The lions starting front row pretty much had the SA sub front row beat (apart from marks he’s an animal) whereas they struggled against the SA starters.

Yeah and when our sub front row came on they hammered the SA sub front row.

Interesting you’ve not included Henshaw. Thought he was one of our better backs on Sat.

I thought the ref was pretty awful on Sat.. but as the Lions benefited from most of his crapness, we can’t really complain eh?! Saw this and agree on most fronts – https://www.rugbypass.com/news/ref-watch-sorry-but-the-first-test-officiating-was-too-inconsistent/
There was also the Itoji penalty, where Boks were right on our line, Faf goes to grab the ball out of the tackle area (ruck wasn’t called yet, surprise!) and Itoji gets his hands on it a splt second later and stops him. Penalty Lions for holding on! What, the scrum half isn’t allowed to grab the ball? The jackler has more rights?
Found it
.https://youtu.be/qeQpDTB06eU.

Interesting you’ve not included Henshaw. Thought he was one of our better backs on Sat.

I haven’t not included him, he could have scored if he had both hands on the ball.

Agree about ref, he seemed want to keep the game flowing and made a fair few screw up, maybe he was nervous.
The TMO, kicker in front of the ball call was so marginal, however the forward pass before seemed more obvious to me and he said it wasn’t.
I think my concern with SA is that they seem to know how to play the ref better.
They played this kind of chaos infringement thing, both of those disallowed tries were littered with possible infringements, offisde, forward passes knock on’s etc, but they cleverly play on through it.
NH players seem to have an honesty which is a fallibility – ie when a player knocks on either him or some/most of the team put the brakes on as they expect the whistle.
I rewound a few calls on sat and you can see the clear difference – both the disallowed tries caught us napping, partly I think because we expected the whistle.

Penalty Lions for holding on! What, the scrum half isn’t allowed to grab the ball? The jackler has more rights?

You mean where he was supporting all his weight whilst kneeling on the SA player?! 🙂

You mean where he was supporting all his weight whilst kneeling on the SA player?!

Yeah, exactly, when he realised he wasn’t strong enough to steal the ball from little Faf 😀

he could have scored if he had both hands on the ball

True. But he did still get tackled 🙂

But he did still get tackled

I am not sure if it was a complete tackle, he seemed to be carrying on?

Im torn on Saturday. If the Lions win wrapping up the tour after two matches would be great….but a SA win setting up a decider the following Saturday makes for a much more exciting finale.

I also think SA will come back stronger and win on Saturday anyway.

That’s not the sort of excitement I enjoy! I can’t enjoy a game if I’m too tense 😆

Faf’s try is arguably an accidental obstruction. He takes the ball and drives into his own player who is being tackled by a lion.

Mako is set to start apparently.
I can’t see huge changes in the rest of the forwards. There is some talk of Mish instead of Curry, but I thought Curry did well. Was Conan up to scratch? Is FalaTEAU good for it?
Be interesting to see what backs are selected now. Adams will probs get a nod which would be great.

Who knew that they sold such big prams in SA?

Changes; Daly out for either a crash ball centre or Harris. Hopefully Biggar and WJ fit But VP starts; God knows where he pulled that performance out from, but he has the shirt now. Sutherland is a very good scrummager normally but just met somebody he couldn’t manage on Saturday, he only makes the bench if WJ is still broken. Would be tempted to start with Owens and bring on LCD second half.I said SA would gas on Saturday and boy did they,lastly we need Biggar fit as well as Farrell and Russell aren’t the 10 we want for the game Saturday will be.

Oh; and as an ex ref; a red card to come this week.

2nd test team:

Lions: 15. Stuart Hogg, 14. Anthony Watson, 13. Chris Harris, 12. Robbie Henshaw, 11. Duhan van der Merwe, 10. Dan Biggar, 9. Conor Murray, 1. Mako Vunipola, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Tadhg Furlong, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Alun Wyn Jones (captain), 6. Courtney Lawes, 7. Tom Curry, 8. Jack Conan.

Replacements: 16. Ken Owens, 17. Rory Sutherland, 18. Kyle Sinckler, 19. Tadhg Beirne, 20. Taulupe Faletau, 21. Ali Price, 22. Owen Farrell, 23. Elliot Daly.

