Much better! Glad to see Croft going so well. Think Heaslip has to do a bit more in second half though

Also great to see the first coongratulations for Croft after his tryt being 2 Welshmen. I do so love the Lions!

Powell warming up, he might run riot through this lot!

Nice to see Todd Clever playing as well, he had a great world cup.

Phillips needs to speed up his delivery! The step then pass doesnt work!

But when he runs through people like that…..!

Hook on in the centre, interesting to see how that goes.

Hook on in the centre, interesting to see how that goes.

Backwards!

Well raise a beer to the pride of lions. Would any team in the world have lived with that?

Awesome!

bloody good performance. how did ferris not get caught at the end there? I guess the Xerox were tired eh.

Spiky Mikey in the centre as well! Touring rugby at it’s finest!

Great performance. OK, against a rather dull team, but you can only beat the team in front of you, and to do it in that style is ideal.

Didnt see the game, sounds like Roberts played well again. How did Hook go? He’s been shit this season, but has played 13 towards the end of the seasonit could be good for him to move away from 10. Hopefully Gethin played well too as he is world class when on form.

Gethin was good – played the whole 80 mins and was still making tackles at the end. Hook – good but his usual mixed bag I thought. No glaring errors that I saw tho

Great game, Phillips had a blinder helped by a fantastic pack. Hard to find fault really. I am still to be convinced by Monye, churlish maybe after last night.

Sterner tests to come but that was great.

TBH I think that despite the scoreline there were still plenty of faults.

Certainly there were too many penalties given away at the breakdown especially by certain forwards flopping over the ball – a feature of their play that isn’t necessary.

The defence isn’t exactly rock solid – too many scrambling defences for my mind for a 64 point margin. Quite a few missed first tackles.

So how is the test team developing?

I’d put forward Byrne, Bowe, BOD, Roberts, 11, S Jones, Philips for the backs based on the first two games. At 11 neither Shane or Monye has convinced me, and I’d also like to see Fitzgerald and Halfpenny play first. But I’d also like to have Kearney on the field somewhere, hmmm.

Forwards: Front row from last night, POC, AWJ, Croft, Heaslip, M Williams.

Bring on the Cheetahs – should be another win as they were less than impressive in the Super14.

Team v Cheetahs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/8085142.stm

Just look at how lightweight and speedy that backs division looks.

Shane gets another go, it is like management are trying to play him into some form.

Interested to see How Ellis goes as I think Phillips will be scrum half for tests.

I don’t think it’s a case of finding Shane’s form, more of telling him to calm down and not try so hard. He’s better when he relaxes.

He was trying to do too much work in the first game, trying to win the game on his own, and making too many mistakes on the way.

What is it with scrum halves – the best of them are such irritating gits and sooooooooooooo need a good slapping. 🙂 Are they scrum halves because they are irritating gits or do they become irritating gits after playing there?

Looking forward to saturdays game – I want to see Ford and Murray claim their test places. gonna be hard tho a mears and Vickory both played well

TJ – probably a mix of the two; good scrum halfs have to be irritating gits whether by nature or by learning.

TandemJeremy – Member
What is it with scrum halves – the best of them are such irritating gits and sooooooooooooo need a good slapping. Are they scrum halves because they are irritating gits or do they become irritating gits after playing there?

Last year I was going to a local gym regularly, and would often be changing alongside Ospreys players and a few ex Swansea RFC players.

One day Justin Marshall was there, and while he was perfectly polite and friendly to the ‘locals’ who were chatting to him, you could feel a tangible arrogance emanating from him. Taller than I expected as well.

And if you ever want to feel inferior (in every sense), try being naked next to Filo Tiatia. Massive!

try being naked next to Filo Tiatia

I cant think of many things I’d least like to do.

Anyway as for Lions and todays showing ….. I told you worsley was shit!!

told you worsley was shit!!

Well, he’s not that bad, but with an unbalanced back row he was never going to shine.

Oh and can somebody tell the English forwards to stop bleeding lying on the ball and giving away penalties. Completely and utterly pointless.

TandemJeremy – Member
What is it with scrum halves

A Flanker says;

He’s shit, pure shit and so is Fitzgerald at 12. Sheridan is also shit.

AA, did you see how superb Euan Murray was today? A fine display of technical scrummaging!

True, Murray scrummaged well but didnt do much in the loose, compare and contrast with Adam’s popped pass from the floor when he came on, not that I’m suggesting Adam is a better player but for Murray to be top quality he needs to be doing things like that. Hines looks like he needs a run in the second row, looked good when he came on and Darcy did more in 10 mins than Fitzgerald did all game.

