Blues v British & Irish Lions, 7 June

First topic message reminder :

Blues v British & Irish Lions
7 June 2017
KO: 19:35 NZST (8.35am BST)
Eden Park, Auckland

Live on Sky Sports, Sky Sports HD and SkyGo

Referee: Pascal Gaüzère (France)
Touch judges: [tbc]
TMO: [tbc]

A. FORM:

19 June 1993: Auckland 23 - 18 British & Irish Lions

18 May 1983: Auckland 13 - 12 British & Irish Lions

23 June 1977: Auckland 15 - 34 British & Irish Lions

B. TEAMS:

Blues 
15 Michael Collins
14 Matt Duffie
13 George Moala
12 Sonny Bill Williams
11 Rieko Ioane
10 Stephen Perofeta
09 Augustine Pulu

08 Steven Luatua
07 Blake Gibson
06 Akira Ioane
05 Scott Scrafton
04 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti
03 Charlie Faumuina
02 James Parson
01 Ofa Tu'ungafasi

16 Hame Faiva
17 Alex Hodgman
18 Sione Mafileo
19 Patrick Tuipulotu
20 Kara Pryor
21 Sam Nock
22 Ihaia West
23 TJ Faiane/Melani Nanai

British & Irish Lions

Halfpenny; Nowell, Payne, Henshaw, Daly; Biggar, Webb; McGrath, Owens (captain), Cole, Itoje, Lawes, Haskell, Tipuric, Stander

Replacements: Best, Marler, Sinckler, Henderson, O'Mahony, Laidlaw, Sexton, L Williams

C. PREVIEW

RDW_Scotland wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Halfpenny's chance to shine here, get this and he's a nailed on test starter

Goes back to the same old debate though - he kicks his goals but has contributed to our lack of cutting edge in the backline!

I was being sarcastic tbh, I don't think he warrants it

That's one of the best tries I've seen in a while!

yappysnap wrote:

ebop wrote:Yappysnap

The Lions will pull away with the win with their mauls and scrums

Brilliant, that'll set us up well for the Tests...

Maybe mauls and scrums only get you so far?

AMAZING by the Blues!!

Flip me - what a try! What a cliched offload by SBW!

SBW odds on to start in the 1st test now, especially with Crotty injured

Lautua making a serious case for an AB spot.

ebop wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

ebop wrote:Yappysnap

The Lions will pull away with the win with their mauls and scrums

Brilliant, that'll set us up well for the Tests...

Maybe mauls and scrums only get you so far?

Scared a minute ago that they would beat you, good to see the NZ arrogance back

That was some try

ebop wrote:

yappysnap wrote:

ebop wrote:Yappysnap

The Lions will pull away with the win with their mauls and scrums

Brilliant, that'll set us up well for the Tests...

Maybe mauls and scrums only get you so far?

I think you're wrong there, no one wants shiny backs moves

Fantastic try by Blues. Woeful defence by Lions.

GET A MAUL!!!!

It's alright lads, Laidlaw is on to save the day!

Just let them walk through you..how many missed tackles their?

Once again the Southerners showing how to play rugby...way they offload the ball is beautiful. As for us...your basic one dimensional huff and puff physical rugby being shown up as no where near good enough to trouble NZ.

Frak penalty given away again!! Its like watching England under Lancaster!

yappysnap wrote:Halfpenny's chance to shine here, get this and he's a nailed on test starter

Not sure about that. Farrell has every chance of making the 10 shirt his in the next game, and Hogg will get another opportunity to show what he can do with the ball in hand. Those two together gives you the kicking that halfpenny brings plus whats sorely missing ...some pace and running threat.
Hes certainly done his case no harm but the concern is still there if you play him at fullback you limit the attacking threat of the entire oustide backs unit. Can the Lions rely on forward power and goal kicking in the tests? Gatland himself said not. Of course you could make the same argument about Farrell at 10 who historically is known for leading stodgy back play and himself offering little running game.

Arguably outside guys like Payne (how serious was his injury though?) and Sinckler are the ones again whove really put their hands up and muddied the waters.

