Highlanders v British & Irish Lions, June 13

First topic message reminder :

Highlanders v British & Irish Lions
13 June 2017
KO: 19:35 NZST (8.35am BST)
Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin

Live on Sky Sports, Sky Sports HD and SkyGo

Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Touch judges: [tbc]
TMO: [tbc]

A. FORM:

18 June 2005: Otago 19 - 30 British & Irish Lions

5 June 1993: Otago 37 - 24 British & Irish Lions

8 June 1977: Otago 17 - 12 British & Irish Lions

B. TEAMS:

Highlanders 
01. Daniel Lienert-Brown
02. Liam Coltman
03. Siate Tokolahi
04. Alex Ainley
05. Jackson Hemopo
06. Gareth Evans
07. Dillon Hunt
08. Luke Whitelock (C)

09. Kayne Hammington
10. Lima Sopoaga
11. Tevita Li
12. Teihorangi Walden
13. Malakai Fekitoa
14. Waisake Naholo
15. Richard Buckman

16. Greg Pleasants-Tate
17. Aki Seiuli
18. Siosuia Halanukonuka
19. Josh Dickson
20. Jimmy Lentjes
21. Josh Renton
22. Marty Banks
23. Patrick Osborne

British & Irish Lions
15 Jared Payne – Ulster, Ireland, #830
14 Jack Nowell – Exeter Chiefs, England, #828
13 Jonathan Joseph – Bath Rugby, England, #809
12 Robbie Henshaw – Leinster, Ireland, #824
11 Tommy Seymour – Glasgow Warriors, Scotland, #813
10 Dan Biggar – Ospreys, Wales, #821
9 Rhys Webb – Ospreys, Wales, #820

1 Joe Marler – Harlequins, England, #811
2 Rory Best – Ulster, Ireland, #793
3 Kyle Sinckler – Harlequins, England, #814
4 Courtney Lawes – Northampton Saints, England, #826
5 Iain Henderson – Ulster, Ireland, #808
6 James Haskell – Wasps, England, #823
7 Sam Warburton (capt) – Cardiff Blues, Wales, #800
8 CJ Stander – Munster, Ireland, #831

16 Ken Owens – Scarlets, Wales, #829
17 Jack McGrath – Leinster, Ireland, #827
18 Dan Cole – Leicester Tigers, England, #794
19 Alun Wyn Jones – Ospreys, Wales, #761
20 Justin Tipuric – Ospreys, Wales, #786
21 Greig Laidlaw – Gloucester Rugby, Scotland, #810
22 Owen Farrell – Saracens, England, #780
23 Elliot Daly – Wasps, England, #822

Warbs is fit!

I'd risk Te'o and JJ, I think they know each other better and the Tests will come down to managing risk; no substitute for gas and JJ finishes.
Murray, Farrell, North, Te'o, JJ, Watson, Half.

No 7&1/2 wrote:I will ebop. Franks it has to be said lived up to pooly s prediction. I can see where you're coming from though. Seems a similar place to the nz herald which had a strange view on the scrums. And to be fair gatland has picked guys like.Sinckler and Vunipola who are not great in the scrum but offer more in the loose ala nz so when talking of those guys it's off to.focus on their scrum as it is to focus on franks.

Rubbish, none of the Lions scrums have dominated, Pooly got it completely wrong, Furlong, suggested by some as World best was poor. Twice the Lions scrum got bowled over in the match, once nearly the try, and again at the end, and that was despite the ref penalising them off the park.

Landers did the same.

Lions scrum is weak. Has been all tour. Herald had a strange view? Well when all you see is one side going bavkwardscwhat would you expect?

kingelderfield wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Farrell will be very disappointed to have missed that kick - he didn't lose us the game but he would have nailed that 99 times out of 100 for Sarries or England.

It is a big worry that our players are already coming up short in the high pressure situations.

I don't read much into this miss other than he wasn't mentally there, so many days after the high of Canterbury.

Those seeing in hindsight should realise he is arguably the best place kicker in world rugby and so should have kicked it easily.

Who'd have thought it, Lions beaten in the scrums and in the goalkicking department...?

