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

[General Melchett]

There are just too many players who are either just coming back from injury, still carrying a small injury, unfit and/or burnt out after a long season.

Warburton, AWJ, Kruis, Laidlaw, Murray, Sexton, 1/2P spring to mind.

Thrown in uninspiring Howler as head attack coach and it doesn't bode well.

 

[General Melchett]

Duplicate

 

[The Jones Boy]

It occurs to me that Gatland needs to play his test team this weekend against the Crusaders to get them time to work together.

 

[Ozzay]

Few positives to take out of todays encounter. Front 5 performed well.

Sexton doesn't look in the slightest bit fit to me and is in very poor form! More expectations is going to out on Farrell to sort this back line out but it's not just down to him! Was crying out for a spark today and it just wasn't there. Dreadful.

Fairplay the winning try by West was how we all wanna see rugby being played, shame we don't see it in Northern Hemisphere

 

[valley commando]

Ive a few problems with this tour. The tour is really only a revenue generating task. The lions are only a red version of the barbarians. The next thing is the selection of managers and squad. Theach manager is an awful appointment and this is reflected in his squad selection his bias I'd terrible. Some very poor picks and nonew more so than the captain. Sam is not even the national captain and he has had a very poor season. The whole thing is a dead duck. It is taking valuable recovery time out of the calendar for Northern hemisphere player's.

You have a seriously bad attitude, if the Lions are lost to our calendar every 4 years rugby will be the looser, the Lions are what rugby is all about.
You are fortunately in a very tiny minority, almost every British and Irish rugby follower looks forward to these tours as much as they would a world cup, the players will tell you that it's the pinnacle of their career, the opposition have reason to cherish a cap against the Lions, a chance they get only every 12 years and yet you only see them as red shirted Baa-baas, the concept and ethos is completely different.
As far as criticising selection, if you don't like Gats picks thats tough, as to Warbs he is the outstanding candidate for captain and if fully fit is World class (as a 7 or 6)

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

You have a seriously bad attitude, if the Lions are lost to our calendar every 4 years rugby will be the looser, the Lions are what rugby is all about.
You are fortunately in a very tiny minority, almost every British and Irish rugby follower looks forward to these tours as much as they would a world cup, the players will tell you that it's the pinnacle of their career, the opposition have reason to cherish a cap against the Lions, a chance they get only every 12 years and yet you only see them as red shirted Baa-baas, the concept and ethos is completely different.
As far as criticising selection, if you don't like Gats picks thats tough, as to Warbs he is the outstanding candidate for captain and if fully fit is World class (as a 7 or 6)

I think... I think I just agree with Commando

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I reckon that minority will grow and grow throughout this tour. No one here really cares about the loss, if it were Ireland there'd be a huge overreaction. Ignoring all his other shortcomings Gatland's belligerent nature isn't good for a tour which represents what rugby "is all about", although his players are yet to follow suit. Rugby has gotten to the point where you simply can't coach an entirely new team to be competitive against the world's best no matter the available talent and travelling to SA or Aus would seem a bit pointless when you look at world rankings. So... Yeah, team dead duck here, surprise surprise! It'll die within a few decades imo.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Watched that line out again, I dont think it's Best's fault. The Sink, Itoje and Marler pod was all over the place when the trigger was probably supposed to be when Itoje turned. Itoje's immediate rection looks like someone who has ****** up rather than not been listened to as well.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

From my perspective the factors against the future of the Lions are the rise of Wales, Ireland and Scotland relative to Oz and SA. There are a lot of entertaining and competitive touring combinations that didn't exist 20 years ago.

Also, as rugby spreads and becomes more professional in different countries there will be a requirement for a truly European championship and in time this could be far more lucrative for World Rugby and national unions than the Lions is.

With all that said, how can you not be interested in the spectacle of a plucky wee country from down under who are the best in the world taking on the best that an entire continent has to offer? It is a curious experiment.

 

[General Melchett]

When putting things into perspective the tour to NZ is quite simply a brutal and phenomenal challenge. The tours to Aus and SA are far more winnable so maybe some people just need to accept that this is the toughest tour which may result in a few defeats but to say the Lions should end because of that is ridiculous.

 

[Nixter66]

My penny worth

1. You kick poorly in NZ, you gonna get killed on the counter attack. Lions have to have inch perfect precision
2. Crash ball- recycle - crach ball etc... Absolutely going nowhere in NZ
3. Speed at breakdown and out of tackle-- Blues offloaded in wet conditions that were atrocious...Lions offered nothing comparable

Having watched every game of the last 5 tours, and been down South in 2001, 2005, I feel- sadly-- very disappointed. The boys need a massive game on Saturday

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Watched that line out again, I dont think it's Best's fault. The Sink, Itoje and Marler pod was all over the place when the trigger was probably supposed to be when Itoje turned. Itoje's immediate rection looks like someone who has ****** up rather than not been listened to as well.

