Warm Up Match 2: Blues v British & Irish Lions (Auckland)

[Ground We Won]

-SBW is the man, there's no question about it. In test match atmosphere he's able to take it up a level, a good man and a great player, happy to see him hit such good form. Him and Crotty are all over that 12 jersey.

-Reiko Ioane needs to be selected ahead of Dagg. An absolute natural.

-Duffie has balls, great commitment from him, that's what Blues teams of late have lacked.

- @Caitlyn Jenner your mate Michael Collins had another good game, what's with your prejudice against Otago boys?

-Luatua and A.Ioane were fantastic.

With no Kaino and no Paddy T. Big effort from the Blues, good on them. That last try from West had me off my seat, such a great try and I'm happy for him after enduring a tough season, he's a good player, just needs some confidence and continuity.

 

[Nubiwan]

My overall feeling was that there was too much wayward kicking from the Lions.
When they kept the ball in hand they looked a much better team.

Aimless from half back and well too deep.

 

[The Jones Boy]

Liam Williams got a pretty sharp wake up call today.
Every game against NZ opposition will be played at test match pressure levels.
There will be no respite it will only build and the top players have to be on the ball straight out of the blocks.
If the Lions keep kicking away possession all tour they are en route for a beating.
The last time NZ lost there was a host of regular AB's missing. Kaino was playing at lock FFS. Thats not going to be the case in the test matches at home.
Kick the ball away in NZ and it will come back at you faster than you kicked it.
Gats needs to encourage the Lions to hold on to the pill and starve the Kiwi sides of possession.

 

[Nubiwan]

My overall feeling was that there was too much wayward kicking from the Lions.
When they kept the ball in hand they looked a much better team.

Aimless from half back and well too deep.

 

[Nubiwan]

Liam Williams got a pretty sharp wake up call today.
Every game against NZ opposition will be played at test match pressure levels.
There will be no respite it will only build and the top players have to be on the ball straight out of the blocks.
If the Lions keep kicking away possession all tour they are en route for a beating.
The last time NZ lost there was a host of regular AB's missing. Kaino was playing at lock FFS. Thats not going to be the case in the test matches at home.
Kick the ball away in NZ and it will come back at you faster than you kicked it.
Gats needs to encourage the Lions to hold on to the pill and starve the Kiwi sides of possession.

Especially if you kick it too far, aimlessly, and no effective chase. We did it all match. The blues kicks - in comparison - all contested.

 

[The Jones Boy]

Since the threads calmed down a little. Few things I want to say.

-SBW is the man, there's no question about it. In test match atmosphere he's able to take it up a level, a good man and a great player, happy to see him hit such good form. Him and Crotty are all over that 12 jersey.

SONNY BILL - yeah baby.

He da Man !! Awesome performance from the big kahuna. He's a star and no mistake, cometh the hour cometh the SBW !!!

Reiko Ioane needs to be selected ahead of Dagg. An absolute natural.

Yeah, but, Dagg is incumbent.

Duffie has balls, great commitment from him, that's what Blues teams of late have lacked.

Tana's a big fan of Duffie.

-Luatua and A.Ioane were fantastic.

Different styles but both of super dynamic. We will really miss Luatua next season.

With no Kaino and no Paddy T. Big effort from the Blues, good on them.

That was no easy victory, the Lions were in it all the way and could have pinched it, they just need their attack to click and that is the part that always takes the longest to come together. The Lions need more time and they will have that before the series starts in earnest.
It takes time to bed in half a century of players.
I'm over the moon with the result for my beloved Blues, but it certainly isnt lost on me that this game could have gone either way and there are signs of quality coming from the Lions, especially in the pack.

 

[Nubiwan]

No way are all those teams better than the Blues. The Lions yes, the others? Definitely no. The Stormers got away with murder in Cape Town and were given the game by the officials and would definitely lose at Eden Park and the Blues already beat the Brumbies in Australia in April.

In fairness, the Blues gave the Crusaders a decent go in their match - as I recall. Were they not up 20 odd points at one point? Am I imagining that? Crusaders clawing back in to it to win? Not all that much in the NZ provincial sides IMHO, so the games should all be decent contests like tonight. Expect a strong Lions line up on Saturday. They are going to need it to keep it close.

If I am being fair, then the match tonight was pretty much like a Super Rugby level game, which this Lions squad is probably at. Of the home nations, perhaps only England could consider themselves above Super Rugby level. Well NZ level. Controversial perhaps, but my opinion.

 

[Maverick1987]

I'm a little worried that losing 8 or 9 games on this tour could spell the end for the lions . Sponsors want competitiveness . Interest will cool very fast if they don't get that in the same way it has for Barbarians rugby

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

So, the lions barely got away with a win against a random number of nzers who happened to be playing across the stadium last week and now lost to the worst

No way are all those teams better than the Blues. The Lions yes, the others? Definitely no. The Stormers got away with murder in Cape Town and were given the game by the officials and would definitely lose at Eden Park and the Blues already beat the Brumbies in Australia in April.

Maybe not the brumbies, but i'm probably closer to Stormer2010's position than yours. I'd say the Sharks are clearly above the blues right now and i'd say the Stormers and the Blues are about par.

In laymen terms, the Blues are nothing more than a mid tier team in Super Rugby. They'd get a play off spot if they were in Australia's Group, but they'd be dismantlement after that.

 

[The Jones Boy]

Thats a possible outcome for where they are at the moment in this season.
I'll take it though as the signs of improvement from the previous 6 seasons are marked.