I would start two English second rows in the first test match because of continuity. Either start with Kruis and Itoje, Itoje and Lawes or Lawes and Kruis with the one who isn't starting on the bench. The Welsh got 10 players starting in the last Lions test match as they had just won the Six Nations and look what the Lions did to Australia. Now England are the in form nation in Britain & Ireland. We should start with a lot of English players, IMO, because I believe the English players are head and shoulders above the Welsh, Irish and Scottish players at the moment.

I firmly believe that Farrell will be back to his usual kicking form in the tests

Murray, Sexton, North, Farrell, JJ, Seymour, Watson

Give them hell

There's a strong argument for starting the English tight five.

The Great Aukster wrote:There's a strong argument for starting the English tight five.

I agree.

Hopefully this hasn't happened but what if the WRU have told Gatland you must start with a certain amount of Welsh players or else you'll be sacked from your Wales role.

i would pick jj for a centre spot, by far the best attacking cenre we have, but got a feeling that gatland will concentrate on being more defensive.

thought nowell was poor again today, wont be anywhere near the test squad on performances. as was haskell again, just seems too slow and off the pace

my back row would be toby at 8 cj at 6 and sob at 7. feel like our best bet is taking them up front, and to have the two best ball carriers in cj and toby on would help. then i would play sob to balance it out better as he's quicker and more mobile than majority of other back row. he would be important at getting to the breakdown quickly. also think they have been some of the best performers so far as well.

all english second row is a cert for me, just depends if lawes is fit to decide if its all three in test squad

Once again I am in the strange position of agreeing with much of what Guscott says!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40262731

Seymour and Payne were a comedy act. AWJ looked a bit slow for a test berth. Felatau nailed on for the No8. Henshaw and Henderson not spectacular. Underwhelming performance by many in that team. Not many will make the test team.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Once again I am in the strange position of agreeing with much of what Guscott says!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40262731

cant agree with him having awj in second row.

englandglory4ever wrote:Seymour and Payne were a comedy act. AWJ looked a bit slow for a test berth. Felatau nailed on for the No8. Henshaw and Henderson not spectacular. Underwhelming performance by many in that team. Not many will make the test team.

Because Nowell was so much better? At least Seymour got a try. He did have trouble with his opposite number, but none of our wing options have been herculean in defence of yet which is worrying.

At least he is doing the business in attack!

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

englandglory4ever wrote:Seymour and Payne were a comedy act. AWJ looked a bit slow for a test berth. Felatau nailed on for the No8. Henshaw and Henderson not spectacular. Underwhelming performance by many in that team. Not many will make the test team.

Because Nowell was so much better? At least Seymour got a try. He did have trouble with his opposite number, but none of our wing options have been herculean in defence of yet which is worrying.

At least he is doing the business in attack!

And he's the best winger under the high ball in the entire touring party. 

Not a bad skill to have if you're playing Connor Murray at 9.

Teo and JJ in the centres could cause a lot of problems. Murray at 9 and Farrell at 10 is a must. Nowell doesn't quite look defensively sound enough for the tests. North just doesn't get involved enough but we are going to need some sturdy wingers for the defensive sets. Not sure who to pick on the wings.

compelling and rich wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Once again I am in the strange position of agreeing with much of what Guscott says!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40262731

cant agree with him having awj in second row.

Pretty confident that's who Gatland will pick though.

[quote="RDW_Scotland"]Once again I am in the strange position of agreeing with much of what Guscott says!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40262731[/quote]

Don't admit to that, instant loss of credibility

Nowell, Payne and Henshaw have confirmed that they're just midweek players and that's not really doing us much good at the moment as the most dropped balls come from these lot. JJ was good but made a couple errors, if JD2 is less error-strewn then he might nick that starting berth. Assuming Lawes is out I'm going to still have to leave AWJ out as the guy has turned into more of a penalty-giver than Haskell and Itoje combined.

Watson, Seymour, JJ, Farrell, North, Sexton, Muray;
Marler, Owens, Sinckler, Itoje, Kruis, Haskell, Warburton, Faletau.
Replacements should be; George, Mako, Furlong, Henderson, Tipuric, Webb, Biggar, Te'o.

...and reading back over the match thread it seems the unity is still lost on certain English posters (you know the two) and some irish liberal. Worst fans in world rugby.

