Lions ignore pride of the south

Disappointed young players at Milton School will not get to see their favourite Lions players as they expected. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Down at Anton Oliver's South Otago rugby club, the juniors are feeling sore.

For weeks, the Toko club's littlies had been looking forward to seeing how tall Jonny Wilkinson really is.

They were hoping to get a glimpse of speedster Jason Robinson, a clear favourite, and captain Brian O'Driscoll.

Josh Lewsey's fans had even forgiven him for catching the ball with his face, and not his hands, in that infamous knock-on against NZ Maori last weekend.

But Saturday's sausage sizzle at Toko's grounds was cancelled yesterday and the small children were near tears as the Lions tried to play down their public relations disaster.

"It's a storm in a teacup," coach Sir Clive Woodward told One News last night.

Amid reports of friction within the Lions camp, management decided to call off scheduled community sessions across Otago which would have involved those players who are not donning their kit for Carisbrook tomorrow night.

Fifty kilometres south of Dunedin, at Milton Primary School, breeding ground for the Toko Rugby Club, the disappointment was immense.

Sam Still, 8, said that on television the players looked really tall. "You just want to see if Jonny Wilkinson is short. You just want to, like, meet them. You want to get their autograph."

And it was not only Sam and his clubmates who will miss out.

In Central Otago, Alexandra's junior rugby players will also be left out in the cold - even though the visitors would have been helicoptered there and back from Dunedin.

Former Otago players and All Blacks at one of Dunedin's rest homes will be bypassed, as will the Dunedin Hospital children's ward.

"We'd organised a big sausage sizzle, we'd ordered heaps of food and we've had to cancel it all," the Toko club's junior secretary Robyn Mathieson said yesterday, adding that the local businesses had been understanding and were not going to charge the club for the cancelled orders.

"The cost of going to the Lions games is a lot, especially for a family. So it would have been a chance for the kids to see them."

Lions assistant coach Ian McGeechan said yesterday community visits would continue, but the coaches needed quality time with the players.

He said the players had been putting in long days, and the last thing they wanted to do was disappoint anyone.

Former All Black and Otago country player Wayne Graham, who coaches the side facing the Lions tomorrow, had little sympathy for the tourists.

"In this part of the world - and they come from the other side of the world I guess - but in this part of the world it's not how we like to do things.

"It seems a long way from real life, especially in Otago and Otago Country, so from that point of view I think it's very disappointing."

He said the Lions had a large squad, and were struggling to even find them enough rugby to play.

He imagined there would be players with the Lions who would have been keen on seeing some of New Zealand.

"I guess they'll have to come back after the tour and visit.

"I think it's a shame. There must be a lot of people in that camp thinking, what am I here for."

At one Milton dairy, one local was wondering how to tell her son there would be no visit.

"It stinks. No one famous ever visits Milton."

- additional reporting: NZPA