 

[Papsmear]

Gatland said after the game that he didn't think the All Blacks were that much of a step up from the super rugby teams. Funny.

 

[Ground We Won]

Gatland said after the game that he didn't think the All Blacks were that much of a step up from the super rugby teams. Funny.

He's got to say something to cover his own ass.

A better excuse would have been. "The Blues have been together now for 5 months, play week in week out. We just got together last week".

I'm still not going to write the Lions off. They have a lot of difficult games left to prepare them for the real test. Which they're very unlikely to win, but they should be better by the end of the month... hopefully.

 

[galumay]

Great win by the Blues, just confirming how much better the worst NZ side is than just about everyone else, I had to laugh at Gatland saying it didnt really matter as there wasnt much difference between the Super teams and the AB's.

The Lions look out of their depth to me, a lot of work to do from here to be competitive against stronger Super teams before they even consider the AB's. I am sure they will sort some of it out, they certainly stiffened up a bit since the first game, but it may be a bridge too far I suspect.

The final try was everything thats great about NZ rugby, a real joy to watch and great to see SBW improving week by week.

The Blues have really built well this year, they will be disappointed not to have gone further, but they are arguably the 5th best team in the comp now and the only team that may be better than them would be the Lions, but hard to tell given the armchair ride they got. Anyway, I digress.

I suspect the challenge now becomes for the Lions to find a way to win another game on tour, and that wont be an easy task now, every game gets tougher from here so the improvement needs to be steep and constant.

 

[General Melchett]

How did 1/2P play today?

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

I know the length of these tours is criticised but right now its hard to see how we could function on anything less. Right now we're not developing partnerships or familiarity, if we're moving towards a better idea of a preferred test side its mainly on the basis of process of elimination, its not so much a case of players putting their hands up as other players putting theirs down! Right now, the guys who haven't played as much look fairly promising and we need to see more of them, presuming most will start the next game, i.e:


George
Kruis
Farrell
Vunipola
O'Mahony

and then a bunch of guys who haven't played at all but could give us solutions:

North
Davies
O'Brien
Murray

A couple of others have shown promising signs: Faletau, Moriarty, Sinkler, Itoje, Watson, Te'o, Halfpenny

EDIT: Anyone else think Gatland should just play his strongest side against the crusaders? A loss against the blues, the weakest SR side, looks bad, but a win against the best side would give huge momentum to the tour. Maybe this game needs to be treated as the unofficial first test. Thing is, if we rotate again completely we're not going to win.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Liam Williams got a pretty sharp wake up call today.
Every game against NZ opposition will be played at test match pressure levels.
There will be no respite it will only build and the top players have to be on the ball straight out of the blocks.
If the Lions keep kicking away possession all tour they are en route for a beating.
The last time NZ lost there was a host of regular AB's missing. Kaino was playing at lock FFS. Thats not going to be the case in the test matches at home.
Kick the ball away in NZ and it will come back at you faster than you kicked it.
Gats needs to encourage the Lions to hold on to the pill and starve the Kiwi sides of possession.

They were missing their locks, they're probably more injured for this series.

Kicking accurately, chasing hard and winning the territory and possession battles is literally the only way to be competitive against NZ, Ireland beat them and then had NZ resort to inflicting injuries through dangerous play in order to win the return fixture and France competed for long periods too playing like this. The Lions have halfbacks who can do this in Murray, Farrell and Sexton, the outside backs are yet to show that they can having been destroyed in the air today and they were unable to string any passes together and were under pressure constantly because of it. Bad selection is at fault for this loss but to credit Gatland, and I reckon the only coach in world rugby I dislike more than him was the guy who beat him today, he's trying to implement a gameplan that could give NZ a little bit to think about and if Payne is out I'd be drafting in Kearney or Zebo because even if their games are very limited they're both better kick chasers than anyone else in this squad.

Great result for my hopes of the Lions being given up on though!

 

[Caitlyn Jenner]

- @Caitlyn Jenner your mate Michael Collins had another good game, what's with your prejudice against Otago boys?

Haha simmer down mate . I don't dislike Collins, I just think that Nanai is and definitely has the potential to be a better player... and a lot of people feel the same way... I think there's a reason he was called into the ABs last year
Collins was outstanding tonight though... actually probably the best performance I recall seeing from him. Definitely justified his selection, so well done to him.
And no prejudice here mate... the only slight prejudice I have is for my Canes boys

 

[bazwaz]

Anyone know where Halfpenny is heading off to next year...class player and Toulon must have missed him in the final against Clemont last week- i hear Toulon have given him the boot?

 

[galumay]

I know the length of these tours is criticised but right now its hard to see how we could function on anything less. Right now we're not developing partnerships or familiarity, if we're moving towards a better idea of a preferred test side its mainly on the basis of process of elimination, its not so much a case of players putting their hands up as other players putting theirs down!...
EDIT: Anyone else think Gatland should just play his strongest side against the crusaders? A loss against the blues, the weakest SR side, looks bad, but a win against the best side would give huge momentum to the tour. Maybe this game needs to be treated as the unofficial first test. Thing is, if we rotate again completely we're not going to win.

On your first point, its only 2 games in less than a week so I guess you guys can have some hope of building into the tour, I think your edit point is reasonable, I dont think waiting for the 1st test to settle a lineup is all that clever, run them on against the Saders and give it a real crack - it either works and the confidence grows, or it doesnt and you end up knowing what you need to improve on with the best line up.

 

[Ground We Won]

Ireland beat them and then had NZ resort to inflicting injuries through dangerous play in order to win the return fixture

Right, that's the only reason we won.

You should remove that NZ flag impostor.