Are there any decent commentators around? Talksport made the ref sound positively Machiavellian this morning. Must be reading a lot of Kiwi press. At least they were biased towards the Lions in general as opposed to the crowd on Sky doing their best to get as many of their countrymen in the test team as possible.

I find a lot of the comments here,in the press .on the internet plus
commentators very naïve.Full of sound bytes the rules are in Black
and White.
BUT at every Scrum,lineout,maul,breakdown the REF can ping either
side at every one.
The Front Row Mafia of ALL countries try it on its up to the Ref
to pick it.
Line speed a euphemism for offside,competing in the lineout means
closing the gap or jumping across.
It will be very interesting if the new scrum law is introduced SH
MUST feed straight,and ball must be hooked that should be
good for a laugh

kingelderfield wrote:

ebop wrote:Nah not nasty, just borderline offside. And also offside sometimes.

So a completely non comment then, and on that basis I'm sure we'll see it as a headline in the kiwi press tomorrow.

Oh and by the way cyclops they're underneath the sheep.

Actually I was trying to be polite. You're right though, it made the NZherald because the Lions defence is offside. There's also talk about the scrum and not rolling away from the tackle area which you may enjoy

The Lions also regularly creep up offside on defence - they call it "line speed".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11875592

Almost as if they write it for kiwis.

Will be interesting to get Stephen Jones' read on the game. Unfortunately we don't get to read his impartial wisdom anymore. A real shame.

Still hates england and nz. Or says he does. Click bait.

Jones is a complete Anglophile, he knows which side his bread is buttered!

The Great Aukster wrote:Jones is a complete Anglophile, he knows which side his bread is buttered!

It's like Stuart Barnes wetting himself over the Irish provinces in the European competitions!

Disappointing result but the performance was better but I'd rather win ugly than lose well.

Farrell missed a sitter but in his defence these adidas balls do feel different, I was lucky enough to get my hands on one, so for someone used to kicking so well with a Gilbert ball it must be a big difference.

From now on I want to see the test team play, too much fiddling going on for my likening.

Just catching up on the game now, think the Lions are playing well, Seymour has just scored that great crossfield kick intercept and is having a reasonably solid game. Biggar and Webb are having good games.

I really hope Lawes is OK because that collision was absolutely Savage.

Cyril wrote:

The Great Aukster wrote:Jones is a complete Anglophile, he knows which side his bread is buttered!

It's like Stuart Barnes wetting himself over the Irish provinces in the European competitions!

Stuart Barnes is doing a stint on the NZ SkyTV panel after the games. I actually don't mind him. In the past I recall him getting a bit excitable but he's doing well this time. The panel has JK and Jeff Wilson and they throw in the odd subtle dig but are generally not rubbing it on too thick, which helps. Stuart Barnes on NZ TV used to be much more aggressive and defensive but he's biting his tongue and sucks it up when he has to. FWIW, the NZ SkyTV panel are onto it enough not to write the Lions off and are complimentary in some aspects. JK especially.

ebop wrote:

Cyril wrote:

The Great Aukster wrote:Jones is a complete Anglophile, he knows which side his bread is buttered!

It's like Stuart Barnes wetting himself over the Irish provinces in the European competitions!

Stuart Barnes is doing a stint on the NZ SkyTV panel after the games. I actually don't mind him. In the past I recall him getting a bit excitable but he's doing well this time. The panel has JK and Jeff Wilson and they throw in the odd subtle dig but are generally not rubbing it on too thick, which helps. Stuart Barnes on NZ TV used to be much more aggressive and defensive but he's biting his tongue and sucks it up when he has to. FWIW, the NZ SkyTV panel are onto it enough not to write the Lions off and are complimentary in some aspects. JK especially.

Barnes is an absolute d*ck. I don't know a single England fan who likes him. He really enjoys England doing badly (bitter after his limited international career). Luckily he's not had much joy recently! He gets very excited about Munster and Leinster for some reason. Like he's being tickled in a special place.

Just re-watched JJ's try. Excellent acceleration and finish considering the pass wasn't sympathetic and put him on the back foot.

We have to stop trying to throw the long wide pass, too predictable and we are simple not that good at doing it in the NH.

Also our basic handling skills our still second best to these guys, no wonder average Kiwis do well up there in the North.

Grieg Laidlaw should have taken that kick. He was into the game and he should have taken it. He would nail that every day for Sarries and England.

