All Blacks 21-24 Lions: where the second Test was won and lost | Paul Rees | Sport

All Blacks 21-24 Lions: where the second Test was won and lost | Paul Rees | Sport

The turning point was not so much the sending-off of Sonny Bill Williams but the yellow card Mako Vunipola received 15 minutes into the second half, when New Zealand had taken control. The Lions had struggled with a man advantage, failing to take the initiative, but when it was 14 versus 14 they started playing like the All Blacks, scenting weakness and moving in for the kill.

1) Role reversal part two

In the first Test, New Zealand confounded their opponents by taking some of their plays from the Warrenball manual and in Wellington the Lions turned a nine-point deficit into victory by sensing opportunity and exploiting advantage.

Their opening try, scored by Taulupe Faletau, was engineered within seconds of the All Blacks replacing their injured wing Waisake Naholo. Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell combined to hold the midfield defence and provide Faletau with the space out wide to attack the line. Naholo would have taken some running through but the lighter Israel Dagg was covering the right wing and offered the resistance of a speed bump.

A consequence of Williams’s red card was New Zealand sacrificing a wing forward, Jerome Kaino, to keep their midfield intact and an unguarded ruck led to the Lions’ second try. Farrell’s penalty won the match, but the Lions playing what was in front of them in the final 21 minutes, in the mode of New Zealand, set up the victory.

2) Rain men

Every year, excuses are made in the Six Nations about how the weather pours cold water on ambition. It is a school of thought that reckons without rain in the New Zealand winter and it duly hosed down in Wellington. The Lions would have got the weather forecast before picking Sexton and Farrell and so made a conscious decision to play in the wet rather than kick the ball all evening.

If it broke Six Nations wisdom, one of the most compelling matches in the modern era was played at the old Athletic Park in Wellington, in 1996, when it rained even harder. The All Blacks, in the inaugural match of the Tri-Nations, ran and handled so devastatingly that they submerged Australia 43-6.

The Lions were not quite in that class but from the opening plays when Jonathan Davies flicked a pass out of the back of his hand and Sexton twice created space with subtle touches, there was an intent about the Lions that New Zealand could not match or, ultimately, thwart, an attitude that needs to return home with them.

3) Lock jaw

For all the changes made by the Lions, the decision to retain Alun Wyn Jones in the second row after he failed to make an impact in Auckland was cited on social media as a bias selection by Warren Gatland; as if a coach preparing for a seminal moment in his coaching career, never mind one as hard-nosed as Gatland, would be bothered by where a player came from. If the lineout, initially at least, suffered without George Kruis, with two throws lost, Jones smashed into rucks as the Lions put pressure on the scrum-half, Aaron Smith. In Auckland, New Zealand had foxed the Lions by playing through nine rather than 10, but in the second Test they could do neither, even before Williams’s dismissal.

The All Blacks â€" and this showed how they were being so squeezed by the speed of the Lions around the fringes that they were unable to think their way out of trouble â€" needed the half-time interval to regroup. When they returned, they used Ngani Laumape to take the ball up. Starved of possession, the Lions conceded penalties and looked on their way to a series defeat until Vunipola’s yellow card stirred them to shake New Zealand.

4) Breakdown covered

The clown had the last laugh. The New Zealand media have spent the past month scoffing at the generally uninspiring standard of rugby in the four home unions and not without reason. They widened the mockery to include Gatland, a New Zealander considered to have turned into a European in terms of his vision of how the game should be played.

Gatland, like all motivated Kiwis through the ages, is a pragmatist, devising a way to win. A team written off as set-piece bullies won in Wellington through their dominance at the breakdown, where they were aided by the removal of Kaino, not so much in the quick ball they generated but in making a mess of New Zealand’s.

Smith had to rush many of his kicks and he was always under pressure when he passed. The Lions matched their line speed in midfield by leaving no gaps around the fringes, forcing the All Blacks to either kick or play behind the gainline. It is a tribute to New Zealand that, despite playing a man down for nearly an hour and being unable to get their offloading game going, they lost to a penalty three minutes from the end. If the Lions do it again, it will be an even bigger feat.

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