Poite still chips Owens on Eden Park penalty

British & Irish Lions and Wales hooker Ken Owens, the man at the centre of the controversial conclusion to the third Lions Test against the All Blacks at Eden Park in 2017, has revealed he still gets chipped about it by the referee concerned Roman Poite.

With the scores level at 15-15 Owens was penalised for playing the ball from an offside position, a position that would have provided All Black Beauden Barrett with a chance to kick a last-minute penalty goal for New Zealand to claim the Test and the series.

Controversially, the ruling was overturned with the game and series drawn.

Owens told Joe's House of Rugby podcast, "Just before it happened, I was going, 'Right boys, exit now, let's restart, get the ball back down the field, switch on' and all the rest of it.

"[It was a case of] Don't f… up and then I f….. up!

"I went straight to Jonathan Davies, who is one of my best mates, and I said I am going to have to move to Trellech – which is about 17 miles out of Carmarthen [his home town], the most rural part of the county – and like hide away for the rest of my life.

"So there was relief in there when it wasn't a penalty," he said.

A scrum was called instead and the Lions held the All Blacks out to secure the draw.

"When Roman Poite refs me now, he does drop in a little quip now and again, with 'Stay onside this time, Ken' or something like that."

Owens said he went into the All Blacks changing room afterwards to congratulate All Blacks captain Kieran Read for winning his 100th cap but he said, 'He wouldn't really speak to me'.

"To be fair, he did apologise after the third-place play-off at the World Cup. There were emotions running high at the time," he said.

Owens added that he had enjoyed playing under coach Warren Gatland, now back in New Zealand and coaching the Chiefs in Super Rugby.

"You know exactly what he expects of you and you can just crack on then and know where you stand. He just gives you massive confidence and gets that winning mentality out of players.

"His man-management is so clever. He knows the individuals in his team and what they need to get the best out of them. Some boys just need to be hammered all the time because that's how they perform.

"Others constantly need the carrot. It was probably stick early on with me.

"He would be different to every player and he would keep changing his tack. It wouldn't be the same way all that time. That was his biggest strength," he said.

Lions legend says Twickenham Test a 'nonsense'

British & Irish Lions rugby great Willie-John McBride has poured Guinness all over Warren Gatland's suggestion to have a Lions Test against the All Blacks at Twickenham next year.

A former captain of the Lions, he led them to a series win over South Africa in 1974 on his fifth Lions tour, McBride told The Rugby Paper such a game was 'completely alien to the ethos and history of the Lions'.

"For the Lions to play a home Test match is nonsense," he said.

The Lions have only ever played once in Britain, against Argentina before the 2005 New Zealand tour.

McBride took issue with Gatland's suggestion the Test could generate $NZ10 million.

"That's the problem with the world of professional sport at the moment. It's all about money, not about sport. Therefore this [Test] is going to be played purely for money. It would be meaningless," he said.

McBride said looking at the state rugby was in at the moment it was obvious lessons should have been learnt from the mess the game had become.

"The ethos of the game has been damaged so much. It used to be run by rugby people. Now it's run by (supposed) financial wizards. The grassroots game is dying, or it certainly is in Ireland.

"If they are going to have a Lions, then have a proper Lions tour. They keep saying they can't squeeze the Lions into the curriculum once every four years yet they always seem to find room for some stupid idea to fill Twickenham.

"Surely it is possible to have a proper Lions tour. I think it's scandalous that the Premiership clubs in England are dictating the future of the sport.

"The game has gone back since the advent of professionalism. It's a mixture of Rugby League, Rugby Union and American football. A lot of it is quite boring. I played in my share of boring games but there would always be a spark," he said.

Another Lions captain, Phil Bennett [to New Zealand in 1977] said he also believed the Lions should play their games overseas and while he saw himself as old-fashioned, playing away was what made the Lions unique.

But at the same time, he saw merit in Gatland's idea, especially if one million pounds of any gate money was donated to the National Health Service.

One-off All Blacks-Lions Test appeals but not as a 'decider'

Chiefs coach and next year's coach of the British & Irish Lions team to South Africa, Warren Gatland has floated the idea of the All Blacks and Lions playing a 'series decider' ahead of next year's Lions tour.

Is it a goer?

Optimists and they are people to listen to in times of coronavirus, would say nothing is impossible.

But pessimists, and English club owners, would say no.

Before even considering the concept it is worth remembering that England's premiership club owners are already under significant pressure because they refuse to allow the Lions to have time to prepare for their tour, just as they did ahead of the 2017 visit to New Zealand. That has resulted in the tour being reduced to eight games in five weeks, compared to 10 in six as happened in New Zealand.

At the New Zealand end, in a normal world, the game would be scheduled, at Twickenham, in the vital end stages of the Super Rugby competition.

It wouldn't only involve one week out of action for New Zealand players, it would be at least two weeks to make the flight north to prepare in time.

That is presuming borders are open and flights available because in a worst-case scenario a vaccine may still not have been found – and that holds much of the answer about a return to normality.

Conjecture had centred on the Maori All Blacks providing the Lions with a warm-up game but Gatland floated the fund-raising options that a game involving the All Blacks at Twickenham might provide for New Zealand Rugby.

All that aside, could the game be described as a 'series decider.'

No doubt the winner could claim that.

In reality, it would be nothing like a continuation of that series and would have to be in the 'one-off' category.

Why?

No Kieran Read, no Owen Franks, no Jerome Kaino, no Julian Savea, no Israel Dagg, no Sonny Bill Williams and that's just from the starting XV for the third Test. Put in the reserves and Wyatt Crockett, Charlie Faumuina, Aaron Cruden and Malakai Fekitoa would all be missing as well. And that's just on the All Blacks' side.

If it could be achieved a game between the two sides would be a huge drawcard and if entered into as purely a chance to provide the Lions with warm-up potential and revenue for the All Blacks it would appeal.

But please, just let it be that.

Pivac gets a tick from top player

Wayne Pivac, Wales' New Zealand replacement for Warren Gatland as national coach, has had the stamp of approval from first five-eighths Dan Biggar.

In four Six Nations games before play stopped due to covid-19, Wales had managed only a win over Italy.

But Biggar told British SKY Sport that Pivac's attractive style of play would be beneficial for Wales as they continued their development through the transitional period between the respective coaching styles of Gatland and Pivac.

Biggar said there were already signs in the side's performances that they were not far off finding the right mix.

"It was always going to be a massive challenge [for Pivac], coming in for Warren Gatland, with the success he had over the last eight to 10 years.

"When you change something that has been in place for so long, it sometimes will take a little bit of time. We just fell short against France, we just fell short against England.

"In a new pattern and a slightly new style of play, I think it's certainly going to help us in terms of playing more attractive rugby and scoring more tries.

"I think that probably takes a couple of campaigns to get used to everything and I'm sure, come the Autumn internationals if we can get back playing, I think you'll see us much stronger," he said.