JJ is having a good game too, but I don't think Gatland's game plan hinges on having a distributor at 12.

Plenty of quick ball for the backs at times but there's still a predictability about the attacking play. Altho handling errors don't help. Still a gulf between hemispheres in the off loading game and keeping the plays going. A shame Townsend didn't take the job.

Breadvan wrote:Plenty of quick ball for the backs at times but there's still a predictability about the attacking play. Altho handling errors don't help. Still a gulf between hemispheres in the off loading game and keeping the plays going. A shame Townsend didn't take the job.

I don't know if he or the SRU were the blockers.

Personally I would have liked to have seen big Vern take our summer tour and have Toonie coaching the Lions.

Taylorman wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I will ebop. Franks it has to be said lived up to pooly s prediction. I can see where you're coming from though. Seems a similar place to the nz herald which had a strange view on the scrums. And to be fair gatland has picked guys like.Sinckler and Vunipola who are not great in the scrum but offer more in the loose ala nz so when talking of those guys it's off to.focus on their scrum as it is to focus on franks.

Rubbish, none of the Lions scrums have dominated, Pooly got it completely wrong, Furlong, suggested by some as World best was poor. Twice the Lions scrum got bowled over in the match, once nearly the try, and again at the end, and that was despite the ref penalising them off the park.

Landers did the same.

Lions scrum is weak. Has been all tour. Herald had a strange view? Well when all you see is one side going bavkwardscwhat would you expect?

Its as weak as every scrum its faced. Will totally dominate come the Tests, as likely in the line out.

Gwlad wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I will ebop. Franks it has to be said lived up to pooly s prediction. I can see where you're coming from though. Seems a similar place to the nz herald which had a strange view on the scrums. And to be fair gatland has picked guys like.Sinckler and Vunipola who are not great in the scrum but offer more in the loose ala nz so when talking of those guys it's off to.focus on their scrum as it is to focus on franks.

Rubbish, none of the Lions scrums have dominated, Pooly got it completely wrong, Furlong, suggested by some as World best was poor. Twice the Lions scrum got bowled over in the match, once nearly the try, and again at the end, and that was despite the ref penalising them off the park.

Landers did the same.

Lions scrum is weak. Has been all tour. Herald had a strange view? Well when all you see is one side going bavkwardscwhat would you expect?

Its as weak as every scrum its faced. Will totally dominate come the Tests, as likely in the line out.G

Gwlad, that's bollox and you know it. Why are you setting yourself up for such a fall? You know the Kiwis will jump on all this hubris in a few short weeks.

Cyril wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I will ebop. Franks it has to be said lived up to pooly s prediction. I can see where you're coming from though. Seems a similar place to the nz herald which had a strange view on the scrums. And to be fair gatland has picked guys like.Sinckler and Vunipola who are not great in the scrum but offer more in the loose ala nz so when talking of those guys it's off to.focus on their scrum as it is to focus on franks.

Rubbish, none of the Lions scrums have dominated, Pooly got it completely wrong, Furlong, suggested by some as World best was poor. Twice the Lions scrum got bowled over in the match, once nearly the try, and again at the end, and that was despite the ref penalising them off the park.

Landers did the same.

Lions scrum is weak. Has been all tour. Herald had a strange view? Well when all you see is one side going bavkwardscwhat would you expect?

Its as weak as every scrum its faced. Will totally dominate come the Tests, as likely in the line out.G

Gwlad, that's bollox and you know it. Why are you setting yourself up for such a fall? You know the Kiwis will jump on all this hubris is a few short weeks.

Hubris? What's good for the goose etc....anyway as I've said even I few win they won't accept it. A victory can never be a victory when the losing side are such poor sportsmen.

Gwlad wrote:

Cyril wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I will ebop. Franks it has to be said lived up to pooly s prediction. I can see where you're coming from though. Seems a similar place to the nz herald which had a strange view on the scrums. And to be fair gatland has picked guys like.Sinckler and Vunipola who are not great in the scrum but offer more in the loose ala nz so when talking of those guys it's off to.focus on their scrum as it is to focus on franks.

Rubbish, none of the Lions scrums have dominated, Pooly got it completely wrong, Furlong, suggested by some as World best was poor. Twice the Lions scrum got bowled over in the match, once nearly the try, and again at the end, and that was despite the ref penalising them off the park.

