Just caught the game not knowing the result - kept wanting to jump on here and have a rant but didn't want to know the final result!
So many conflicting feelings; delighted with the win, disappointed that Howland didn't get the knock-out punch it desperately has coming to it. Pleased with the intensity shown by our guys but furious about the lack of discipline. Worried about next week but also excited.
Lions made desperately hard work of winning that game but in the last 20 minutes it felt like we moved something forward and I hope we can continue with that momentum.
Anyone who watches rugby knows its not always so easy to break down a team of 14 men. England showed it against Argentina in the autumn and it's particularly the case in the conditions we had yesterday. That's not to say we shouldn't have done better against the 14men, but rather the reasons we didn't break New Zealand down were that we didn't do the things you'd need to do against any number of opposition players - such as hold onto the ball, stay onside, not tackle late, and not kick the ball dead.
For this reason I don't think the lions need to be drawn into thinking "we only just beat 15 men". It happened that we scored quite a few of our points when it was 14 on 14. The fact that we didn't take advantage of the situation is worrying but definitely rectifiable. If anything I think the lions panicked at the prospect of suddenly being the favourites, and couldn't play naturally until it came to a critical point. When we did, we reaped the rewards. (note: we played better when forced to deviate from the core gameplan)
Whilst the all-blacks may cut themselves some slack for not winning the final score, you can be sure they won't cut themselves any slack for losing the contact with the lions. The people saying the lions were terrible are missing the huge increase in intensity in the tackle area from the first to the second test. We were dominant in the contact area even early on, and that's nothing to do with having a man advantage. Obviously the all-blacks fatigued earlier but as I say, the lions set out their stall early on and this will have pleased Gatland. This is possibly what he meant when he said we were the better team even with 15 men against 14.
What worries me is that the Howland gameplan gets another roll of the dice now, when what it honestly deserved yesterday was a knock-out punch. I don't believe the gameplan itself has really got us anywhere this series, in fact we've done the best things when we've allowed ourselves to play what is in front of us. Those tries yesterday came from players taking the initiative, and the freedom to do so only came because we were within 20 minutes of losing the test series a week early. The all-blacks have shown they are more than capable of handling our kicking game, our set-piece and our general pressure game(is alone surprised?). Where we've made gains is in introducing more variation to our play including willingness to spread the ball earlier.
Personally I'm somewhat also worried by several players. Itoje needs to reduce his penalty count. He had just about a good enough game yesterday to make up for the fact that he was living offside yesterday. Mako Vunipola had a bit of a mare. Actually I think what happened is he got pinged for going off his feet, seemingly unfairly, and never seemed to reset his attitude. In those games you've got to be able to wipe your mental slate clean but I think he felt alienated by the referee, and I was really glad to see him permanently replaced my McGrath - who by the way I would like to see start next week. It would be missing th point to say that Sam Warburton warranted his selection but I think he had a decent game and led the contact area and breakdown compeititon very well - we were hugely improved in those areas and if it weren't for French refereeings general apathy towards breakdown competition in general, we might have earned some more meat there (both teams might have). On this point, I'm extremely surprised to hear BODs comments (as quoted by muffin). They seem out of character and not entirely constructive.
Alun-Wyn again seemed quiet and was outperformed by Lawes who by now really deserves a test start but won't be getting it. SOB was monstrous again and will be sorely missed next week if banned. I liked our use of him in the backline. Faletau continues to be quiet but again he's routinely making the most tackles and when given the opportunity he shows he's just about the most skilful forward we have with ball in hand. Apart from Mako I'm happy with how the front-row is doing. George was huge on defence.
Murray didn't have a great game but made up for it to an extent with that try. I was pleased with the 10 - 12 axis and Jonathan Davies did some decent things. This said, he can be really slow at times to recognise space opening up before him and although he generally makes the right decisions, he doesn't make use of space in the way that Joseph does. The back 3 are there to provide as much solidity as possible in both kicking, high ball and defence; it just happens to coincide with the fact that they are also 3 of the most exciting attacking players we have. Currently we're seeing very little of that. Watson has been the best winger on tour by a distance, continuing to deal with anything thrown at him. Daly was ok, but Williams' high ball work has left a lot to be desired. I'm close to 100% that despite our backline flaws, the unit will remain the same going into new week.
I wouldn't rate our chances going into next week very high but it would be silly to suggest we can't win. The problem is nothing has happened quickly enough on this tour. We've consistently been a little behind where we should have been development wise and discipline has taken too long to come together. The gameplan hasn't been good or flexible enough and there has not been enough emphasis on rolling the dice with ball in hand. Keeping the opponent guessing is important because the All-Blacks will generally be able to deal with our set-piece strengths and kicking pressure game. To stand a decent chance next week the coaches have to identify NOW what has worked and what wasn't, our discipline has to improve significantly, and our handling needs to keep improving. Knowing when to offload and when not to is something we haven't cracked yet but will have to in the next week.
The final judgement of Gatlands 2017 tour can still vary hugely. if we are comfortably beaten next week, the second test win will be roundly written off as a blip resulting from the SBW sending off. Whereas if we can somehow win the next game, no-one except Skilinerd will be able to write off the accomplishment.
