It looks pretty grim up North

If these Lions are smart, they will go back home and have a serious look at their various domestic competitions.

The Heineken Cup, the golden egg of European rugby, has a massive crack in it. So does the Zurich Premiership, where most of these Lions form their rugby philosophies.

The pat-a-cake world of Super 12 was supposedly producing Chardonnay All Blacks who just didn't have enough fruit to leave a meaningful impression on the palate.

But that myth has been exploded and now it has to be questioned whether the confrontational style required to win in Europe is appropriate for the brave new world of test football.

The game has moved on and the Lions have looked distinctly uncomfortable with the pace of rugby out here.

From what we have seen only Josh Lewsey, Gareth Thomas, Charlie Hodgson, Shane Williams and Dwayne Peel look worth a starting place in a Super 12 team.

The basic skills of most Lions backs aren't at a level we can take seriously. To score tries in tests, you need to pass accurately under pressure and have the vision to run the right lines. These basics, though, have been rendered redundant in both the Heineken Cup and Zurich Premiership.

Played in the cruel months of the Northern Hemisphere winter, big clashes in Europe become arm-wrestles. Neither the pitches nor the weather are usually conducive to expansive rugby. There's not much point in encouraging flair or worrying whether forwards can do anything other than push and jump.

The economic climate also wields an unhealthy influence. Clubs make big bucks by qualifying for and progressing through the Heineken Cup. That puts pressure on the players and has encouraged a conservative mindset where the emphasis is on not making mistakes.

That elevates the importance of set pieces and tactical kicking. Even when the French teams play, the ball tends to stay tight to the breakdown. Forwards can plod and backs don't have to get involved in scrapping for the tackled ball.

It's wholly different to Super 12, where teams try to win and score four tries along the way. Where backs also know they are auxiliary flankers.

When Warren Gatland arrived at London Wasps in 2001 he was blown away by the amount of time the players spent in the gym. He was also blown away by their lack of ability with ball in hand.

England's World Cup win disguised the truth - that both the Premiership and Heineken Cup are a fool's paradise. Once the Super 12 toned down the laissez-faire refereeing and put some edge back into the scrums, as happened in 2004, the Northern Hemisphere was in trouble.

The rugby doctrine of domestic rugby in Europe is about gaining forward domination. If that doesn't happen, as we have seen on this Lions tour, they don't have a Plan B.

The limitations of the Heineken Cup and Zurich Premiership as a breeding ground for tests are best illustrated by the old tale that, back in some forgotten era, the coach would ask his players to run through a forest. Those who avoided the trees were backs. Those who didn't were forwards.

It's a preposterous story - until you watch the Lions. With the exception of the Welsh players, they take possession and instinctively look for contact.

It makes playing a continuity game, at pace, almost impossible.

Compare that with the All Blacks. Their forwards have been coached to look for space, which allows them to keep the ball alive.

In the first test the Lions couldn't get any go-forward. It was hardly surprising, their forwards were pre-programmed to run at black jerseys. The black jerseys were pre-programmed to swarm the red jerseys and knock them back.

It was fairly easy for the All Blacks. The Lions forwards came at them too high in the saddle. But it was the fact they didn't have to go looking for the red jerseys that made it so easy.

The physical approach worked for England when they had a pack loaded with juggernauts. Martin Johnson, Ben Kay, Steve Thompson, Lawrence Dallaglio, Jason Leonard and Richard Hill smashed England to World Cup glory. They drew opponents into contact in bigger numbers than the defensive screen wanted to commit.  

Selecting more Welsh players may have helped the Lions. The Welsh renaissance began at the 2003 World Cup, when they started to avoid contact and offloaded the ball before the tackle.

By 2005 they were able to play multi-phase football where the ball transferred seamlessly between backs and forwards.

The Welsh have bucked the trend and play the game more like the All Blacks. And the reason for that is both game plans have the same architects - Graham Henry and Steve Hansen.

Hansen, in particular, is developing a reputation for building forward packs that can do the set-piece basics but also get around the paddock and contribute.

Hired as assistant All Black coach last year, it's been his aim to develop the complete pack. "It is a similar attitude to the one we had when we first took over Wales," he said. "We want multi-skilled players and there is no reason why forwards can't catch and pass like backs can. A lot of the skills we do, we make sure that they are doing them and as a result of that they get better."

If anyone doubts the value of Hansen's work, they just need to look at the way Jerry Collins is developing. Not so long ago he was branded one-dimensional. He famously crashed through the South Africans in the 2003 World Cup quarter-final, only to be repelled by the Australians a week later.

As Collins said: "The game has changed a little bit and playing under different coaches you get asked to do different things."

It's a statement that every coach in the Northern Hemisphere needs to take on board.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY