Sean Fitzpatrick: Lions will have the talent to test All Blacks

1993 LionsSean Fitzpatrick and Jason Robinson come from different sides of the rugby spectrum in every sense, but this week the indestructible former All Black captain and the dazzling Lions and wing found common cause. The first unifying factor is that the 2017 Lions status as underdogs is guaranteed given that, since their whitewash of a 2005 Lions side that included Robinson, New Zealand have lost just three times in their last 65 Tests at home.
However, despite that colossal All Black record, both men are staunch advocates of the Lions, and believe that the best of British & Irish will be worthy contenders against the world champions, and are capable of causing a massive inter-hemisphere upset next year.
Although ‘Fitzy' is revered as one of the most durable and successful captains New Zealand have had, leading his country 51 times, the hooker has never forgotten the close call against the 1993 Lions early in his tenure.
Fitzpatrick recalled the roughest week of his career in the more convivial environment of a midweek launch to announce the New Zealand winery, Mud House, as the latest of the 2017 Lions commercial partners. Enjoying the view from New Zealand House's panoramic penthouse suite just off Piccadilly Circus, he said that in the week between the second Test, when the tourists levelled the series with an emphatic win in Wellington, and the decisive third Test in Auckland, “the whole nation turned on us”.
Fitzpatrick's side rose to the challenge to clinch the series, and when the Lions – and Robinson – returned 12 years later, it was business as usual according to the England wing. However, while his eye-witness assessment is that with the likes of Richie McCaw and Dan Carter flexing their youthful muscle, Clive Woodward's 2005 tourists were on a hiding to nothing, he is upbeat about their 2017 counterparts.
Robinson says: “When I played in NZ in 2005 we played against a very good team, and got beaten 3-0. So, in the back of the boys' minds, they will want to go out to NZ and put in some very good results. They are playing ten games, many against the best club/provincial teams, and three Tests. That's a huge ask, and the question is can they do it? That's what gets everyone going.”
Robinson's answer? “It's 40 years or more since the last series win (in 1971), but you've got to dream, and to believe you can go out there and do it.”
Fitzpatrick says that while work is required on fitness and skills to fuel that dream – as has highlighted since taking charge of England – whoever is in charge of the 2017 side, with the winning 2013 Lions coach Warren Gatland the favourite, will have talent to burn.
Fitzy predicts England changes
Fitzpatrick adds: “They've definitely got the players. For instance, Eddie Jones is picking players maybe an Englishman wouldn't have picked, like the Maro Itojes and Jack Cliffords. I think we'll see a change in this English team over the summer. The Six Nations will play out, and then I think players will be moved aside and young kids brought in.”
He predicts that those youngsters will get a tilt at the Lions tour: “England and Wales have been winning or in the finals of U20 World Cups, and where are those players going? Now the Itojes of the world are being given an opportunity, whereas in New Zealand that would have happened straight away – the Richie McCaws as 21-years-olds would have been thrown in there. Good luck buddy, if you're okay you'll play! Having an Australian as a coach, or someone from the Southern Hemisphere, they're willing to do that. Gatland has done that, and Jones has definitely done that.”
Fitzpatrick says the current Six Nations campaign has also picked up after a slow start. “I love it more than any other tournament I watch, and a lot of it is to do with the history. Everyone was a bit disappointed that after the World Cup the quality of the rugby hasn't been the same, and I think everyone would admit that. But it is getting better every week they play.”
Robinson says he's been impressed by the firepower in the back three across all four of the Home Unions.
“Anthony Watson has made some real good progress, and the World Cup was a step-up for him. He's got electric pace, great footwork, and an appetite to get better. It's good to see – and it's good to see the England boys get some ball. Jack Nowell has also been a handful, but you've also got guys who've already done things like George North who is still a young guy. Then you've got  Dave
Kearney from and Tim Visser from Scotland, and all eyes are on who is getting the edge at the moment, and who can maintain it going into a Lions year.”
Robinson says the tour will come round, “in the blink of an eye”, and that despite the retirements of All Black icons like McCaw and Carter, the world champions will be looking to re-assert their global dominance.
