to name most of the players who were part of Griquas’ Vodacom Cup-winning side for the game, which will be the first for the Lions on their 10-match tour of South Africa.

The other four players in the team that will run out at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace come from the Platinum Leopards, including captain Wilhelm Koch – a relative of former Springbok prop Chris Koch, who played against the Lions in 1955.

Willemse gave preference to players with Super 14 experience, with Naas Olivier, Sarel Pretorius, Bjorn Basson, Bees Roux (all Cheetahs) and Deon van Rensburg (Lions), all of whom played regularly at Super 14 level this season, set to start.

The Lions have six matches before the first of three Test matches against the world champions on June 20th in Durban.

ROYAL XV(v Lions, Rustenburg, Saturday): R Jeacocks; E Seconds, D van Rensburg, H Coetzee, B Basson; N Olivier, S Pretorius; J Mokuena, D Raubenheimer, W Koch, J Lombaard, R Mathee, B Roux, R Barnes, A Buckle. Replacements:P van der Westhuizen, S Roberts, R Landman, RW Kember, J Coetzee, R Viljoen, J Bowles.