Rugby: Lions prepped for 'rugby chaos'

Now that they are set for a run against a string of New Zealand Super Rugby teams, the British and Irish Lions have been preparing for their own version of "rugby chaos", a departure in game plan which could see them getting lost in the ensuing confusion.

A review of their 13-7 disappointment in Whangarei against the Provincial Barbarians brought home to the Lions the fact that Southern Hemisphere teams prefer their rugby to be based around ball movement and speed of thought rather than the structure of scrums and lineouts.

At Toll Stadium, the Lions had only one attacking lineout, a remarkable statistic which said much about the Barbarians' willingness to run the ball from their everywhere. There were only nine scrums in total.

The feeling from the coaching staff is that the players have to adapt to that unstructured style too, starting tomorrow night against the Blues at Eden Park, a team which has as their modus operendi an off-the-cuff style - chaos personified.

"That's rugby in the southern hemisphere," attack coach Rob Howley said today. "That's how the majority of Super Rugby sides play. It's from chaos..."

The New Zealand Super teams are out by themselves in terms of the opportunities they create from kick returns and turnovers. "It's the ability to react in those situations and don't get left behind - get ahead of the game - and that's in terms of support lines and handling skills," said Howley. "That's the key."

The danger for the Lions is that they could attempt to mimic that style without the necessary skills and background. As Howley said, this is a talented group of players and there is X-factor aplenty, but for many of them the structured game is a comfortable one.

Playing a different style could take them to places they don't want to go.

"The one thing we need to do is obviously work on our foundations, to put in some principles of the way we want to play, and [to have] a framework by which the players have the ability to play what's in front of them," said Howley, who is on his third Lions tour as a coach.

"Rugby is dictated by speed of ball, numbers in the defensive line, and it's important that we're able to adapt and play what we see. The one thing which I think the players really enjoyed is what we call 'rugby chaos' - 15 against 15. It's very unstructured.

"Obviously we're all aware of the pace of the game in the southern hemisphere and it's really important that we get up to speed as quickly as possible. And that's a challenge for us as coaches - to learn about our players on a daily basis and put them under pressure in terms of time on the ball, fatigue, or in terms of numbers."

All the New Zealand Super Rugby sides can be deadly from broken play, and all have the ability to punish opposition mistakes. The Lions should tread carefully.