Landers did the same.

Lions scrum is weak. Has been all tour. Herald had a strange view? Well when all you see is one side going bavkwardscwhat would you expect?

Its as weak as every scrum its faced. Will totally dominate come the Tests, as likely in the line out.G

Gwlad, that's bollox and you know it. Why are you setting yourself up for such a fall? You know the Kiwis will jump on all this hubris is a few short weeks.

Hubris? What's good for the goose etc....anyway as I've said even I few win they won't accept it. A victory can never be a victory when the losing side are such poor sportsmen.

Honk!

Come on Gwald its good enough for all of us to be honest. The Lions are pretty poor so far, struggling to compete with club sides. Major players arent performing to their potential ...which I guess you could say holds a sliver of hope, there is a possibility of improvement. Mounting injuries will offset any benefit of improvements form time together as a unit.

As it stands right now though they are in for a kicking in the tests unless theres significant improvement.

I have a hard time telling when youre trolling and when youre being serious, its hard to imagine anyone is this blindly optimistic and positive (except at Trump rally or in the New Zealand Herald after a rare loss) about the idols they worship but it does come across like you actually are this deluded.

Comments about the New Zealand press and fans are quite fair though, appalling losers and a set of people who seem to have their entire ego bound up in a rugby team. Maybe thats what drive sthe success, the sheer desperation to prove self importance and mainatin a sense of worth.

Lets just not get dragged down to that level and at least view our own representative team realisticaly ... they are a bit of a dissapointment to date. New Zealand are better and should win all the tests. Its going to be hilarious if they dont mind.

Just watched the game and my thoughts.

What cost us the game was the amount of stupid stupid penalties we gave away. Not sure I could continue watching as we defended well, only to get field position and give another unforced stupid penalty away

Haskell, Sinkler and AWJ - I am looking at you guys.

Backs overall has a bit of a tough time controlling the Highlander backs.

I noticed a tactic they use of almost running doubled over, making it hard to tackle (You can not get to the legs). Something the lions needs to be able to better understand and work out.

Too many unforced errors, and knock ons in this game and the long kick at goal was a poor choice.

On the scrum - my opinion, first set of lions front row were dominate and the second set of front row were dominated

Well played Highlanders, some exciting and fast play, and worthy of the win.

ebop wrote:

kingelderfield wrote:

ebop wrote:Nah not nasty, just borderline offside. And also offside sometimes.

So a completely non comment then, and on that basis I'm sure we'll see it as a headline in the kiwi press tomorrow.

Oh and by the way cyclops they're underneath the sheep.

Actually I was trying to be polite. You're right though, it made the NZherald because the Lions defence is offside. There's also talk about the scrum and not rolling away from the tackle area which you may enjoy

The Lions also regularly creep up offside on defence - they call it "line speed".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11875592

Last year the Aussie media started attacking the England scrum technique to try to gain their team an advantage. Didn't work for them, but it's cute what you SH guys do when you're nervous.

Kearns: http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/former-wallabies-hooker-phil-kearns-accuses-england-prop-dan-cole-of-angling-in/news-story/b3f781ace404b49c6a8dbbb8f387b6eb

Dwyer: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/bob-dwyer-accuses-england-of-illegal-scrum-tactics-puts-referee-craig-joubert-on-notice-20160614-gpipdq.html

Didn't NZ fans used to love McCaw being a master of the dark arts? Now they want to stick to the letter of the law

Gooseberry wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

Cyril wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I will ebop. Franks it has to be said lived up to pooly s prediction. I can see where you're coming from though. Seems a similar place to the nz herald which had a strange view on the scrums. And to be fair gatland has picked guys like.Sinckler and Vunipola who are not great in the scrum but offer more in the loose ala nz so when talking of those guys it's off to.focus on their scrum as it is to focus on franks.

Rubbish, none of the Lions scrums have dominated, Pooly got it completely wrong, Furlong, suggested by some as World best was poor. Twice the Lions scrum got bowled over in the match, once nearly the try, and again at the end, and that was despite the ref penalising them off the park.

Landers did the same.

Lions scrum is weak. Has been all tour. Herald had a strange view? Well when all you see is one side going bavkwardscwhat would you expect?

