Gavin Hastings - Legacy of the Lions: Lessons in Leadership from the British & Irish Lions

LEGACY OF

THE LIONS

LEGACY OF

THE LIONS

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP FROM
THE BRITISH & IRISH LIONS

GAVIN HASTINGS

with PETER BURNS

POLARIS PUBLISHING LTD

c/o Aberdein Considine
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Text copyright Gavin Hastings and Peter Burns, 2021

ISBN: 9781913538378
eBook ISBN: 9781913538385

The right of Gavin Hastings and Peter Burns to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Trademark and Copyright in the Lions Badge is owned by British & Irish Lions DAC

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Designed and typeset by Polaris Publishing, Edinburgh
Printed in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

CONTENTS

To Diane and my family,
who I love more with each passing day.

PROLOGUE

EDEN PARK. SATURDAY, 8 July 2017.

A light rain was falling, visible against the bright lights that illuminated the green stage before us. It was a field I had played on in the blue of Scotland and the red of the Lions. But I wasnt playing now. Those days were long behind me. I was seated in the stands, watching a new generation of Lions battling to make their mark on history, their red shirts contrasting wonderfully with the black of New Zealand, which seemed to absorb the light like a collapsing star. The packed stadium was hushed as Owen Farrell, the Lions No.12, lined up a shot at goal. Forty-eight metres out, just off-centre of the posts, the pressure of four nations on his shoulders. He had kicked sensationally throughout the tour and in the Test series in particular and despite the significance of these three points, he looked calm and assured as he ran through his kicking routine, as if he were on a training ground back home rather than at the epicentre of the rugby world.

He hit the kick, the ball sailed true. It was 1515.

Less than three minutes remained on the clock the final moments of a thrilling, exhausting, pulsating, extraordinary three-match Test series that was locked at one game-all.

Forget the pressure of four nations, as the teams regrouped for the restart there was the pressure of over a hundred years of history between the Lions and the All Blacks pressing down on the shoulders of every player on the field, on the bench and on the coaching staff on the sidelines, while 50,000 sets of eyes gazed from the stands, millions more watched on TV. Only once in all those years had the Lions emerged victorious in a Test series against the All Blacks. Now Sam Warburtons men were, perhaps, just over two minutes away from scoring the points they needed to secure a win that would give them rugby immortality. But so too were the All Blacks just a score away from maintaining the great legacy of their predecessors.

Huddled against the cold of that dark midwinter Auckland night, I struggled to sit still. The excitement, the energy of these moments it was everything that makes Test-match rugby the remarkable spectacle that it is.

Li-ons, Li-ons, Li-ons...

The chant reverberated around the ground. Eden Park, a stronghold that hadnt seen an All Blacks defeat since 1994, was awash with red. It was like that the whole series, Kieran Read, the All Black skipper, told me later, with a shake of his head at the memory. I remember getting a real shock when we ran out for the first Test. We dont normally get many away fans down here in New Zealand, but it felt like the whole bloody place was dressed in red. I still dont understand how they got so many tickets. Three Tests at home and each time most of the crowd were Lions fans.

The clock hit seventy-eight minutes as Beauden Barrett, the magician in the All Black No.10 shirt, spun the ball in his hand on halfway and prepared to kick off. Right, win this restart, commanded my old Lions teammate, Stuart Barnes, commentating for Sky Sports. Meanwhile, in the New Zealand commentary box, former All Black scrum-half Justin Marshall noted: Whoever gets the ball gets the last chance.

Barrett nudged the kick to his right. It hung for a moment and then dropped just over the ten-metre line. A perfect restart for his chasing forwards to contest and it spooked the Lions, who scrambled desperately to get into position to reclaim possession. The Lions full back Liam Williams, who had been stationed nearby, backpedalled and leapt for the ball just as Miles Harrison, Barnes co-commentator, said, Its all about the restart

Kieran Read had led the All Black charge and arrived almost simultaneously to Williams, his huge hand reaching up between Williams arms towards the ball, managing to throw the Welshman off from catching it cleanly. The ball tipped off Williams hand and tumbled forward. Ken Owens, the Lions hooker, had also been racing back to cover the kick. He caught the ball before reason and his knowledge of the laws registered that he was in an offside position. He dropped the ball as if it were suddenly made of molten rock and threw his hands in the air to signal his innocence. Nothing to see here, sir...

But referee Romain Poite blew his whistle, his arm raised in the All Blacks favour.

My stomach lurched. Oh my God... Its a penalty. Hes offside. I can still feel that moment. The Lions team I had captained to New Zealand in 1993 had suffered a similar fate in the dying moments of the first Test and Grant Fox, the All Blacks No.10, had kicked the contentious penalty to win the game.