Lions Tour

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You won't play like that against us. Your best players will be there, you'll have a few games to get the combinations right, Woodward will settle on a XV.

 

That had the serious look of a rusty team that has never played together before, which is of course the most difficult challenge for a Lions coach. By the time the first test rolls around, things should have gelled a bit more. Although looking at the size of that touring party, I wonder how often the first XV combination will actually ever get to play together.

I just hope nobody over here gets too complacent after watching that game.

 

Full credit to Argentina though, they played really well I thought.

 

I would suggest that this was a bigger match for Argentina than for the Lions and meant much more. I think the Lions saw this as a "warm-up".

 

The Lions team last night was essentially fringe players and those that needed to prove fitness. Johnny came through with a decent game and 100% from the boot, other than that:

I bet you're not really scared at the moment HB!

 

I think Jonny is now a much more complete first five than last i saw him play. Good to see him play well.

 

There is still plenty of room for improvement after this match.

Hill, Peel, Lewsey, Cueto & Driscoll were the players that stood out for me. The others are still playing for their shirts for the first test against NZ. Henson was below the standard he can play at. He showed a few flashes of quality, but wasn't strong enough in defence, kicked out of hand a bit erractically and wasn't strong in the runs. He played ok as I say, but he can do better. Lewsey has to be the man of the match. Very unselfish to pass to D'Arcy when he could have finished that last try himself. He's a truly world class back now and should be in ahead of Robinson in my opinion.
Bad news about LOL damaging his ankle, hope it's not as bad as it looks.

Overall, good work out for the Lions, but the win should have been more comprehensive. We went 17-0 up and them dropped off a bit. Didn't make tackles count and backed off them too much. If we got in their face and let them know who's boss with more big hits and forcing more turn-overs we wouls have steamrolled them.
Played a good tactical game in the second half though, with O'Gara's kicking out of hand being consistently good (let's forget his penalties and convs!). I was pleased with Rich Hill, he looked like something back to his old self. Bring on the next match .

 

Great gutsy performance by the Bay of Plenty Steamers, For a team of players, of which none have any chance of being All Blacks this season, to give the Lions a good run was great.

I disagree about Richard Hill. On TV they were analysing him quite closely and the Steamers blindside, Wayne Ormond beat him in every department. Lewsey did have a blinder and I would definitely (and always have) put him above Robinson.

I also agree that Dallaglio's injury was a tragedy. I think the guy is a complete knob but he's a great competitor and you always want to see the great players out on the field. It could be really bad news for the guy if this impacts the rest of his tour.

Good to see the Barmy Army out there having a great time as well. Good stuff.

 

LOL's out for 6 months .

 

The loss of Dallaglio is tragic for him and for this tour.

Meanwhile, another solid performance by the Lions against the 'Naki boys last night. Not a thrashing, but a comfortable win in the end when the Lions' superior fitness showed through.

Barmy - you should be here following the team around in a campervan like so many of your fellow countrymen. It would be a fantastic trip, I reckon.

Really looking forward to the Maoris game this weekend.

 

Oh is it this weekend? Should be a cracker. Got the All Blacks vs Fiji as well. Grrr, got band practice on saturday, will have to catch the replays again.

 

All Blacks v Fiji on Friday.
Maoris v Lions on Saturday.

Will be watching the Lions forward pack very closely this week as they have not looked totally dominant over the provincial sides yet, despite the comfort of their two wins.

 

Rubbish. We didn't get the ball out wide enough. Even all the simple things were done wrong. You'll not win a rugby union test match unless you can't dominate your own line-outs.

BTW, did anyone see what Sheridan got sin-binned for? He was off for a stupid amount of time.

 

Unheard of. I have yet to see the replay. This is a huge upset.

 

Great game. It was close and could have gone either way, but I think the main area where the Maoris had the edge was at the breakdown. The Lions forwards just seemed to get there and flop on the ball, whereas Marty Holah was there and back on his feet contesting for it. His dominance in the loose was what helped starve the Lions of possession, and therefore scoring opportunities.

Big issue for the Lions is who they are going to play at No. 7 in the test matches. They don’t seem to have an out-and-out specialist there. Maybe Neil Back is up to the job?

On another note, the Lions defence was rock solid. It will be interesting to see if the introduction of rubber Jonny on Wednesday makes any difference.

Well done to the Maoris though. Quality effort.

 

The Maori were good because we let them be good. The Lions were atrocious. It was an abysmal performance.

 

The Lions scrum was pretty good I thought. Sheridan and White are massive man mountains.

 

The Lions dominated the scrum, until Greg Feek came on. Deacon Manu is better with ball in hand than he is as a scrummager.

I don't buy any of the excuses I'm hearing about the Lions having to take more time to settle as a unit. That Maori team has pretty much never played together before and has had far less training and preparation than the Lions.

Still, plenty for Sir Clive to ponder in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure he'll learn a few lessons and the team will come back stronger.

On a related note, tours like this always highlight for me just how much depth there is in NZ rugby, when our teams below test level can perform so well. I bet if the All Blacks went to England to play against Newcastle or Wasps, we'd slaughter them.

But, the most important things are test matches and the World Cup and we continually fail to come up with the goods in that arena. That's the big thing the Lions have in their favour - the All Blacks' seeming inability to fire when it really matters the most.

 

First nail in the coffin for the lions I'm afraid. While the team on Saturday was not the strongest they have does anyone really think they can beat the All Blacks? Just look at who go left out of the AB's squad: Jono Gibbs, Marty Holah and Corry Flinn who all out played their opposites on the weekend. The AB's will be a lot stronger than the Maori, the Lions might improve a bit. End result: Lions slaughtered on the 25th

 

The Lions will definitely put on a stronger showing in the test match. It is no secret that the test matches are what they are focusing on and aiming to peak for. The 2005 All Blacks are still a bit of an unknown quantity as the Fiji match showed us nothing, but you can bet that Sir Clive has spent more time analysing the videotapes of Richie McCaw than he is of Marty Holah and is therefore more likely to have come up with counterplans. Whether they will work or not is another matter.

I still think his biggest headache will be the makeup of his looseforward trio, a problem that is worsened since losing Dallaglio. It's one thing having an old head at No.8, but quite another to have the old head (Back? Hill?) at No. 7.