Its as weak as every scrum its faced. Will totally dominate come the Tests, as likely in the line out.G

Gwlad, that's bollox and you know it. Why are you setting yourself up for such a fall? You know the Kiwis will jump on all this hubris is a few short weeks.

Hubris? What's good for the goose etc....anyway as I've said even I few win they won't accept it. A victory can never be a victory when the losing side are such poor sportsmen.

Honk!

Come on Gwald its good enough for all of us to be honest. The Lions are pretty poor so far, struggling to compete with club sides. Major players arent performing to their potential ...which I guess you could say holds a sliver of hope, there is a possibility of improvement. Mounting injuries will offset any benefit of improvements form time together as a unit.

As it stands right now though they are in for a kicking in the tests unless theres significant improvement.

I have a hard time telling when youre trolling and when youre being serious, its hard to imagine anyone is this blindly optimistic and positive (except at Trump rally or in the New Zealand Herald after a rare loss) about the idols they worship but it does come across like you actually are this deluded.

Comments about the New Zealand press and fans are quite fair though, appalling losers and a set of people who seem to have their entire ego bound up in a rugby team. Maybe thats what drive sthe success, the sheer desperation to prove self importance and mainatin a sense of worth.

Lets just not get dragged down to that level and at least view our own representative team realisticaly ... they are a bit of a dissapointment to date. New Zealand are better and should win all the tests. Its going to be hilarious if they dont mind.

 Do you really judge a whole country of people and its media soley on their reaction to a Rugby test defeat???

 I wouldnt try to attempt to drag you down to our worthless level, but our media and fans are also involved in other things besides rugby even other sports, our media also cover other sections of topic like Politics, Business, the arts, World issues, technology, travel, etc etc in fact not to different to your own media.

aucklandlaurie wrote:

Gooseberry wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

Cyril wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I will ebop. Franks it has to be said lived up to pooly s prediction. I can see where you're coming from though. Seems a similar place to the nz herald which had a strange view on the scrums. And to be fair gatland has picked guys like.Sinckler and Vunipola who are not great in the scrum but offer more in the loose ala nz so when talking of those guys it's off to.focus on their scrum as it is to focus on franks.

Rubbish, none of the Lions scrums have dominated, Pooly got it completely wrong, Furlong, suggested by some as World best was poor. Twice the Lions scrum got bowled over in the match, once nearly the try, and again at the end, and that was despite the ref penalising them off the park.

Landers did the same.

Lions scrum is weak. Has been all tour. Herald had a strange view? Well when all you see is one side going bavkwardscwhat would you expect?

Its as weak as every scrum its faced. Will totally dominate come the Tests, as likely in the line out.G

Gwlad, that's bollox and you know it. Why are you setting yourself up for such a fall? You know the Kiwis will jump on all this hubris is a few short weeks.

Hubris? What's good for the goose etc....anyway as I've said even I few win they won't accept it. A victory can never be a victory when the losing side are such poor sportsmen.

Honk!

Come on Gwald its good enough for all of us to be honest. The Lions are pretty poor so far, struggling to compete with club sides. Major players arent performing to their potential ...which I guess you could say holds a sliver of hope, there is a possibility of improvement. Mounting injuries will offset any benefit of improvements form time together as a unit.

As it stands right now though they are in for a kicking in the tests unless theres significant improvement.

I have a hard time telling when youre trolling and when youre being serious, its hard to imagine anyone is this blindly optimistic and positive (except at Trump rally or in the New Zealand Herald after a rare loss) about the idols they worship but it does come across like you actually are this deluded.

Comments about the New Zealand press and fans are quite fair though, appalling losers and a set of people who seem to have their entire ego bound up in a rugby team. Maybe thats what drive sthe success, the sheer desperation to prove self importance and mainatin a sense of worth.

Lets just not get dragged down to that level and at least view our own representative team realisticaly ... they are a bit of a dissapointment to date. New Zealand are better and should win all the tests. Its going to be hilarious if they dont mind.

 Do you really judge a whole country of people and its media soley on their reaction to a Rugby test defeat???

 I wouldnt try to attempt to drag you down to our worthless level, but our media and fans are also involved in other things besides rugby even other sports, our media also cover other sections of topic like Politics, Business, the arts, World issues, technology, travel, etc etc in fact not to different to your own media.

