South Africa vs British & Irish Lions - Test 1

[ncurd]

Oh God, no (to Farrell)

By not calling up Poochie there's not choice Gatland has never given off the air of a coach willing to take that kind of risk with Smith.

 

[General Melchett]

Oh God, no (to Farrell)

Russell might be back. I'd have Marcus before Farrell but he'll no doubt be rewarded for nailing that penalty. The rest of his kicking and decision making at 10 was mostly awful

 

[AlRums]

By not calling up Poochie there's not choice Gatland has never given off the air of a coach willing to take that kind of risk with Smith.

Hopefully Russell will be fit

 

[unrated]

I know what needs to change for the Boks, I hope Nienaber knows too. Will discuss this in the test 2 thread. Costly to miss kicks, Felt like the Lions won physical dominance for most of the game. Our scrums was absolutely nullified. Kolbe started knocking too much high balls.

Mapimpi was great.
De Allende was great.
Pollard was good.
Du Toit was great.

Motm for me: The whole Lions pack

 

[Dean Cooperfield-West]

If Biggar fails the HIA is Smith coming on in the last 20 next week?

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Pack wise for the Lions feel that Cowan-Dickie will go back to the bench next week.
Rest will stay.

 

[saulan]

Really poor second half from the Springboks. I honestly think we lost it in the aerial battle, with a secondary factor being our discipline and then our scrummaging in the second half being . More Kolbe than Mapimpi unfortunately. We never really got in it from an offensive perspective and were feeding off of mistakes. Sorting out one of those could have resulted in a win.

I was surprised at how tight the scrum was and although I'm disappointed with the loss, I am happy with the competitiveness/how close it was,

Hoping to see it go 1-1 next week and then the final game being the decider.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Russell has an Achilles injury doesn't he? Tough to come back from in such a short time. Surprised he hasn't been sent home already.

 

[saulan]

C'mon bro let's have a braii and chat this thru man

Kick him out, he spelt braai wrong. Sacrilege!

 

[General Melchett]

Pack wise for the Lions feel that Cowan-Dickie will go back to the bench next week.
Rest will stay.

I'd drop Sutherland and have Wyn Jones starting and Mako (who was excellent TBF) on the bench.

 

[AlRums]

Russell has an Achilles injury doesn't he? Tough to come back from in such a short time. Surprised he hasn't been sent home already.

Gatland has always said they hope he will be fit for the last to games

 

[General Melchett]

Russell has an Achilles injury doesn't he? Tough to come back from in such a short time. Surprised he hasn't been sent home already.

They must be hopeful otherwise they'd have sent him home. They said he should be back to full training next week

 

[ncurd]

Best part of that match was watching Itoje play at his absolute best again. Reminding us why he gets talked about captaincy.

Also Mako not ******** the bed I've given him tons of stick but if he can manage that for two more games maybe he can play for England again.

 

[AlRums]

Correct Motm

 

[saulan]

In general though, well played to the Lions, it was quite a deficit to come back from and they came back hard in the second half.

Looking forward to the rest of the series

 

[TRF_Olyy]

14 days until we never have to see Warren Gataland involved in NH rugby again

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Correct Motm

Who?

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Nothing has ever hurt this much for me to say given the abuse I've given him in the past but Mako had a great game. I wouldn't start him but yeah, he's a perfectly valid bench option

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I'll have to watch it again and closer but I got the idea that the Lions players regularly rather than directly compete for the ball in the air managed interference with SA hands resulting in a fair few knock ons. Just something I think I saw at least twice. Clever. Bloody irritating but clever if that is the case. No one apart from maybe Folau would take those ball one handed.

 

[Dean Cooperfield-West]

14 days until we never have to see Warren Gataland involved in NH rugby again

He's the next England coach