It's certainly far more likely that the lifters who have lifted together week in week out for years, plus the lineout captain, messed up rather than the notorious 5m bottler

 

[valley commando]

From my perspective the factors against the future of the Lions are the rise of Wales, Ireland and Scotland relative to Oz and SA. There are a lot of entertaining and competitive touring combinations that didn't exist 20 years ago.

Also, as rugby spreads and becomes more professional in different countries there will be a requirement for a truly European championship and in time this could be far more lucrative for World Rugby and national unions than the Lions is.

With all that said, how can you not be interested in the spectacle of a plucky wee country from down under who are the best in the world taking on the best that an entire continent has to offer? It is a curious experiment.

Not quite an entire continent, if it was Parisse and a few French guys might be touring

 

[Larksea]

great game to watch, always close and it was test match type rugby.

I thought the big winner was the blues defense, SBW, Moala, Gibson, Akira, Scrafton, Parsons and Tuioti in particular were amazing on defense. Massive effort from basically the whole pack and the midfielders. To restrict the lions to just one try which was a line out drive was very impressive.

The blues win was even more impressive considering the referee which would have been a bizarre experience for the blues. After having Sanzar refs all year in super rugby to a french ref in a big game like this was a complete shell shock. He was completely reversing calls compared to what we would have expected in super rugby at scrums, mauls and breakdowns in particular you could see some of the blues players completely bemused at times but to their credit they didn't complain much and just got on with the job.

Perofeta was a mixed bag, amazing pass to setup the opening try and a nice try saver on Payne but he also looked unsettled at times, missed touch with some kicks, made mistakes and was only 1 from 3 with the goal kicking. But did a good job considering the occasion and the fact hes a rookie up against a vastly experienced side.

SBW had a massive game obviously, some big tackles and a couple of early turnovers. Great opportunist try and an amazing setup for the match winner. Pretty much a complete performance and he very well may have played his way into the All Blacks 12 jersey.

Moala was massive on defense but didn't get much ball to run with which was a shame because the couple of times he did get it he plowed over the gain line.

Collins had a good game from the back, though he may not have the x-factor I can see why he gets selected ahead of Nanai who has genuine x-factor and amazing tackling stats but can kinda go solo at times.

Rieko was impressive and you have to wonder again if his performance paved the way to AB selection as well. He is clearly a guy the AB's want to devalop and hes made some good gains this year and is in very good form. Was solid on defense as well.

That winning try was awesome, it was clearly a set move, at least the first offload from luatua was a set move and some amazing work from SBW and West to finish it.

IMO on the lions. They are not playing the type of rugby that is needed to beat NZ sides. They didn't do enough on attack to cause the blues issues and to beat NZ teams you need to score trys. Because they are going to score trys and penalties aren't going to be enough to win. That is an ongoing theme for NZ teams, go for trys or don't bother at all.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Not quite an entire continent, if it was Parisse and a few French guys might be touring

On this, if it was a whole continent which French, Italian, Georgian or other European players would get into the XV if any? Would Parisse? I think Guirado would but after that and maybe a French winger I'm really not sure.

 

[Moorsman]

There are just too many players who are either just coming back from injury, still carrying a small injury, unfit and/or burnt out after a long season.

Warburton, AWJ, Kruis, Laidlaw, Murray, Sexton, 1/2P spring to mind.

Thrown in uninspiring Howler as head attack coach and it doesn't bode well.

Sexton way off the pace , tactics and fitness got to go on form not former glory, he not the only one gattland not my choice to one dimensional

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

It's certainly far more likely that the lifters who have lifted together week in week out for years, plus the lineout captain, messed up rather than the notorious 5m bottler

I've seen Itoje mess up an important line out or two now! Best could have yipped it, and he shouldn't be in the test 23 having made the tour by the skin of his teeth, but it definitely looks like bad communication to me!

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Despite the doom and gloom we're all feeling, as Groundhog said I think we did most of what we needed to win that game. It wasn't a bad performance, we just made a few costly mistakes.

The 7 point swing from the SBW try we obviously shouldn't have let happen. But it was just one of those unfortunate things that happens every now and again (credit to SBW)

And Kicking. We had that game with 7 minutes to go. Sextons kick was poor, chasing also poor, and we lost it from there. Webb's kicking throughout the game was mostly bad too.

It was completely avoidable.

 

[The blunderbus]

You have a seriously bad attitude, if the Lions are lost to our calendar every 4 years rugby will be the looser, the Lions are what rugby is all about.
You are fortunately in a very tiny minority, almost every British and Irish rugby follower looks forward to these tours as much as they would a world cup, the players will tell you that it's the pinnacle of their career, the opposition have reason to cherish a cap against the Lions, a chance they get only every 12 years and yet you only see them as red shirted Baa-baas, the concept and ethos is completely different.
As far as criticising selection, if you don't like Gats picks thats tough, as to Warbs he is the outstanding candidate for captain and if fully fit is World class (as a 7 or 6)

 

[Reiser99]

Managed to watch it this evening. Not much to add that hasn't already been said, but my worry looks like it might come true. Too much aimless kicking, with the chase not being good enough. AB's will make the lions pay if they don't improve this.