three things critical to lions success

lions tours are tough these days with professionalism out-weighing passion and pride and with the southern teams being superior to our own own at the present. hence the lions must discard romantic notions and do the following things to stand a chance

1. select on merit and not on politics. if ireland or scotland end up with few or no players in the squad then sobeit. lets not have weaker players chosen over better counterparts just to make up numbers.

2. select units and combinations, not individuals. there is insufficient time to build combinations in the midfield, halfs and particularly in the scrum. units and combinations must be imported as appropriate.

3. select the captain from the chosen team not before. ok i will come clean what i am saying is that brian odriscoll should not be the captain. he was a fine player but he is now past it and his behaviour born of frustration in the last match was disgraceful. the irish midfield offers no combinations and there are better centers to chose from. leave him at home to make a documentary about his fine carreer and lets take a player on current merit.

4th - Aus don't play to their potential.

The three things critical to Lions' success are: money; Australian dollars; and Pounds Sterling! While the tourists keep filling stadia and selling tv rights, it is irrelevant whether they win on the pitch.

Pitting a scratch side against a settled professional Test team is a total mismatch with all the odds in the favour of the home side reminiscent of bullfighting or hare coursing.

So if the motivator is to sell brand Lions why shouldn't the team be selected to ensure there are representatives from all four nations (particularly the biggest market England?). similarly it is absolutely essential that the Captain is chosen well before the team leaves. His biggest asset should be his personality as he will need it for all the interviews where his job is to sell the brand.

The Great Aukster wrote:The three things critical to Lions' success are: money; Australian dollars; and Pounds Sterling! While the tourists keep filling stadia and selling tv rights, it is irrelevant whether they win on the pitch.

Pitting a scratch side against a settled professional Test team is a total mismatch with all the odds in the favour of the home side reminiscent of bullfighting or hare coursing.

So if the motivator is to sell brand Lions why shouldn't the team be selected to ensure there are representatives from all four nations (particularly the biggest market England?). similarly it is absolutely essential that the Captain is chosen well before the team leaves. His biggest asset should be his personality as he will need it for all the interviews where his job is to sell the brand.

Total BS mate. In fact your entire post is.

Agree with the combination point

Which is why despite neither being the top players on form atm, I wouldn't be opposed to a Roberts/BOD combo again at least to start off with in the warm up matches, as well as Tips/Warbs or a 'choptackler' to accompany one of these two 7s, which would mean O'Brien would be an 8 if included with Robshaw most likely at 6

rainbow-warrior wrote:

The Great Aukster wrote:The three things critical to Lions' success are: money; Australian dollars; and Pounds Sterling! While the tourists keep filling stadia and selling tv rights, it is irrelevant whether they win on the pitch.

Pitting a scratch side against a settled professional Test team is a total mismatch with all the odds in the favour of the home side reminiscent of bullfighting or hare coursing.

So if the motivator is to sell brand Lions why shouldn't the team be selected to ensure there are representatives from all four nations (particularly the biggest market England?). similarly it is absolutely essential that the Captain is chosen well before the team leaves. His biggest asset should be his personality as he will need it for all the interviews where his job is to sell the brand.

Total BS mate. In fact your entire post is.

Ta mate - (I assume by BS you mean brilliant supposition).

The Great Aukster wrote:

rainbow-warrior wrote:

The Great Aukster wrote:The three things critical to Lions' success are: money; Australian dollars; and Pounds Sterling! While the tourists keep filling stadia and selling tv rights, it is irrelevant whether they win on the pitch.

Pitting a scratch side against a settled professional Test team is a total mismatch with all the odds in the favour of the home side reminiscent of bullfighting or hare coursing.

So if the motivator is to sell brand Lions why shouldn't the team be selected to ensure there are representatives from all four nations (particularly the biggest market England?). similarly it is absolutely essential that the Captain is chosen well before the team leaves. His biggest asset should be his personality as he will need it for all the interviews where his job is to sell the brand.

Total BS mate. In fact your entire post is.

Ta mate - (I assume by BS you mean brilliant supposition).

Three things critical to Lions success?

1) Welsh coaches
2) Welsh players
3) Welsh tactics

Playing in red helps too

1. Warburton
2. Adam Jones
3. Halfpenny

We saw yet again the importance of good set piece laying the foundations to a test win. The Lions must get scrum dominance and at least lineout parity....but hopefully even attack the Aussie lineout to put pressure on their 1st phase possession.

Yeah because the Welsh are a team that have destroyed the Aussies on their last meetings... oh wait. No that Was Scotland who are 2 from 2 in recent tests, or Ireland who cuffed them in their last match with Australia and their last meeting with Wales.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves Welsh fans. Wales' record against the Ozzies is not stainless, in fact you have been beaten by them in your last 7 matches with them.

The Key to beating Australia is getting the best out of all 4 home nations. Flooding the team with Welshman will result in certain defeat.

is that your front row Scarpia....

but if not, I totally agree.