A treecutter, AA, I think the technical term is (according to S Barnes).

Or one dimensional. But then so is Powell.

CFH, Murray was good wasn’t he, and Ford not too shabby either I didn’t think.

Powell is a one dimensional donkey but then we all new that and his one dimension is useful, Worsley was gash and did nothing useful.

anagallis_arvensis – Member
True, Murray scrummaged well but didnt do much in the loose

AA, I want a tighthead to be there for their scrummaging ability. Murray has that in abundance.

To be honest I dont think too many of those that played today would make the test team. just a bit dissapointing that a team of secondary players out of the best of the British Isles could play so bad! Or maybe I am being harsh but I think England played better today

robbo, I give you Lee Byrne, Paul O’Connell and Euan Murray. All pretty much stapled on to the starting test side.

CFH – I hope you are right about Murray but I did want to see more from him and Ford today as mears and Vickery have both played very well

AA, I want a tighthead to be there for their scrummaging ability. Murray has that in abundance.

Hitting rucks is needed if you dont want to get munched at the breakdown. For example O’Callaghan was pretty good today but replace him with the more dynamic AW Jones and replace Sheridan with Gethin Jenkins and the pack would have conceded less turn overs.

To balance things up Shane was shit too but I forgive him due to the light weight centre pairing he was playing with in addition to to 1/2pence on the other wing. I thought Hooked played well considering the rubbish outside him. O’Connel is playing better each game.

My test 15 thus far:

15 Byrne/Kearney.. flip a coin time really.
14 Bowe
13 BOD
12 Roberts
11 Still up for grabs Monye doesnt convince me Shane needs to relax a bit could pick him at the moment. Fitzgerald needs a run on the wing I think, 1/2p needs another game and some ball.
10 Jones
9 Phillips
8 Heaslip
7 Wallace
6 Croft
5 AW Jones
4 O’Connel
3 Murray
2 Mears
1 Gethin

16 Ford
17 Vickery
18 Hines
19 Powell
20 M Williams
21 Ellis
22 Hook

I didn’t see the game..only heard commentary on the radio. As far as I know didn’t Gatland say that O’Connell and O’Driscoll were the only nailed on first choices (to which he would admit)?

I want to have O’Connell’s babies. If you hail from Limerick, recent history gives you little of which to be proud. O’Connell (went to school in my parish) is a thoroughly decent chap who happens to be a great rugby player too.

In the OSM last weekend, I read that he was 6’5″ and only 14 stone when he left school – had to put on about 3 or 4 stone in a year.

robbo, I give you Lee Byrne, Paul O’Connell and Euan Murray. All pretty much stapled on to the starting test side.

Yeh I would agree with that but thats about it I think. My current test team would be:

1. Jenkins
2. Mears (controversial probably but think he had a great game on sat)
3. Murray
4. O’ Connell
5. A Wyn-Jones
6. Croft
7. Williams
8. Heaslip
9. Phillips
10. Jones
11. Bowe
12. Roberts
13. O’ Driscoll
14. Monye (another controversial one but not convinced by anyone else)
15. Byrne

Pretty much my pick as well, Robbo. I like this too;

16 Ford
17 Vickery
18 Hines
19 Powell
20 TBC!
21 Ellis
22 Hook

Hooks versatility combined with Bowes ability to play centre and Roberts (a former full back who has played on wing for wales) allow a bench packed with forwards.

I can’t see beyond Ferris at 6, the Springbok back row is massive and Croft is just a bit too lightweight at that level. We need one guy who can smash absolutely anybody in the opposition side.

Vickery, Halfpenny, Fitzgerald and maybe Ellis aren’t out of the running just yet.

Hook didn’t really grab the game by the scruff yesterday, although he had no ball and kicked pretty well. Bench backs is likely to be from Ellis, ROG, Hook, Fitzgerald, Halfpenny, Monye. My bet would be Ellis, ROG, Fitzgerald. Place kicking is a big consideration and I don’t know they want to risk playing 65 minutes with Hook at 10.

Yeah Ferris has to be near a test place.

Vickery gives away to many penalties at the breakdown as per my comment above.

What about Darcy? Too early to say? Bench player? Nowhere near the test squad?

anagallis_arvensis I agree with your team apart from one starting pick AW jones is a brilliant player but too similar to O’Connel and as O’Connell is captain and has done good work so far hes a starter. I would start with either Hines (played well so far)or O’Callaghan (hasnt done much so far but has just the right amount of dog for a hard game) to do the dirty grunt work and then bring AW on as the game winner.

pantsonfire

The Independent yesterday was of the same opinion – they seem to think that Hines will be alongside POC to give added bulk that AWJ doesn’t have.