NZ's Little Big Man
 Jason RobinsonRobinson, above, is an admirer, in particular, of the big things that one of the smallest men in the New Zealand 2015 World Cup winning side, wing Nehe Milner-Skudder, has achieved already.
“Milner-Skudder is brilliant. There's so much talk about big wingers, and has been for a long time, and sometimes, probably because I'm a midget myself I get a bit annoyed with it. Being on the wing is about taking people on, and that's not just running through people, and, as we saw in the World Cup, Milner-Skudder's got exceptional feet and also great hands. He might not be the tallest but what he brings as an attacking threat – and not just on the wing, but infield against a few forwards getting off the deck – is electric, and he's got the pace to finish it off.
Robinson, whose rapidity and mesmerising footwork earned him the nickname ‘Billy Whizz', says that England, and the Lions, could have a similar threat in Christian Wade – who was a late replacement for the Lions in 2013.
“When you look at Wade in the Premiership for , where he consistently beats people and scores tries, I think ‘wow!' But there seems to be this question-mark over him, mainly over his defence. Certain things like that you can work on, so why people don't say look, ‘with that talent we can work on it', I don't know.”
Fitzpatrick and Robinson concur that while losing players of the calibre of McCaw and Carter will make a dent, they would not describe New Zealand as vulnerable.
Fitzpatrick's assessment is that there will be an initial readjustment this season: “You are never going to replace players like that, but what I love about (coach) Steve Hansen and those guys is the way they've built this team. Of the 31 players at the World Cup any one of those could've started the 2015 final and we wouldn't have lost too much. In leadership, in Super Rugby we're seeing the Hurricanes struggling without Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith, so it will take a bit of time.”
However, he is bullish about the being equipped to repel the Lions invasion come 2017.
“The thing that's so important to us is it's only once every 12 years. That's why guys like Brodie Retallick and Julian Savea, who potentially were going to play in have said, no, we're going to stay for 2017 because we want to play against the Lions. So, the All Blacks are going to be difficult to beat. The Lions will have a job on their hands to win two Tests when NZ have only lost three at home since 2005.”
Both legends point to the recent appointment of Kieran Read as All Black captain as immediately giving them ballast, but Fitzpatrick believes he will have to thrive under pressure.
“I was a bit surprised they named him straight away. Read was always going to be All Black captain and to name him at the start of the Super Rugby season is maybe a way of saying we need to be solid going forward and have stability. But, straight away he's been put under pressure, and there will be players trying to knock him off.”
Coach and captain clear cut
 Warren Gatland Sam WarburtonFitzpatrick says the Lions also have no need to hunt around for a coach or captain thanks to the successful 2013 tour of , and the continued availability of the Welsh duo, Warren Gatland, and  , above,. He also concedes that having a Kiwi like Gatland returning as Lions coach will be a novelty,  given the inside-track in local knowledge he has.
“Gatland is obviously the front-runner. He knows it better than anyone — he lives in NZ, doesn't he? He commutes up here. They will definitely go for a home nations coach, not a Wayne Smith, and he'd say let's get the best people involved around me.
“I would imagine if Eddie Jones is available he'd be the first to say he needs to be part of this team. I don't know why they wouldn't take all of the (Home Unions) coaches. Warburton's probably the best in terms of an incumbent winning Lions captain, and then maybe you throw in and Rory Best.”
Robinson is also behind Gatland's candidacy on the basis that he's been there and done it – and he also makes a case for including Jones in the mix.
“On a Lions tour you need your best players and your best coaches. What impressed me about what Eddie did with is how they went about their business and the consistency of their performances, and I see little things that he's doing with England already, and I like it. Pooling that knowledge can only be a benefit – as long as they get on, because you're working with some big characters.”
As Fitzpatrick and Robinson finished their interviews the sound of the hour striking at nearby Big Ben filtered into the penthouse, making you wonder for whom the giant bell tolled.
Was it the 2017 Lions, and their mission to become the first side to win a series in NZ since 1971, or the All Blacks, and their desire to keep their double world champion status unblemished?
The prospect is tantalising, and the countdown to find out has begun.

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