No, to be fair I consider your behaviour winning or losing to be equally as obnoxious.

aucklandlaurie wrote:

Gooseberry wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

Cyril wrote:

Gwlad wrote:

Taylorman wrote:

No 7&1/2 wrote:I will ebop. Franks it has to be said lived up to pooly s prediction. I can see where you're coming from though. Seems a similar place to the nz herald which had a strange view on the scrums. And to be fair gatland has picked guys like.Sinckler and Vunipola who are not great in the scrum but offer more in the loose ala nz so when talking of those guys it's off to.focus on their scrum as it is to focus on franks.

Rubbish, none of the Lions scrums have dominated, Pooly got it completely wrong, Furlong, suggested by some as World best was poor. Twice the Lions scrum got bowled over in the match, once nearly the try, and again at the end, and that was despite the ref penalising them off the park.

Landers did the same.

Lions scrum is weak. Has been all tour. Herald had a strange view? Well when all you see is one side going bavkwardscwhat would you expect?

Its as weak as every scrum its faced. Will totally dominate come the Tests, as likely in the line out.G

Gwlad, that's bollox and you know it. Why are you setting yourself up for such a fall? You know the Kiwis will jump on all this hubris is a few short weeks.

Hubris? What's good for the goose etc....anyway as I've said even I few win they won't accept it. A victory can never be a victory when the losing side are such poor sportsmen.

Honk!

Come on Gwald its good enough for all of us to be honest. The Lions are pretty poor so far, struggling to compete with club sides. Major players arent performing to their potential ...which I guess you could say holds a sliver of hope, there is a possibility of improvement. Mounting injuries will offset any benefit of improvements form time together as a unit.

As it stands right now though they are in for a kicking in the tests unless theres significant improvement.

I have a hard time telling when youre trolling and when youre being serious, its hard to imagine anyone is this blindly optimistic and positive (except at Trump rally or in the New Zealand Herald after a rare loss) about the idols they worship but it does come across like you actually are this deluded.

Comments about the New Zealand press and fans are quite fair though, appalling losers and a set of people who seem to have their entire ego bound up in a rugby team. Maybe thats what drive sthe success, the sheer desperation to prove self importance and mainatin a sense of worth.

Lets just not get dragged down to that level and at least view our own representative team realisticaly ... they are a bit of a dissapointment to date. New Zealand are better and should win all the tests. Its going to be hilarious if they dont mind.

 Do you really judge a whole country of people and its media soley on their reaction to a Rugby test defeat???

 I wouldnt try to attempt to drag you down to our worthless level, but our media and fans are also involved in other things besides rugby even other sports, our media also cover other sections of topic like Politics, Business, the arts, World issues, technology, travel, etc etc in fact not to different to your own media.

too funny....what? Like cricket

Gooseberry wrote:

aucklandlaurie wrote:

 Do you really judge a whole country of people and its media soley on their reaction to a Rugby test defeat???

 I wouldnt try to attempt to drag you down to our worthless level, but our media and fans are also involved in other things besides rugby even other sports, our media also cover other sections of topic like Politics, Business, the arts, World issues, technology, travel, etc etc in fact not to different to your own media.

No, to be fair I consider your behaviour winning or losing to be equally as obnoxious.

Surprised at the number of posters who thought that the Daly kick was a bad choice. He made the decision at exactly where the ref indicated. Then he was told he'd have to go back another 3 yards! Even on replays the ball actually looked as though it had got over the bar, so it was really close. It was certainly a lot closer than Farrell's earlier effort so was completely justified.
Going for the line was no certainty either, as Owens' darts haven't been perfect and Henderson/AWJ have been anything but invincible.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

Breadvan wrote:Plenty of quick ball for the backs at times but there's still a predictability about the attacking play. Altho handling errors don't help. Still a gulf between hemispheres in the off loading game and keeping the plays going. A shame Townsend didn't take the job.

I don't know if he or the SRU were the blockers.

Personally I would have liked to have seen big Vern take our summer tour and have Toonie coaching the Lions.

Pity. Watching one passage of play (albeit v Italy) with more off loads than we've seen in FOUR Lions games was disheartening..

Players need to anticipate others to play an offloading game - the Lions have no chance to learn that in a few weeks.