Combined NSW-Queensland Country XV vs. British and Irish Lions (11/6/13)

[Leonormous Boozer]

Its been a very uninspiring second half from the Lions, a stupid amount of handling errors.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Bar AWJ, the replacements haven't been as good as the guys they replaced.

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[TRF Mr Fish]

I'm 90% sure that wasn't carried back...

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Is it all just throwing or are the jumpers and lifters messing up the line-outs as well?

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Ooh that could've been bad for O'Driscoll there... Phewf

 

[Joseph14]

Can none of the Lions hookers throw a ball?

Bad when Tom Youngs is the form throwing arm!

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Can anyone else hear the police radio in the background??

 

[Aristodemus]

Disappointing game to be honest, nobody really stood out either.

 

[Tribesmen-ce-123]

Haka sound in the background there?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yeah, pretty so-so.
Credit to the Country XV in the 2nd half, their bench made a difference.

 

[Tony Manx]

Quinnell saying that we will probably not see O'Driscoll and Roberts until the Test..............I can understand BOD who emotionally and there being a lack of an decent alternative indicate he is a cert but Roberts?

He is not the leading centre by any measure to date on this tour!!

Hogg as shown he should be on the bench as a kicker, 15 or 10 and this has the added bonus that Farrell would not be required!!

I would agree with the comment that the subs added nothing but difficult for anyone of them to improve on their predecessors so much did the whole team lose focus.

Barnes indicated that Evans and Lydiate are shoe ins for Test as key men to Gatland who "would always want them where they are available".....

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Evans put in a good shift today, and I think will overtake (if he was ever behind) Parking for the third test lock spot - Parling's lineout work is second to none but his physicality isn't up there.
Lydiate vs SOB for the test 6 shirt, no idea who to go for.

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

I think Lydiate will be the starting 6, with SOB the benchman.

 

[UlsterRugby2012]

Yeah agree would rather have Lydiate start for his defensive work and maybe bring O'Brien on around 55-60 mins.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Do you think we'll start to see the test side with the exception of a few this Saturday? I'd like to see these lot given a run out:

Vunipola Hibbard Jones
POC AWJ
Croft Heaslip Waburton
Sexton Youngs
Zebo Tuilagi BOD Maitland
Kearney

With Phillips coming in for Youngs, North for Zebo and 1/2P for Kearney, Tipuric for Warburton and SOB for Croft for the 1st test. Maybe more than a few changes then!! There are a lot of positions up for grabs if you ask me. A good performance on Saturday will go a long way to securing a test place.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I think the backrow we saw today should start the tests, very strong on attack whilst very balanced in defence, whereas with Lydiate in there he's not adding much to attack and while there would be an improvement in defence it wouldn't outweigh what he takes away in attack if that makes sense to anyone. If Warburton doesn't start the test would you have POC or BOD as captain?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I'd have BOD as captain - realistically it will make little difference to anything which of the two (hypothetically) is captain as they'd both still be talking to the players etc, but I imagine BOD is the better of the two with the referee's.
POC more likely to play <80 mins, as well.

 

[Peat]

Is it all just throwing or are the jumpers and lifters messing up the line-outs as well?

I didn't see, on account of getting confused and thinking this was tomorrow, but everything I've seen so far says there is a lineout problem across the entire unit.

 

[dullonien]

Quite a mixed game today. Some of the Lions attacks in the first half were looking very slick, and I actually thought that Hogg fitted in nicely at 10, showing some good distribution. On the other hand, there were a lot of errors along the way, especially in that second half.

SOB was probably the best performing member of the pack. A number of others had solid games, such as Corbs, Evans, AWJ when he came on, Tipuric and Heaslip. I did think Heaslip was a little quiet though. Mixed performances from Hibbard, Stevens and Gray.

In the backs I thought Roberts was a little ineffective, and made a couple of errors. He distributed well, something he's often criticised for. Murrray, Hogg, BOD, North and Cuthbert all had strong games, with BOD and North the stand-outs. Slightly mixed game from Maitland, doing some things very well, but making some errors. Halfpenny was also up and down when he came on. I thought he hit the line better than usual, but he made some uncharacteristic mistakes.

I'm not sure if this game has helped with the selection much, other than reinforce that SOB should be involved in the 23, just depends if he'd be better used as an impact sub, or as a starter, and BOD is a must in the centre.

 

[Rich Taff]

I get the feeling that a lot of the line out problems are due to the Lions not using the 'test calls' before the test, so there is little practice going in to the midweek lineout throws/calls, and the time is spent on different ones ready for the tests.

(I hope that's the reason anyway, but Best also looks like a man with no confidence at all in his throwing at the moment)