One of their favourite saccharine platitudes to highlight the importance of the Lions is the fact that players involved will still be talking about the games when their grandchildren arrive on the scene.
One can only imagine the conversations that Gareth Davies, Kristian Dacey, Thomas Francis, and Cory Hill will be having with theirs in a few decades time: 'You were a British and Irish Lion, Grandad!? Well, not quite...'. Allan Dell will at least be able to tell his grandkids that he was a Lion for ten, gilded minutes under the Head Injury Assesment Rules.
The British and Irish Lions is not a concept held together by geography, or unity of culture or identity. Instead, what it needs is the intangible notion of 'pride', that playing with the Lions is the very pinnacle of the sport. Without that, it won't ever really work.
Hence, Gatland's calling up of Finn Russell, Dell, Davies, Dacey, Francis, and Hill deal a blow to the idea of the Lions: the concept that player could be selected based on their proximity (the Welsh squad were touring in New Zealand; Scotland were in Australia) rather than talent and pedigree makes a mockery of the whole 'pinnacle of your career' schtick.
There is a case to be made in Gatland's defence: the Lions need to be win series in South Africa and Australia, and at least be competitive in New Zealand if they are to be taken seriously as an entity. Gatland was unabashed in his reasoning for calling up the Geography Six, as they were brought in to provide cover for those likely to be involved in the Test series. (Better to have them on the bench to replace those injured in the midweek games than those who have to face the All Blacks).
And given the absurd schedule, punctuated by myriad sponsors events - one which cost Ross Moriarty his tour, as he hurt his back sitting in a Land Rover for a couple of hours - it was heartening to see at least someone other than the players busy themselves with the business of winning. And a jersey which openly places commercialism over winning is, ironically, devalued beyond repair.
So while Gatland had a legitimate counter-argument, he lost it today. How? He, essentially, bottled it. Having brought them into give the Lions a higher likelihood of winning games, he left them on the bench to reduce the Lions' chances of winning today.
The Lions blew a 14-point lead in Wellington to draw 31-31 with the Hurricanes, with the game notable for the entire front row playing the entire game. Finn Russell briefly replaced Dan Biggar for a HIA, but otherwise, Dell, Francis, Hill, and Davies sat on the bench for the full game.
Cruelly on Francis, twice he was instructed to warm up, and twice he was told he wouldn't actually be coming on.
Francis is told to go on for a second time, but pulled again as he steps on to the pitch. Really bizarre stuff.
— Rúaidhrí O'Connor (@RuaidhriOC) June 27, 2017
Not replacing exhausted bodies - many of them playing at the end of long, arduous seasons - for the final ten minutes of a game against a far fresher side - with the added dimension of the Lions playing with 14 men following Iain Henderson's sin-binning for tip-tackling Jordie Barret - clearly contradicts Gatland's reasons for calling up the players, all done in the name of giving the Lions a better chance of winning.
Gatland was quizzed as to why he didn't empty the bench after the game, and he admitted that he made a deliberate decision not to, given all of the talk around the devaluing of the jersey.
Gatland on bench inactivity: "So much was made of devaluing jersey, we decided to stick with XV for as long as we could." #LionsNZ2017
— Alex Spink (@alexspinkmirror) June 27, 2017
His reasoning for the call-ups were pragmatic: to win games, but he has now admitted he made a conscious decision not to bring them on, which reduced the Lions' likelihood of winning a game.
I wouldn't blame the players I'd blame the coaching staff for not bringing on the bench shocking by gatland
— Andy Powell (@andypowell8) June 27, 2017
Gatland needs to roll the bench.
Pointless having them there otherwise.— Paul Williams (@thepaulwilliams) June 27, 2017
And here's the rub: This merely exacerbates the notion of devaluing the jersey: there will now, forever, be the four Lions who were called up not to play.
The two pillars of the Lions are representation, and winning. As soon as the call-ups were made, the former was undermined. Today has undermined the second.
