Monday 24 April 2017 19:44, UK
Stuart Barnes on the Lions squad, the European semi-finals, and the plight of fly-halves and their drop goals...
1 - A lot has happened since last Monday's column; Lions announcements, Eddie Jones backing the kids for Argentina, and a weekend of European rugby. Let's start with the latest.
I spoke to an exhausted looking Nigel Owens an hour or so after Clermont knocked Leinster out of the Champions Cup semi-final. His verdict of the match? Outside the international orbit it was the fastest game of rugby he has refereed this season. It confirmed the evidence of the eye.
Clermont came out turbo-injected and sprinted clear with an early 15-0 lead. It was to prove too large a gap for Leinster to make up. There was no leeway for error.
The Irish team fought back in an exhilarating second half, but every time they closed in, a penalty or drop goal would stretch Clermont a little further ahead.
Leinster invoked those demons that haunt the fabulous French club but with the buffer of all those early points, Leinster needed an almost perfect second half to display to win. Good as they were, that was beyond them. They leave with their heads held high.
2 - Amidst all the pyrotechnics of the Clermont game it was the poise, calm and pragmatism of their fly-half, Camille Lopez, which dominated the proceedings.
His decision-making was sound, his restarts excellent and the drop goals quite glorious. For all the power and glory of the game, a rugby brain still goes a long way towards winning matches and, more to the point, titles.
3 - Post-match, Johnny Sexton praised the clutch kicking of Lopez. The Lion's kicking was superb, good news for the Lions, but it was Lopez's decision to accept the responsibility for the drop goal and then to strike the ball so well which defined the game, much as Dan Carter's drop goal did the business against Australia in the last World Cup final.
What a contrast with the trials and tribulations of Brock James. One of the most accomplished rugby players in Europe, James just cannot cope with the pressure.
His nightmares with Clermont returned to haunt him in the colours of La Rochelle as he threw the intercept for Billy Burns' winning Gloucester score, before missing a difficult drop goal and finally an easier - but still not simple - penalty. Oh well, at least he didn't run away from the kick as he did against Leinster in the truly great 2010 quarter-final.
4 - Jules Plisson kicked a cracker of a drop goal to help Stade Francais to what had increasingly looked an unexpected victory in Paris. He had the benefit of a penalty but stroked the drop through the posts from 40m as Bath blew what was an amazing three-try momentum shift.
The French host broadcasters gave the Stade fly-half man of the match, and they gave Lopez man of the match. Never let it be said our friends from across the channel don't like a drop kick.
All very dramatic, but you will not convince me this particular kicking skill is worth 60 per cent of a try.
5 - George Ford was again at the centre of attention. So many lovely touches but he didn't look like nailing the 'choke kicks' in the final moments. Bath should have tapped and ran their final penalty. The French team were out on their feet, four or five phases of possession and the chances of Bath winning the game with a try would have been far greater than Ford booting the ball between the posts.
He missed the attempt to take the game to extra-time with an identical miss to the previous one. Even his many advocates can't deny that the argument to omit him from the Lions tour party has some strength.
6 - So to the Lions - but before that a mention of Saracens. It was all too easy in Dublin after they defied the limited Munster attacking game of the first half. The comfortable nature of the result was something I thoroughly expected.
Munster's limitations were exposed, Saracens' street wisdom revealed for those previously blind to this quality.
As for the Lions, Billy Vunipola was quite brilliant as a carrier, turnover technician, and as a talisman. Taulupe Faletau is a fine player, but the Saracens No 8 has to start, to see if he can force Kieran Read away from those wide channels where he wreaks havoc.
It's an old fashioned phrase but one I always enjoy: 'wreak havoc'. It has a Shakespearian quality to it... I wish my words did.
7 - The more I think about it the more I reckon it was a mistake to omit Dylan Hartley - the set piece is a priority for the Lions. And Hartley, despite a quiet season, is nothing if not a fine thrower.
I thought he showed his mettle against Saracens, and rose to the challenge of Jamie George. The Saracen would have been nervous ahead of last Wednesday's announcement. The England captain understandably disappointed, but didn't he show grace in the immediate aftermath of the announcement.
8 - It is 24 years since I had that horrible Lions selection wait. It's a feeling you never forget, if you are fortunate enough to hear (or read on the BBC CEEFAX back in 1993) your name when the squad makes the mighty transition from speculation to fact.
We all congratulate the tourists but spare a thought for those who were on the plane according to the press one day and forgotten the next.
9 - Just the two Scots... quite some controversy but Hogg and Seymour were the only ones to make my hypothetical party.
What is Warren Gatland expected to do? Pad out the party with a few players he doesn't think are worth a place on the plane because of the colour of their international playing kit? We should be grateful that Gatland is country blind.
10 - If he picks more Welshman than some expected it is not because they are Welsh, per se, but because the manager knows their strengths. This is part of human nature and other than appointing a coach with no link to the four countries, it is going to remain just one of those things.
To Gloucester and Stade, to Saracens and Clermont, good luck. So too for the 41 Lions, coaches and management team. Watching Beauden Barrett play, the Lions will need plenty of it.
PS - Please excuse an absence next week. I am taking a few days away from rugby with Mrs B before the frenzied last few weeks of the season and the flight to New Zealand. I'll be back in a fortnight, see you in Swansea for Ospreys v Ulster on Saturday.