Very tactical bench,bet Faletau will be used out wide in the second half when there is more space. Price as well depending on how Murray goes and a whole new front row at 50 mins as well.
As an aside I have never understood that; a prop at that level has 1.3 tonnes going through them every scrum, so you give then 10 mins at half time to stiffen up then send them out for another couple of scrums…

Quite excited by the bench.
Good that Price is still there, watching back I still think he was effective.
Daly will replace Hogg as soon as he goes wrong?
Also would like to see Faletau hand out some lessons.
Glad Sutherland is still in there too, reading Mako’s interview on guradian just now he mentions how he improved by a few tweaks, I am sure Sutherland has all the goods, just needs arranging too, also assuming WJ still bad.

Team announcements on tuesday? At this rate we will have the 3rd test team on friday.

Side note, GB 7’s through to Semis. Was a great game.

Will be a problem if curry gets broken, think Liam is a bit unlucky too. Daly at 15 is a worry.

Cant Beirne replace Curry?
I was expecting loopy liam too. However Daly is a decent 15, good catch, maybe not as thrilling as Hogg when he is on form but he is safe.

Cant Beirne replace Curry?

Well he could but he’s a 5/6 not a 7, nor is Talupe.

However Daly is a decent 15, good catch, maybe not as thrilling as Hogg when he is on form but he is safe.

Daly, fifteen, safe…not words that should used together!

From his wiki page, it has colour pics so must be accurate:

He primarily plays as a lock, but can also play in the back-row.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadhg_Beirne

Daly, fifteen, safe…not words that should used together!

He played there for england and was safe, if a bit pedestrian. But he caught, kicked, and defended well, counter attack was dull..

And if you want to talk about his game vs Ireland in the 6N : Everyone has a bad day, we can find days like that for Hogg and Williams, plus Hugo Keenan was better.

He primarily plays as a lock, but can also play in the back-row.

Yes we know that, the point is neither Conan, Faletau or Bierne are are any good as a 7.

Daly is a pretty poor international 15, even England fans think this.

even England fans think this.

I concur 😉

Back up 7 , Lawes it is then. Current form, why not?

Would actually do the smash a fly half bit quite nicely.
Beirne can do the jackally poachy bit.

Actually think Faletau is better bench BR cover than an out and out 7 overall. Could do a decent enough job anywhere. Would like a proper lock though.

If only Johnny may was in the squad.

Back up 7 , Lawes it is then. Current form, why not?

Because he is also a lock playing blindside, I expect Talupe will cover all 3, but he isn’t much cop as a 7.

I suspect the Daly over Liam could be due to them being worried about 10, if Faz moves to 10 Daly covers centre which Liam doesn’t. As a purely back 3 sub Liam is better imo.

In a case of poor planning, story of my life, this weekend I am bike pacing the King Alfred’s Way…maybe we’ll find a pub

Ah-ha! 13mins 30s on that vid. I was right! huh

Rassie has lost the plot!! ( Maybe, probably, I ain’t actually watched more than 2mins, he’s no squidge)

Rassie’s Rant was in no way, in any shape or form, official in his capacity has SA Director of Rugby. It was his own thoughts and not those of SAR. At all, whatsoever.

Pants on fire!

How long until someone send him a short video of 26 SA illegalities?

Australia rugby not impressed.
I’d say that’s him pretty much sending in his resignation.

He had some good points, the reffing was terrible – a lot of the problem (like with the disallowed try for the previous knock-on by. colby) is the ref missing clear calls and having to go back to the TMO. Can really understand the Boks frustration with that first test, cos those sort of things don’t usually go our way! but ffs to drone on for over an hour on a video, that’s just pathetic.

Oof

Painfully tight innit!
Goddam video replays to make every decision is making it drag. Although due to the tension, it’s absorbing stuff.

And at lunch on the first day the Lions are leading 9-6…

— robert kitson (@robkitson) July 31, 2021

Not quite that bad, but almost.
Good try from SA

I used to enjoy playing in games like this. Lots of tackling – not too much running!!

Failure of tactics today. got drawn into a really slow game. Need to move the Boks about more.

All the TMO stuff slowing the game down helps the Boks as I think the Lions are fitter, but Boks playing in comfort zone both tactically and physically.

Need to do some serious practice taking high ball under pressure.

Going to be tasty next week

Should’ve started Daly.

Not sure Hogg should start next week to be honest. I would bring in Josh Adam’s for VdM as well.

Sets it up nicely for next week. The calls def went with SA this week but far too many easy penalties given away.

What happened to Liam? I thought he was starting? Is he injured?

That’s what razzle was looking for. Put doubt in refs mind of fairness so check everything slows game down.
You could see it at first lineout 1:40 played and twice that to play the lineout.kolbe lucky.