Are Austrailia Undercooked

I am reading a lot on these boards about The Lions not being prepared for the forthcoming tests as they are only having easy warm up games.

Can the same be said for Austrailia? When was the last time they played a competitive international and how many of their starting XV have played in the recent Super 15 games. Are they going into the test series just relying on training sessions.

This is a genuine question as I don't really know the answers.

Historically who has been undercooked in Lions series, the hosts or the visitors?

Even though the visitors are playing 6-7 matches beforehand to the hosts zero its near always been the visitors who have been undercoooked.

fa0019 wrote:Historically who has been undercooked in Lions series, the hosts or the visitors?

Even though the visitors are playing 6-7 matches beforehand to the hosts zero its near always been the visitors who have been undercoooked.

That certainly wasnt the case when the Lions played Australia in '01. The '05 tour is a write off but the 1st test was actually marginally the narrowest loss. The Lions did seem a little shell shocked/under cooked in '09 in the first test but that is probably more to do with getting battered up front due to a combination of poor selection and some biased refereeing.

Also the Springboks were a very experienced settled side that time round. Australia will not be quite so experienced or settled.

Guns ... yet it happened in 89, 93, 05 & 09.

Writing off the 05 tour is a little bit easy wouldn't you say? The loss of our captain, your most pivitol player in the 1st min was a crucial event in that match.... not only did we lose our best player by far, the loss shook the players badly.

Had that not happened I think the 1st test would have been very close.

fa0019 wrote:Guns ... yet it happened in 89, 93, 05 & 09.

Writing off the 05 tour is a little bit easy wouldn't you say? The loss of our captain, your most pivitol player in the 1st min was a crucial event in that match.... not only did we lose our best player by far, the loss shook the players badly.

Had that not happened I think the 1st test would have been very close.

Like I said it didnt happen in '05 because the first test was the closest test of the three. NZ were just a lot better and the Lions had too many key injuries.


I cant remember the earlier test series, the Lions had some really tough tests in the '05 series though. Draw v Argentina and loss to the Maori. Its unlikely they were undercooked.

Some changes to 606v2 I see. Seems to be a bug when quoting another poster the screen keeps shifting up until my response gets swallowed up. This happening to anyone else?

GunsGerms wrote:Some changes to 606v2 I see. Seems to be a bug when quoting another poster the screen keeps shifting up until my response gets swallowed up. This happening to anyone else?

Guns - I've had the same thing, if you click and drag the bottom right hand corner of the text box you can reshape/resize it and make what you're writing visibile again.

I'd say Australia are about medium rare which is just how I like 'em

Comfort wrote:

GunsGerms wrote:Some changes to 606v2 I see. Seems to be a bug when quoting another poster the screen keeps shifting up until my response gets swallowed up. This happening to anyone else?

Guns - I've had the same thing, if you click and drag the bottom right hand corner of the text box you can reshape/resize it and make what you're writing visibile again.

Youre a legend Comfort. Thanks for that, it was really wrecking my head.

NZ certainly seemed undercooked last weekend against France. Maybe that can be put down to the fact that France was fielding a weakened team due to club commitments. Personally I put it down to the number of personnel changes.

Australia don't have any test preparation. But they have test knowledge together. Not too many new faces in there, particularly as Deans is not the riskiest in his selections. Plus they know they're up against a formidable unit so they realise they can't ease themselves into this series. Much like they knew they were up against it last year with Wales. So don't expect anything adventurous from them. That can be seen as an advantage as well as a disadvantage. When Australia are on song they can blow anyone away. When they're asked to dig deep and play it safe because they're under the hammer, they have an annoying knack of overcoming adversity and getting the right result.

Everyone was saying the same thing 4 years ago, we'll smash them upfront, their scrum is vunerable, they're undercooked....

The AUS board probably have all those comments listed on their locker room and read it every single day.

I recall reading Beast saying the comments about the boks scrum really got to them and they spent literally 1 month scrummaging and looking to make the Lions eat their words.

Really?  The Lions said that they were going to smash SA up front and in the scrum?  Don't remember that.  Seems silly when SA are regarded as probably the strongest nation forwards wise in history.  It's a claim that can be made against Oz to a certain extent, that they perhaps are not great at scrum time, but not SA.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:NZ certainly seemed undercooked last weekend against France. Maybe that can be put down to the fact that France was fielding a weakened team due to club commitments. Personally I put it down to the number of personnel changes.

Australia don't have any test preparation. But they have test knowledge together. Not too many new faces in there, particularly as Deans is not the riskiest in his selections. Plus they know they're up against a formidable unit so they realise they can't ease themselves into this series. Much like they knew they were up against it last year with Wales. So don't expect anything adventurous from them. That can be seen as an advantage as well as a disadvantage. When Australia are on song they can blow anyone away. When they're asked to dig deep and play it safe because they're under the hammer, they have an annoying knack of overcoming adversity and getting the right result.

Oz have been in camp for 2-3 weeks havnt they? They dont have prep in terms of matches but they're sure getting the best time together pre test that theyve probably ever had under Deans. Sure they'll find it tough first up but where they can at least focus on the one match the Lions have to keep up a routine of winning matches beforehand.

I think we are just seeing a different focus from both sides.

The enigma is...the Lions have a history of winning their pre test matches and then dropping the first test, and the Ozzies have a track record of being ambushed in their first test last two years. Both those were largely through lack of preparation and underestimating the other side (Samoa and Scotland).

Here there'll be no lack of prep other than game time, and certainly no underestimation so prep wise I think theyre both on a level playing field.

I'm starting to tilt towards the Lions in the first test for those reasons and for Coopers inability to come right. 10 for me is crucial for this series and as good as the Oz 10's are, none are established world class over any period.