The Reds-Bristol debacle is not what the game needs right now.
The selection of a full-strength side seemingly without any dialogue with Bristol, is the first misstep Les Kiss has made since his appointment as head coach and untimely given his links with the Wallaby job.
In what was a highly anticipated match-up, at least down south, Queensland ran away with an 82-21 victory. Boys against men doesn’t really do it justice.
It cheapened the tour and opened the fixture to ridicule just at a time when public imagination was beginning to get excited by the concept.
Comments on Bristol social media such as “game tomorrow that matters more” and “what was the point of this exactly?” were particularly disappointing but altogether predictable.
The match was a stark contrast to the 36-36 draw between the Brumbies and Waratahs barely 12 hours later where to the eye, the Bowral crowd outnumbered that in Bristol easily.
Les Kiss. (Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)
The Bears squad was both decimated by injuries and England call-ups which can’t be avoided.
But Pat Lam also chose to field a stronger side the following day against Ampthill, a team currently in strong contention for relegation from the second tier of English rugby.
The fact a game against Ampthill meant more to Bristol than a historic match against a Super Rugby opponent is pathetic but revealing.
Just three players who started against Newcastle in the English Premiership on January 26th were in the Bristol XV against a star-studded Reds.
Harry Bazalgette, who debuted at No.10 for the Bears, was signed on a short-term loan days before the match and after injuries to four senior fly-halves this season.
That fact alone should have caused Lam to rethink his selections elsewhere on the field but didn’t.
This author is 100 per cent behind tours to the northern hemisphere to both expose and develop players to different styles of rugby.
But scheduling and other considerations must be properly thought out if any benefit is to be gained from them, if both players and the rugby public are to take tours seriously again.
It would be interesting to know whether Les Kiss and Pat Lam discussed selections in the lead-up to this fixture. As a friendly, they were perfectly entitled to.
If they didn’t, it was a terrible oversight and represents an obliviousness to the ‘bigger picture’. An apparent indifference to the impact a severe thrashing has on plans for future tours.
Kiss could very easily have started some of his more junior, less experienced squad members instead of a host of Wallabies and seasoned veterans.
It has to be said that the Reds were very impressive and likely would have been too much for even an Ellis Genge-led, full-strength Bristol Bears to handle.
One can only hope that Ulster take a different approach next week, especially given the apparent gap in their schedule before they play Benetton on 15 February.
Rugby badly needs these types of tours to emerge and to capture the public’s imagination.
The Reds very much need a proper tune-up.
