Wow! Commentator called that on the soft ground! Unbelievably close...
Pretty concerning for next week... gonna be tense.
It's enough to drive a man to drink....
Yeah!!!
Hardly glorious though, a lot to work on before next week - but its a win!
God help the poor sod. Two chances to seal it late on. Aussie media will cane him.
[quote=martinhutch ]Scrum has fallen to shite. Money's on Beale to slot this one.
not without a vodka...
Hitting the kickers seems to have worked
]O'Connor missed those early shots though, he's always been so reliable, so not Beale's fault.
Australia better team
cole nearly cost us the game...dire scrimmaging
tom youngs o Connell AWJ corbesrio jones outstanding
Philips poor
sexton subtle
north excellent
cuthburt catch the ball
half p steady
aussies really unlucky
great great game
is there a highlight show on TV (not sky?) thanks
Yep. Let off for the Lions all round. Still a win though, and all the sweeter as the Aussies will know they've thrown it away...
I am pissed!
Lots to do. Front 5 were immense. Youngs made an improvement, I'd be tempted to start him next week. Can't say too much about the centres; they barely got any ball. They're petrified of north.
Phew! Breathe out again. Roll on next week.
(Zokes, is that necessary? Please leave it out for everyone else's sake)
[quote=anagallis_arvensis ]I am pissed!
Nicking Beals drinks?
Took the front row off a bit early, that's for sure! Another day, would have won by15, but never write Australia off.
Zokes, what are you on?
great great game
Really? I thought it was very average, maybe even poor. Both teams were far from their best.
If the reffing continues like that wouldn't bother picking open sides though because the breakdown is a non event. Also need to be clear when it is sealing off or not, both sides continually guilty only one penalty.
We'll have Tuilagi as impact sub as well next week. They have one eye on North, one on Cuthbert and the other on.... Oh wait.....
But only if we attack and play in thier half!
Great game for tension and drama if not for electric skills. Watching the Lions is like watching Wales- unless they dominate absolutely every facet of the game you feel they have a pretty good chance of loosing (unlike the SH teams who can win on scraps by comparison)
Lions will come better as they play the real time, Locals are hoping for more and ruing missed chances. Lions had the North try close and a few other close moments so both lucky to finish so close.
The only certainty is that Beale wont be starting in Melbourne
electric skills.......plenty on show
foleau tries
norths try
genia brilliance
sextons management of the game
beales break
Robertson for a prop running and angles
youngs dynamic forward play
thoroughly enjoyed it
I THINK IT IS GATLANDS game plan that is the problem
youngs should have stayed on
cole was awful
vinopla like o driscoll did not follow or watch how the ref manages the game
Ben youngs to start next and maybe bowe and Roberts back
felt the centres lacked the spark of creativity o driscoll was as always BOD
happy with the win but lucky
great game imho
Cracking game.
Sets up the series nicely, if they can fix their broken backs. Really sorry for CL with that 1st min injury.
Can't wait for next week.
BlindMelon - Member
Awesome score!!! Why is SOB in bench?
Noticed that too. 🙂
G***** was too scared to tell him he wasn't playing?
Or more likely he was "reserve 1st reserve" and they were more worried about Croft's fitness than they let on. Tweak something in warmup, Lydiate in, SOB bench.
Or he just turned up in kit to support the lads.
The only certainty is that Beale wont be starting in Melbourne
Fiver to charity on that?
Was excellent when he came on, really unlucky to slip. And every other back is broken.
Apart from Izzy. Who looked a bit shit on the wing too - probably get dropped next game too, eh? 😉
I know i'm pissed but thought the defencing linespeed was poor from the lions! Though hooker youngs was best player. And note to management do not underestimate adam jones next week.
Beale in from start next week
shame for the bloke, great game apart from two misses BUT O'Connor should have kicked aus out of sight
AA agree with you jones was very good all round the park not just the scrum need to be on till 62/64 minute
great call by roundtree on corbesario
Reckon the game will get put up on you toob?
Sounds like a cracker. Good result-how do people feel about the 6 7 8 combination?
heaslip played well
warbs decent
croft okay
for me did not gel as a unit
Not sure i can take another two weeks of this.
Adam Jones has been underestimated his whole career - why take off the most important Lions player??
Almost cost us the game...
next week I'm watching with the locals 🙂 hope it goes out way!
@a_a - agreed - I can't take another two weeks of this stress
Stream went down for the last 10 mins, perhaps a good thing given the drama, only came back for the missed kick at the end. I thought the Lions showed the right attitude, there was no great celebration. Lots to work on. Gatland had it right IMO talking about game management.
