Lions Tour: Amid fears that the tour might implode, the Midweek Massive, as they've been labelled within the Lions squadron, kept up their end of the bargain in Eden Park yesterday. This victory completed their unbeaten tour with a fifth win in five games under Ian McGeechan and co.
In the process it can surely have done the "frontliners" in Saturday's dead rubber at the same venue no harm. Not that the togetherness that pulled them through this at times backs-to-the-wall effort is necessarily a barometer of the squad's esprit de corps.
One of the striking features of this tour, if the contrasting body language of the coaching teams is anything to go by, and off-the-record murmurings, is that the dirt-trackers - for all their personal disappointments at not making Test selections - have had more fun.
Aside from seemingly enjoying the tour more, the rapport between the midweekers' coaching ticket of McGeechan, Gareth Jenkins and Mike Ford looks much greater. Granted, their Saturday counterparts are under much more pressure, but by all accounts have held longer sessions with comparatively less time in the way of light relief.
Admittedly they've also had to face up to eminently more exacting opposition for the most part, but even so this Auckland side were undoubtedly the toughest provincial opposition the Lions have faced, if only because they had so much individual running threats.
The conditions weren't unhelpful either, as the forecast downpours and spot flooding never materialised, and a near sell-out crowd of 47,500 for a Tuesday night fixture in the City of Sails was further proof of this tour's success in many ways.
Despite another surface where you could have rolled a coin from one side of the pitch to the next, the game didn't exactly flow like water; nor was it helped by the predictably pedantic performance of referee Steve Walsh. Yet most of the crowd remained to cheer the sides on their respective laps of honour, proof that the game was always interesting, enjoyable and richly competitive.
For the most part, Auckland's dangerman, Joe Rokocoko, was kept under wraps by Denis Hickie, as were the home side generally. However, the spirit of Carlos Spencer lives on, and outhalf Tasesa Lavea, midfielders Sam Tuitupou and Ben Atiga and left winger Isa Nacewa all carried a running threat, especially from broken play or turnovers.
Auckland's backs hit the rucks harder and lower to produce quicker ball, and ran with more ambition, backing themselves individually, and came on to the ball with more depth. If Spencer hadn't flown the coup, if Lavea had a kicking game, or if poor Semisis Telefoni - Auckland's fifth-choice hooker in his first competitive outing for them - not telegraphed his lobbed throw-ins to the extent that the Lions' defensive lineout pilfered nine throws while losing none of their own, you'd venture the tourists would have had to find another gear or three.
It wasn't the prettiest, but it was gutsy. About the most disappointing aspect of the Lions performance, especially given there were five Irish backs on the pitch for the last half-hour, was the relative lack of penetration in the backplay.
There were moments throughout the game when they carried a threat, but what potency there was tended to be spasmodic and individualistic. Charlie Hodgson ran fast and positively a couple of times early on, and when Ronan O'Gara came on after Hodgson sustained a bang on the nose which affected his breathing, he distributed the ball swiftly through the hands, inviting those outside him to run on to.
Gordon D'Arcy ran well in contact and tackled well in possibly his best game, still without looking the elusive, gamebreaking force of last season.
Shane Horgan also took the Lions over the gain line with his belated half hour at centre and tackled and forced turnovers.
Yet despite these inroads the Lions struggled to recycle and maintain continuity in the face of aggressive and often illegal Auckland work at the breakdown.
Up front, John Hayes had probably his best game of the tour, holding the scrum up and working hard around the pitch. Simon Shaw also figured prominently in open play when the Lions were in the first-half ascendancy, but they seemed to lose a little of their momentum with the departure of Hayes and the ultra-physical Jason White.
Those who put their Test credentials forward the best were Matt Dawson and Mark Cueto. Dawson brought all his experience to bear, forever sniping, making big defensive plays and the right decisions, while Cueto augmented his typically elusive and strong running with some brave defending and lengthy kicking. He looks a good deal more complete winger at the moment than either Jason Robinson or Shane Williams.
Indeed, his individual spark effectively proved to be the Lions' match-winner. Taking a counter-attacking crossfield pass from Geordan Murphy on the bounce and stepping outside the onrushing Nacewa as he did so just inside half-way, Cueto embarked on a typically pacy, elusive run past three more opponents.
When the ball was recycled close to the line, Dawson cleverly probed the blind side to put Martyn Williams over in the corner. Coming on the stroke of half-time, it gave the Lions a 14-3 lead.
That might have been more had Denis Hickie not held on to a perfectly weighted crosskick by O'Gara, or had Mr Walsh taken sterner action with Justin Collins for tackling Williams before he took a try-scoring offload by Will Greenwood after O'Gara and Michael Owen had probed. To compound this, he then reversed his decision when Ben Kay and Tuitupou exchanged punches which left the departing Leicester lock with an immediate bruise the size of a golf ball.
However, after Brent Ward had landed another angled penalty, Auckland got back to within a point when first Lavea burst through a gap between O'Gara and Brent Cockbain for Ward to put Nacewa over from the recycle.
Auckland looked the likelier winners for a while, and Ward hit the post with another angled penalty. But O'Gara steadied the ship with a couple of huge kicks to the corner and a coolly-slotted penalty.
For a little while, it was just like being in Thomond Park.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 5 mins: Hodgson 0-3; 28: O'Gara pen 0-6; 31: Ward pen 3-6; 37: O'Gara pen 3-9; 39: Williams try 3-14; (half-time 3-14); 54: Ward pen 6-14; 64: Nacewa try, Ward con 13-14; 77: O'Gara pen 13-17.
AUCKLAND: B Ward; I Nacewa, B Atiga, S Tuitopou, J Rokocoko; T Lavea, S Devine; S Taumoepeau, S Telefoni, J Afoa, B Mika, B Williams, J Collins (capt), D Braid, A MacDonald. Replacements: J Kaino for Mika (45 mins), K Haiu for MacDonald (68 mins), G Williams for Nacewa (71 mins), J Fonokalafi for Telefoni, I Toe'ava for Atiga (both 77 mins). Not used: C Heard, T Moa.
LIONS: G Murphy (Leicester Tigers, Ireland); M Cueto (Sale Sharks, England), W Greenwood (NEC Harlequins, England), G D'Arcy (Leinster, Ireland), D Hickie (Leinster, Ireland); C Hodgson (Sale Sharks, England), M Dawson (London Wasps, England); G Rowntree (Leicester, England) G Bulloch (Glasgow, Scotland, capt), J Hayes (Munster, Ireland), S Shaw (London Wasps, England), B Kay (Leicester Tigers, England), J White (Sale Sharks, Scotland), M Williams (Blues, Wales), M Owen (Dragons, Wales). Replacements: R O'Gara (Munster, Ireland) for Hodgson (21 mins), B Cockbain (Ospreys, Wales) for Kay (36 mins), M Corry (Leicester Tigers, England) for White (48 mins), S Horgan (Leinster, Ireland) for Greenwood (51 mins), M Stevens (Bath, England) for Hayes (60 mins). Not used: A Titterrell (Sale Sharks, England), C Cusiter (Borders, Scotland).
Referee: Steve Walsh (New Zealand).
