Press spins out of control over Lions

The Lions share a joke yesterday, ahead of the first test. Picture / Mark Mitchell

When it comes to covering a rugby match, even the most fetid mud can take on a splendidly rosy glow depending on your point of view.

Take the Lions muddled victory against Southland on Tuesday as witnessed through the pens of British, Irish and New Zealand reporters.

Independent viewers would probably struggle to remember any significant contribution from a Scottish player, but that didn't prevent the Edinburgh Evening News from splashing with the headline "Scots help Henson to Shine for Lions".

Apparently the two try heroics of Charlotte Church's squeeze Gavin Henson would have been impossible without the second half substitutions that saw a Scottish halfback and prop enter the fray.

A bit sad really. But then according to the radio commentary featuring such Southland luminaries as former All Black Paul "Ginge" Henderson, the substitutions were a desperate response to the blowtorch pressure from the home team.

Their description of the Lions' effort was so dismissive that the tourists' second try was all but ignored as the Southern men continued to roll their Rs over the Stags' chances of pulling off an unlikely upset.

Once the result was known, New Zealand news sources detailed Southland's perennially low NPC status to denigrate the Lions win, whereas their foreign counterparts almost omitted mention of the local players, although the picture gallery at the Daily Telegraph did manage to turn Stags midfielder Faolua Muliaina into Mils, his younger brother who will be warming the All Black bench on Saturday.

Welsh coverage saw the Western Mail get it's head firmly stuck in the valleys. When it wasn't spluttering over Gavin Henson's test omission, the newspaper was lauding the captaincy of their own Michael Owen, the impact of substitute Tom Shanklin, and named Henson and Welsh loose forward Martyn "all-action" Williams as Lions on the up.

The Irish Times talked up the 16 points contributed by tackle-shy first-five Ronan O'Gara and said fullback Geordan Murphy, a player with "work to do" according to the Western Mail, had showed Lions coach Sir Clive he was still pressing for test selection.

In contrast the English took the middle ground, slammed everybody and relegated their match reports below Tim Henman's latest doomed Wimbledon campaign and the Formula One debacle in the United States.

The Independent ridiculed the game and said the Lions' decision-making exhibited such "spectacular incompetence that it beggared belief".