Now We Have Hope

IN the stock-take of one of the great Lions expeditions what stands out like Kieran Read’s sore thumb is that the force field of invincibility surrounding the All Blacks has been vaporised by the 2017 tourists.

- Nick Cain

The superman myth that the All Blacks and their acolytes in the New Zealand media, and among their sponsors, work overtime to ensure is operational around the clock has been dismantled by the drawn series.

That does not mean that New Zealand’s claim to being the strongest team on the world stage is redundant, and it is certainly not part of a thesis that the All Blacks have suddenly been transformed from double world champions to no-hopers simply because they lost a Test to the Lions and drew another.

However, what it has done is reveal that the All Blacks are mortals, with the same fault-lines as any other team when they are put under pressure. Having written in The Rugby Paper’s Lions Special after the squad announcement in April that the 2017 All Blacks were beatable – rather than the invincibles they had been touted to be by friend and foe alike – it was a privilege to be in New Zealand over the last seven weeks to see a team with the character and ability to prove the point.

In the process, what the Lions have done is to give other rugby nations hope.

Hope is one of the most powerful weapons there is in sport, and it means that in the two years between now and the 2019 World Cup, teams in the Six Nations will face New Zealand with a renewed confidence that they can be knocked from their pedestal. Australia, South Africa and Argentina will also no doubt be poring over Warren Gatland’s Lions blueprint for tactical inspiration before the Rugby Championship gets underway.

What all New Zealand’s opponents will have in common is knowing that in the space of seven weeks a scratch team drawn in the end from three nations rather than four – because no Scots played in the Test series – came so close to beating them on their own soil.