It didn’t take long for some familiar writers within the New Zealand sports media to take aim at Warren Gatland and the British and Irish Lions.
New Zealand media ‘go after’ Warren Gatland
Beginning yesterday when the first Lions squad of the tour was announced – the ‘all too timely’ response by one particular critic angered a lot of fans from both sides.
One well-known columnist, prominent in the New Zealand media, said that the Lions ‘missed an opportunity’ with the type of squad that was announced. They overlooked one simple fact – that the challenge for the Lions is ensuring that each of the 40+ players get a run during the warm up matches.
“We are pretty excited about the potential of a lot of combinations over the next few games.”
Some pundits with long and illustrious histories wouldn’t care to admit that though. The same writer labelled the squad as ‘a shambles’ and questioned why Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell weren’t paired together in the starting team.
The negativity and microscope-attention hasn’t just impacted on the Lions either.
He's going to get this wherever he goes on tour. Warren Gatland the centre of attention as he arrived at the Toll Stadium today. pic.twitter.com/3G0rfyhv1W
— Simon Thomas (@simonrug) June 2, 2017
On Wednesday, NZME ran an article that suggested All Blacks midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown shouldn’t have been at a jersey launch due to his place in the side being up for debate. This, despite Lienert-Brown being the form midfielder for the All Blacks. throughout 2016
Is anyone really surprised though?
Additional All Black Tickets Go On Sale For Over $400
For fans that missed out on securing a ticket to a Lions game against the All Blacks – New Zealand Rugby appeared to have ‘come to the rescue’ yesterday when it was announced that a large run of additional tickets would go on sale.
However, prices for said tickets are out of the price range of many. For example – a single ticket to the Third Test between the All Blacks and Lions costs $449 NZD.
New Zealand Rugby has been slammed on social media following the announcement. One pundit even went as far as accusing the Union of being ‘elitist’, and another spoke of their disappointment as missing out after having balloted three times when the original run of tickets were released.
Michael Pulman is a rugby editor for LWOR and the above article is an opinion piece based in his thoughts. They don’t necessarily reflect the views of LWOR or Last Word On Sports.
“Main photo credit”