1-0 up, it will feel good in a day or two
tom , yes - but it's usually been about a day late on the other games.
678- not brilliant but not disastrous. Room for improvement, shall we say. Oz back row probably edged this little battle today.
IMO our (starting) front 5 were all great, but hard to say if they all "won" their personal battle 'cos the Oz front five were excellent too. Real fight up front.
10-12-13 were good, but JD's biggest impact was taking their best kicker out, BOD's was taking out their 10 out for Cuthbert's try, and Sexton's was taking a nap when the winger ran past him. Sorry, not fair. they did their jobs well, Johnny's kicking from hand was good.
and 11-14-15 were great - we won 'cos of the points from them. They all took their chances so well to get points on the board. Put 1/2 pee in Gold and they win.
But we were very lucky.
Pretty much everything that could go wrong for Oz did, and you have to feel for them losing 3 centres (and a FB) and ending up with a 7 and 9 as backs.
If they can get fixed for next week, will be another great test.
It just wasn't his day
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Interesting. Will Garland change the back row then?
Very entertaining and finely balanced game today.
Oz were very impressive, especially with the three injuries resulting with the team having to reshuffle. I thought the Lions would have the edge with Ozzies injuries.
Cuthbert and North took their try's very well and kicking was great. Room for improvement for the Lions and I expect Oz to be stronger next week too. Stream kept failing so hopefully I'll be down the pub to watch the 2nd test.
Great result for the All Blacks too and what a début for Beauden Barrett, started and finished a great try!!! Some massive hits from Bastareaud.
I am veryvery drunk!
[quote=anagallis_arvensis ]I am veryvery drunk!
here's hoping your this side of the world!
tom,
possibly -but probably not
Think our front five would probably appreciate a little more help from a player or two with a bit more grunt close in. Lydiate (if fit and on form) or SOB would add a bit.
Thing is, of the three playing today, it was Heaslip who was a level above the other two. Looked like he carried them, particularly in the tight. Don't think replacing him would gain us anything.
But to be fair, Croft was probably our top line out operator.
And the other one is captain undroppable. Not sure the addition of Tipuric would have made this better.
So change is probably unlikely.
We could sacrifice Croft, but we might then need to bring in Grey for the linout. But you wouldn't want to leave out POC or AWJ on today's performance, specially as we're trying to up the grunt, not lose some.
So- until I change my mind again - the best selection for next week would be:
Keep the front 6.
Keep Heaslip.
Bring in SOB at 7 🙂
it's not going to happen, is it?
On the subject of obvious improvements that G***** will ignore:
Murray in at 9, and then see what Sexton can really do 🙂
And Roberts or Manu (whoever isn't broken) in at 12 to take advantage of the backs getting some good ball.
And get Tommy Bowe fixed.
Any non irish changes?
Keep front 5 with poss addition of Parling. Keep subs as late as possible.. Nearly cost us today.
6,7,8 - spoilt for choice but obvious change won't happen
Not sure about my old fav, Phillips? But Secton a shoe in.
Centres depends on fitness but time to drop BOD if Roberts and Tuilaga and Davies (played well IMO) are all fit?
Back three simple - especially if Bowe is fit.
Aussies look more dangerous in open play, so need to play more to our strengths. Good to see line out working - well done Youngs and jumpers. Backs not firing at 100%.
After a few hours relaxation, Blimey we were lucky there!!!!
1/2p MOM for kicking and tackling today. Balls of steel.
youngs for phillips
Very unlikely to see any changes to first 15. Phillips for all his errors is miles better than the next option. Defencive line speed needs to be better!
Phillips for all his errors is miles better than the next option
Normally I'd agree (well he's not miles better) but not if he carries on like he did today.
They keep telling us that you're only as good as your last game. I hope we'd all agree that the team needs to be picked on form rather than reputation.
Zokes leave it alone please. I'm no AA fan but to keep this up is futile and will lead to the thread shutting down. So please stop all of you!
And AA Phillips on that evidence is not miles better, he had a stinker, or more likely the oppo did a great job on him. He looks a little off the pace and a little too predictable. I still think he is a very good player that plays 9 different than nearly every other 9 in the world but maybe too one dimensional which makes him easy to defend against at times. At others granted he is a nightmare to defend against, just don't think that will be against Oz or NZ.
Just watched it, god l love rugby!
No nead for the anti welsh comments zokes, the welsh contingent is clearly the backbone of that team, they did not play well today but at least they won. If you take the welsh out we would be very ordinary. Philips was poor but I think they were on to his game, wouldn't surprise me to see him dropped but he has so much more experience which makes that a hard call.
