How are the Lions Tourists Playing this Season?

First topic message reminder :

A comment by someone on the Saints/Ospreys thread got me thinking. How many of the guys who toured with the Lions in the summer playing well and looking good? Any updates and I will amend this post.



Rory Best
Richard Hibbard
Tom Youngs
Dan Cole Out of form
Alex Corbisiero Injured
Tom Court  Out of favour with Ireland
Ryan Grant
Cian Healy
Adam Jones  Struggling a little
Matt Stevens
Mako Vunipola
Ian Evans Injured
Richie Gray
Alun Wyn Jones
Paul O'Connell
Geoff Parling
Tom Croft Injured
Dan Lydiate
Sean O'Brien
Justin Tipuric
Sam Warburton Just back from injury
Toby Faletau
Jamie Heaslip
Conor Murray
Mike Phillips
Ben Youngs Struggling with injury and form
Owen Farrell
Jonathan Sexton
Brad Barritt Injured
Jonathan Davies Loosk in good form, but being outshone by Scott Williams at scarlets?
Brian O'Driscoll Injured
Jamie Roberts Injured
Manu Tuilagi Injured
Billy Twelvetrees
Tommy Bowe Coming back from Injury
Alex Cuthbert Newly injured
Christian Wade Struggling?
Sean Maitland
George North Adapting to AP
Simon Zebo   Struggling for form?
Leigh Halfpenny Team around him struggling
Stuart Hogg Injured
Rob Kearney

Thanks Beshocked.

Must have got them muddled.

Thought 1/2P was very unlucky with that penalty against him for a late tackle too.

thomh wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Scott Williams (Scarlets), is playing very well but didn't your with the lions, he was injured.

You really think he would have toured anyway? Maybe would have been called up through injury at some point, but was more than comfortably behind the four that got selected, at least back then.

I don't know, he is playing some very good rugby. But as he was injured I guess he was out of contention anyway. I guess we will never know.

Looking forward to seeing whether he can bring some of his current Scarlets form to the Wales shirt in a few weeks.

maestegmafia wrote:

thomh wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Scott Williams (Scarlets), is playing very well but didn't your with the lions, he was injured.

You really think he would have toured anyway? Maybe would have been called up through injury at some point, but was more than comfortably behind the four that got selected, at least back then.

I don't know, he is playing some very good rugby. But as he was injured I guess he was out of contention anyway. I guess we will never know.

Looking forward to seeing whether he can bring some of his current Scarlets form to the Wales shirt in a few weeks.

I agree on his form now - he was great against Quins. I don't think there was any realistic prospect of him being selected last season though, injured or not.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/24613964

Don't know where to put this, as it would generate a lot of hot air - so as a returning lion it can go here.

From a Saints perspective, we had two Lions:

Corbs is hurt again.  From what I hear from Saints, their med staff believes it is not connected to his prior.  They are concerned, but not accusatory, about the wear and tear of the Lions tour. But the correlation is hard to shake.

George North is a different case.  I really was not too familiar with his club performances from last season, seeing him mostly with Wales or Lions.  However, his performances have been spotty this season for Saints.  I am not worried about his scoring (this is a 15 man game) because he is creating space for others.  The Ospreys game was his worst of the season. Despite a lot of touches against Ospreys, he was not very good.  He turned the ball over at least 6 times I recall and was struggling to make yardage inside.  I think he is trying to over-reach at the moment being focused on scoring rather than letting the scoring come to him.  He needs space and then is deadly, but not in traffic trying to knock people around.  Some of that is down to coaching, and some is down to choice.  

However, it is critical to remember he is a very young lad and is still learning the game and learning what he does well.  I think the Lions tour did not hurt him physically, but may have given him an extra abundance of confidence which he needs to peel back just a little. Overall, probably one of the very few Lions tourists who on balance benefited from the experience.

Adam Jones looks knackerd being on the wrong side of 30 playing such high level with no breaks for over a year now has got to hurt.
Gatland should keep him on the bench this Autumn and develop a new tight head if the wheels come off Adam could always come on.

doctor_grey wrote:From a Saints perspective, we had two Lions:

Corbs is hurt again.  From what I hear from Saints, their med staff believes it is not connected to his prior.  They are concerned, but not accusatory, about the wear and tear of the Lions tour.  But the correlation is hard to shake.  

George North is a different case.  I really was not too familiar with his club performances from last season, seeing him mostly with Wales or Lions.  However, his performances have been spotty this season for Saints.  I am not worried about his scoring (this is a 15 man game) because he is creating space for others.  The Ospreys game was his worst of the season.  Despite a lot of touches against Ospreys, he was not very good.  He turned the ball over at least 6 times I recall and was struggling to make yardage inside.  I think he is trying to over-reach at the moment being focused on scoring rather than letting the scoring come to him.  He needs space and then is deadly, but not in traffic trying to knock people around.  Some of that is down to coaching, and some is down to choice.  

However, it is critical to remember he is a very young lad and is still learning the game and learning what he does well.  I think the Lions tour did not hurt him physically,  but may have given him an extra abundance of confidence which he needs to peel back just a little.   Overall, probably one of the very few Lions tourists who on balance benefited from the experience.

Trust me by the end of the season when he has really settled in you will love it, the lad is a big game player and if Saints are in the mix for any trophies he will be the man that makes a difference.

Sc Williams (for me) wasn't in contention for the Lions and certainly not ahead of the 4 selected back then.

As for the Farrell kick its like most long distance shots well and excuse the pun a 'long shot'.

Most players have to put that much more effort into it to get the distance that accuracy is somewhat sacrificed, when its coming close to the end of the game and you have a chance like that then have a pop.