Four years ago, Rory Best was awarded the greatest honour of his career to date – he got to captain the Lions against the ACT Brumbies.
Having been called in for the suspended Dylan Hartley, Best would have known his chances of starting in the Test Series against Australia were slim. Still, he had the perfect opportunity to state his case for inclusion.
On the night, in Canberra, Best’s game fell apart. His lineout throw was poor and his confidence took a knock. He was not the only poor player in that midweek loss but he did not do himself any justice.
Four years on, with the Lions desperate to build momentum heading into the Test Series, Best was asked to lead the Lions against a Chiefs side that had only lost two games, and won 11, all season. On this occasion, the Lions got the job done.
Emphatically so.
A 34-6 victory saw players like Elliot Daly, CJ Stander, Jack Nowell and Justin Tipuric step up to mark and show head coach Warren Gatland they were ready if needed. Following the game, Best spoke with class and grace about how much the victory meant to the team, and personally. He told Sky Sports:
“We talked about getting a bit of a reaction from this group and how we had not looked great in midweek. He have actually put ourselves in positions to win games. We got ourselves in that position tonight and we drove on.
“There’s a good team spirit and you saw that in the boys that were out there tonight. We really worked hard for each other.
“At the very end, when we were winning comfortably, it would be easy to concede a try but you saw the way the way the boys kept marching forward. And for a tighthead prop to make a turnover in the 80th minute, really tells you something.”
Best, of course, was referring to England’s Dan Cole – one of 11 Lions to play the full 80. Courtney Lawes came off for a Head Injury Assessment before returning while James Haskell was replaced for 10 minutes by Allan Dell when Joe Marler was sin-binned. The only player in the starting XV to be replaced was Jared Payne.
Best spoke extremely well about doing justice to the jersey, even with the realisation that many of the players that won tonight will not feature against the All Blacks. He said:
“I know, personally, from four years ago [about these games] and I said to the boys, ‘If you let this one slip by, you’ll regret it. I regretted it for four years’.
“To be fair to the boys, they stood up today and I couldn’t be prouder of this bunch of boys. They picked themselves up and showed just how much it means to them.”
This victory may not be remembered too much in years to come but in the context of the tour, the midweek side have done their bit to send the Test team into the series on a real high.
