Round 7. Chiefs v Lions

[Dumbo]

Head to Head:
CHIEFS:
15 Dwayne Sweeney,
14 Lelia Masaga,
13 Tane Tu'ipulotu,
12 Tasesa Lavea,
11 Roy Kinikinilau,
10 Stephen Donald,
9 Brendon Leonard,
8 Liam Messam,
7 Marty Holah,
6 Sione Lauaki,
5 Keith Robinson,
4 Kristian Ormsby,
3 Nathan White,
2 Tom Willis ©,
1 Simms Davison.
Reserves:
16 Aled de Malmanche,
17 Ben Castle,
18 Toby Lynn,
19 Tanerau Latimer,
20 Jamie Nutbrown,
21 Niva Ta'auso,
22. Jared Payne.

LIONS:
15 Jaco van Schalkwyk,
14 Louis Ludik,
13 Jaque Fourie,
12 Jaco Pretorius,
11 Wylie Human,
10 Andre Pretorius ©,
9 Jano Vermaak,
8 Jacques Cronje,
7 Ernst Joubert,
6 Cobus Grobbelaar,
5 Anton van Zyl,
4 Willem Alberts,
3 Brian Mujati,
2 Willie Wepener,
1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Reserves:
16 Ethienne Reynecke,
17 Bertus Smit,
18 Gordon Gilfillan,
19 Franco van der Merwe,
20 Enrico Januarie,
21 Louis Strydom,
22 Jan Hendrik Boshoff.

Even with an injury depleted team I'm going for the Chiefs in this one.
The Chiefs still can offer a solid front row, plus an established lock combo and the loose forwards are highly capable in terms of attack and defence.
The Halves for the Chiefs is the big area of concern, like ozzy said Donald is playing like crap and Lavea has always played like crap. But if these two players can get their collective **** together and feed their outside backs then the Lions are going to be in trouble.

 

[mimic]

If the game is dull, the Lions will take it.

If the game opens up, the Chiefs should take it. Their loose forward trio are a mobile pack, and will destroy you if there is any counter attack..

Masaga will open up again, and he's just the man. Hopefully Samoa will pick him up for the World Cup.

If only David Smith wanted to play for Samoa, they'd have some handy wingers with Super14 experience.

 

[bobilycious]

Isnt Masaga a New Zealand citizen anyway cz he played for us in the under 21 world cup.

 

[The TRUTH]

The Lions were so inept last week they cannot possibly turn it around in one week. They were exposed by the sheer pace of the game last week and i don't think it'll get much slower against this Chiefs side.

Chiefs to win this one fairly easily. Luaki to score a hat-trick and in doing so propell me to the top of the Fantasy comp ladder.

 

[bobilycious]

Lol. Gud luck with tht. I say Chiefs by 10. 1 try from Lauaki. At least 2 from Masaga

 

[THE CHIROPRACTOR101]

david smith has just got his residency last year i think...he has always wanted to represent nz since coming to nz in 04..masaga has been here since his primary school days..im pretty sure he was born in samoa but is eligible for nz..i think hes played nz sevens too..im not too sure on that one..but masaga is an aucklander..he went to james cook highschool...*cough...thieves the rest of nz is...hahahhaa

GO CHIEFS!!

 

[mimic]

rofl.. Lions get another thrashing..

Not surprised.. They couldn't expect to do in NZ what they did in Australia.. Even without our All Blacks..

 

[redunderthebed]

wow they did get a thrashing 1 out of 1 for me in this weeks tips. :cheers:

 

[Dumbo]

Man, who though Donald would get two tries!
AND Lavea didn't lose us the game (think he's still **** but at 2nd5 he was ok)

 

[ozzy]

This game really exposed how much Donald relies on having another fly half to play outside him. He is simply not a player who can handle the multiple responsibilities of a fly half. His running game is about the only thing he does reasonably well. I cannot for the life of me understand why he has been given the kicking and goal kicking duties as he is so totally unreliable. What was it 3 penalty kicks not in touch and a shitload more in general play, not to mention he can never kick the penalty goals that really matter in a tight match.
Hard to judge Lavea on 1 game but he played far better than Tuiplolotu has in that position all year, i.e. he actually "did" something.
Lauaki is extremely crap and will most likely not be an all black again in the near future. I kept screaming at him to take the ball up. Instead he runs up, stops, palms off 2 defenders and then runs sideways, totally useless and hes looking fat as well.
Masaga's head appears to have grown larger than his abilities. I think after he dominated Habana he has begun to overestimate his abilities and thinks he can crash over players ala Jonah. I hope he got the wakeup call he needed last night as he did absolutely nothing worthwhile for the entire game and seemed to think he could run right over the lions wings.
If the opposition had been half decent the Chiefs would have been on the verge of losing the game for the entire match as they showed an inability to completely close out the game and looked to be reverting to form early in the second half where the lions looked to be building some momentum.
All in all a pretty boring game despite the high score.

 

[Dumbo]

Spot on the money there mate.

 

[aussie1st]

The flair of the Chiefs looked like it was coming back, Lions end their tour on a disappointing note after starting it so well.

 

[THE CHIROPRACTOR101]

insiders info...hansen loves lauaki,he loves power players like him..lauaki is exactly in nonu's situation..damaging runner but cant make exception to change....he needs game time..that is all,still one of the most deadliest ball carriers in the game..give him time

congrats [email protected] hes bound to have one quite game..lets see what he can do for the rest of the season...hahahha...

 

[Dumbo]

Yup, next weeks the against the Reds, if you ever really wanted to through a game and make yourself look like a complete tool, it's that one.
If they play him at 10 I think I'll be looking for a new club.

Still a bit of a sore point that the Waikato Rugby Board could think that Lavea can offer anything for the Chiefs. For f&*k sake the Blues get Holwell and they've got McAlistar and Nacewa, the Crusaders get Brett and Carter, The Highlanders have Nick Evans and Bruce... OK the Canes have got a few issues (insert stealing back Quade Cooper here) and the Chiefs get f&*king Donald and Lavea.

Think this may be the last season for the Chiefs coach, the NPC coach performed well but Gatland... man something wrong with this guys thinking... Lavea?

 

[BokMagic]

Congrats to the Chiefs, a fully deserved win here.

Personally, I think that Leckkie had a bit of a shocker, esp. the yellow to Cronje looked very soft IMO, but he was equally poor in his decision-making to both sides. Methinks that the Lions just chucked away way too much possession, too easily and too cheaply. Bad end to a tour that really promised so much earlier.

Chiefs fully deserved their 5 point haul in this game.

 

[Dumbo]

This is a big ask but if the Canes take out the Sharks tonight then it's not going to be good for the Lions next week either, home crowd or no home crowd.

I thought the chiefs would have tried to win the game out wide, they started playing like that for the first 15 mins and then started putting pressure on the Lions forwards and came out on top. The Lions compared to other South African teams look a lot lighter up front. For the Lions next game, the Canes are going to offer a new hooker plus an international set of loose forwards that will be (specially if Tana is playing) very hungry (and possibly an AB Lock and Half back).

Hope the couch does some fast talking on the plane back home.

 

[BokMagic]

Well, the Lions are always much tougher at home, altitude and all. That said, the Canes have probably been hardest hit by the absence of their AB`s this year, and them loosies, all fresh and rested- and by what I`ve heard, bulked-up too- will take some stopping, even if the altitude was somewhere high up on the Drakensberg!