Messy Monday? Messy Situation

The big problem with the timings of the Lions’ squad announcement and their opening match is that there is very little time in between to get the team together. This has caused a situation this week where Saracens and Gloucester have had to release their Lions for the traditional ‘Messy Monday’ even though they have European cup finals at the end of the week.

I understand the necessity of Messy Monday, players and coaches need to build chemistry together both on and off the pitch. They also need to get all their Lions stash, which sounds like enough to fill a couple of cupboards! However Monday is a very important day in the week leading up to a match, so to lose a number of star players on such a crucial day is understandably annoying.

I have some sympathy for Saracens – losing half a dozen of your 1^st XV is certainly disrupting – but it should have been clear there was a chance of them having a considerable number of players picked and as defending champions in the Challenge Cup, there was always a good chance of them being in the final, so why did they not request for the date to be changed when it was originally organised? I haven’t heard any complaints from Gloucester, who were missing 2 players on Monday but have an even shorter build-up with their final being on the Friday evening.

The chance of 2 all-French finals was so low, it does feel that the Lions could have organised it better. In my opinion the meet should have been a week or two earlier. More teams would have had their training weeks affected, but as this is in a week of domestic league matches, the chances are much higher that their opponents would have been in the same situation.

It will be interesting to see what effect it has on the performances of Gloucester and Saracens in these finals. Moriarty is starting for Gloucester with Laidlaw on the bench, though I believe that is more due to Willi Heinz being the form 9 than a lack of readiness. Hopefully nobody at the clubs uses Messy Monday as an excuse if they lose their final!

Regardless of the outcomes, I hope we won’t be having the same complaints 4 years from now.

Family first

I’m sure that many of the rugby family will have joined me in sending their thoughts the way of the Youngs family this week after the news broke that Ben Youngs was pulling out of the Lions tour after finding out his brother Tom’s wife was terminally ill.

The chance to play for the Lions is a fantastic opportunity that many players will never get, so turning down the chance of touring New Zealand with the Lions in order to spend time with the family is a big decision. Ben will be 31 once the next tour comes around, and with a number of impressive young scrum halves starting to come through, there is no guarantee that he will be pushing for selection come the next tour. Luckily he was part of the last tour to Australia, alongside Tom, so he has still had the chance to experience the Lions and will have likely considered a victorious tour with his brother even more special.

I was very interested by Matt Dawson’s recent comments that he would have probably gone on the tour but later regretted it. Personally I feel that Ben has made the right decision here and have complete admiration for him. It is nice to see a player putting family before personal gain in a time when fans begin to worry if rugby is becoming too much about the money.

Though I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted to make the squad in these circumstances, I am happy for Greig Laidlaw, who has been called up in his place. If it hadn’t been for an awfully timed injury in the 6 Nations, I think that Laidlaw would have been pushing Youngs hard for the third scrum half position in the initial squad. He is a great player in his own right and plays a different style of game, allowing the Lions more variety in their style of play.

Ben Youngs’ actions this week are the perfect example of showing what is most important in life. Rugby may be life, but at times like this family should always come first.

What are your thoughts on these stories? Comment on here or feel free to tweet me @PS_tetheridge