Simon Shaw interview: Lions tours are pinnacle but this year’s could deny England a Grand Slam
England's chances of securing a second successive Six Nations Grand Slam will be impaired by the summer’s British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, insists former international powerhouse Simon Shaw.
An unblemished championship would also see England, who remain unbeaten during the 13-match reign of head coach Eddie Jones, surpass the All Blacks’ record of 18 consecutive top-tier Test victories.
No side has sealed back-to-back Grand Slams since the inception of the Six Nations in 2000, while Jean-Claude Skrela’s France were the last Five Nations team to achieve the feat in 1998.
Standing in England’s way are their five northern hemisphere rivals and, according to Shaw, a veteran of three Lions series, so too is the lure of a place in Warren Gatland’s squad for the end of season dust-up with the world champions.
Shaw was a part of three Lions tours, including the 1997 trip to South Africa (Source: Getty)
“England are capable of winning the Grand Slam again but I think the extra dynamic and the extra element of competition that the Lions tour brings means that some players will put their names forward and produce some upsets within games,” Shaw tells City A.M.
“Players will say they’re not concentrating on the Lions, that they’re solely concentrating on the game in hand or the Six Nations, but there will always be something in the back of their heads which is wanting to get on that plane.
“That can do funny things. It will either raise a player to a whole new level or sometimes the pressure can become too much. That can happen pre-tour or it can happen during the tour.
“So it will be a very interesting Six Nations just because of that dynamic. It’s sad but true, the more often these games come around they become, not monotonous, but part and parcel of every season.
“A different dynamic creates a different outcome and I think a Lions tour, rather like a World Cup, creates a different dynamic in the Six Nations. I think England will win the Six Nations. I’m not 100 per cent sure they’ll win it with a Grand Slam.”
Shaw, who has 71 England caps, believes that inclusion in a Lions squad is the greatest accolade the game offers, eclipsing even the lifting of a World Cup. It is the uniqueness of the experience which elevates it above all else for the former Wasps and Toulon lock, whose maiden Lions series was in South Africa in 1997, the first of the professional era. He also toured in 2005 and 2009.
“Having beaten the crap out of these guys during a Five or Six Nations over how many years, then to meet up with all the different nationalities to be team-mates, to trust each other implicitly and to sing off the same hymn sheet is a fantastic experience,” adds Shaw.
“People cannot get to grips with why participants go to the Big Brother house or go on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here or Strictly Come Dancing.
“But these amazing bonds are formed with fellow contestants on those shows because it’s this unique, pressurised environment and that forces a much bigger bond between you than other environments.
“Lions tours only last a couple of months but the bonds and the memories last a lifetime. I have mates from Lions tours who I may only have toured with once, but I have a stronger bond with them than guys I played international rugby with for 15 seasons.”
Concerns over packed fixture schedules and player welfare have called into question the viability of the Lions in the present day, something Shaw dismisses out of hand.
“I’m not sure why people talk in that way. Perhaps they have ulterior motives. I find it very strange,” he says.
“To not have a place for the Lions in the rugby schedule would be crazy. People use their life savings and generations of families go on these things. You don’t get 16,000 people travelling to the other end of the earth to watch the Lions for nothing.”
Members of the travelling hordes will next month have an opportunity to relive the Lions’ iconic, ground-breaking and victorious tour to South Africa in 1997. Shaw will join Lions team-mates Jason Leonard, Paul Wallace, John Bentley and Doddie Weir and supporters at a celebratory lunch in the City on 9 March to mark the tour’s 20-year anniversary.
“It is getting more and more limited now in terms of fans’ access to players and that’s one area of the game that I get a bee in my bonnet about,” he says.
“The lunch is all about bringing some of the guys from 1997 back together and getting the fans of that period in the room with some of the great characters from that trip. It’s non-corporate and it’s going to be based around a fun afternoon and reminiscing.”
Places for the lunch at M Restaurant, Threadneedle Street on 9 March are available at £125 per person plus VAT. For further information or to book e-mail: ian@setpieceevents.co.uk or emma@setpieceevents.co.uk