The next warm up really is a chance for players to nail down those places.

Nowells at least made Norths inevitable test selection less controversial.

As it goes though the entire squad may as well go home now and save themselves a lot of wasted effort.

Apart from the Stander try have the Lions really threatened the Blues line?

Edit: Apart from Payne's botched effort.

Why all the kicking previous?

We are so poor.........poor game management and poor tactics.

Clueless.

Lions tactic at the opposition lineout is to scream like girls

Right. Let's maul them over

Cyril wrote:Apart from the Stander try have the Lions really threatened the Blues line?

Edit: Apart from Payne's botched effort.

Paynes two chances in first quarter.

However I have struggled to work out what we are trying to achieve in attack - seems to be little in the way of co-ordinated attacking.

Best you numpty!

Cyril wrote:Apart from the Stander try have the Lions really threatened the Blues line?

Edit: Apart from Payne's botched effort.

Botched? It was an excellent tackle that stopped him...

Wow

One last opportunity for a maul and they c0ck it up

The Welsh tactics are not working.

We need to change for Saturday.

That's why Best won't be in the test side either!

All in all, rather depressing performance.

Great win from the Blues. Well deserved.

And that is why Best cannot play in the tests!

Awesome effort Blues

Unlucky Lions

The press is going to destroy Gatland.

They didn't even go down playing good rugby.

Set-piece is all the Lions have it seems (apart from that last line-out of course!).

Lol.

Shocking loss.

Shocking tactics.

Gatland hasn't a clue.

Sack him now and bring in SIM. It's not too late.

Well done Blues.

The better team won. Scoreline probably flattered the Lions.

ebop wrote:Awesome effort Blues

Unlucky Lions

thanks for trying to sympathise - but that was nothing unlucky about that.

One thing is for sure...Gatland best consider getting his strongest side out for the next game before this tour gets away from us...

The NZ press are going to have a field day with this...plenty said Lions wont be good enough to beat their club teams never mind the All Blacks themselves

eirebilly wrote:

Cyril wrote:Apart from the Stander try have the Lions really threatened the Blues line?

Edit: Apart from Payne's botched effort.

Botched? It was an excellent tackle that stopped him...

Yes botched. Any test player should be able to score from there. Ball in wrong hand and too high.

LondonTiger wrote:

Cyril wrote:Apart from the Stander try have the Lions really threatened the Blues line?

Edit: Apart from Payne's botched effort.

Paynes two chances in first quarter.

However I have struggled to work out what we are trying to achieve in attack - seems to be little in the way of co-ordinated attacking.

Seemed to give up in attack after the first half and just rely on the set piece.

Much better performance from The Lions forwards, but another complete lack of spark from the outside backs.

We need to get some of our flair players up to speed. We won't win the tests unless we can score some tries.

Lions backs offer precisely the attacking threat one would expect from team coached by Howley.

Rugby chaos? I suppose in a way it was.

The better team and management staff won.

Well played the Blues.

Crusaders next.

That's going to be painful viewing.

Onwards and upwards

Crusaders on Saturday, should be a good game

Well don't the Blues.

All went pair shaped when Payne went off, lost the mid field control.

Lawes and Tipuric were absolutely brilliant. I know that Gatland will select Warburton at 7 but Tipuric is in better form by some way.

Webb played very well and I think the Lions looked better when he and Biggar were on together. Sexton still looks very rusty for me.

Far too much kicking away of possession for me.

Howley has no place being there.

Couldn't organise a U7 tag team

Two tries in two games against the two weakest sides.

Take a bow, Howley.

ebop wrote:Crusaders on Saturday, should be a good game

Good if you're a Kiwi!

Lawes came into this with 3 straight MOTMs for club and almost equal to Launch for best England player in the 6 Nations. No surprise to me.

Lots of players were sub par today.

But Tipuric, Lawes, Webb and Marler all played very well.

Need the backs to shine against Crusaders now.

Is it too late to fly out some replacements coaches?