Anyone who starts with, I didnt see it but…and then uses the term Warrenball and comments on how they played…yep sour grapes

Gatland met his aims.

I’m pretty syre he was aiming to win, I dont think his aim was to justify his selection and coaching to the likes of you

TBF it does read badly. It is worth watching the other two Tests as a rugby fan, forgetting the selection politics for a second and you may be pleasantly surprised

TeeJ, you’re talking out of your bumhole mate.

I couldn’t give a shite about the Standard Life Investment British and Irish Lions. But it’s still fantastic rugby to watch. Compelling even. Seeing a scratch side get inside the heads of the All Blacks after a bit of a duffing in the first test and come close to a most unlikely series win was mad.

You’re just lucky that jamba made the embarrassingly dumb “this is embarrassing” statement during the second test. Otherwise yours would have been the silliest post of the Lions part of this thread.

Wrecker – that is a good article. Always nice to see someone admit they got it wrong.

DD said it better than I could – 100% what AA said – you should watch it before commenting TJ.

Oh the ironing!

You are odd chaps – or I am 😉 . What AA and the rest of you read was not what I meant at all. I was answering someone a page or two ago who asked for my thoughts

I was merely acknowledging that Gatland was right both on overall tactics and selection and over Warburton in particular – two things I criticised strongly – and he got an awful lot closer to a series win than I or many others predicted.

I thought you might enjoy me eating a slice of humble pie!¬

Yes, of course TeeJ. 😀

duckman – Member
Oh the ironing!

I’m happy to admit I was proven wrong by Mr Gatland.

http://www.edinburghrugby.org/content/peter-wilkins

We all were k57, to an extent.

CaptainFlashheart – Member

http://www.edinburghrugby.org/content/peter-wilkins Looks like a decent find. Presumably Cockeril picking his staff.

“the opportunity to join a club that’s improved significantly over the last few years”

Errmm – who told him that?

Pffptp

Zebre are apparently pulling out of the Pro12.

shame. Still we have 3 SA clubs joining us apparently. Gawd alone knows how that will work

Got a source CFH? I can’t find anything.

Was a developing story, TJ. Appears they’re under the Italian national rugby wing and back in the Pro 12 now.

And….on to Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding. Really don’t want to see stories like that in rugby. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-40719803

Ta CFH

It been a fair amount of brinkmanship over the Italians over the years. They can’t leave – Edinburgh would be bottom of the league!

Interesting program last night with Nigel admitting he is and has been Bulemic for years.

Some quite sad stories with him admitting he was forcing himself sick between matches in Argentina recently. 🙁

Good on him for putting it in the public domain. A man we can all respect I think both as a ref and as a man

I find it very interesting that both him and Alfie came out a gay and there was almost no backlash because perhaps they are both so widely respected in the game from all sides. Must have made life easier for others

Gareth being gay was the worst kept secret in rugby. Lots of people knew, no one cared. I’d imagine Y Nige was similar. Who cares, really?

The Super rugby finals system to find a winner is somewhat interesting… if extra time and sudden death don’t produce a winner after nearly two hours of play then a kicking competition starts. Not penalties, a kicking competition! Sudden death of three kicks in different positions across the 22 per kicker.

I have visions of Martyn Williams-esque grafter having made it through all that rugby scraping one over from in front of the posts and then be facing kicks from the touchlines against a fellow flanker 😆 Sounds kind of improbable but I would have thought the poor guys would be spent after 80 minutes and there’s a solid chance of the next 30 not producing a result…

It is different though, being gay is not an issue, being bulimic is a health problem that we hope he conquer ?

The Super rugby finals system to find a winner is somewhat interesting..

Sounds cool. Some great games in the semis. Really hard to pick a winner out of the 4 this year. Looks like the SA teams (huh, the Lions!) have learned from the B&I Lions how to nullify the NZ attacks, so the Canes will have to up their game tomorrow. Should be a fun watch.

2 fantastic semi-finals. SR final next week will be a great match.

RL Chalenge cup is fun right now. Dave Brailsfiord is reffing

First Super Rugby semi final was a touch average as a neutral and the Chiefs graft wasn’t rewarded. They forced the Crusaders in to hundreds of tackles in the first half but just weren’t clinical enough. Quite a slow, stodgy game and I switched over to AFL before it finished

Second semi was like another sport all together. Frantic action from start to finish with the first half looking like it was going to end a comfortable win for the Hurricanes. Lions threw the kitchen sink at them in the second half embodied by openside Kwagga Smith- not a big guy but ridiculously aggressive. Really good game to watch on catch up as a neutral is you fancy killing some time

When do we start the 2017/2018 thread ?

First Super Rugby semi final was a touch average as a neutral and the Chiefs graft wasn’t rewarded. They forced the Crusaders in to hundreds of tackles in the first half but just weren’t clinical enough. Quite a slow, stodgy game

Holy crap. I must’ve had a completely different game on. It was a superb game. Slow & stodgy? Maybe AFL is more your sport then Dan.

Pete – start it when you like, I think I’ll be avoiding it.

I’ve been bombarded by Aussie rules lately and have only managed to find one person who likes watching Union in Aus and that was a Kiwi who preferred league! To be fair, there have been some cracking games on and what those guys do is bananas.

Watching a soggy, tight affair after all that was a bit of a shock to the system of all I know to be right and good 🙂 I think the main reason I didn’t see it out was knowing the Crusaders were going to run away with it despite being second best for most of the game, except at the crucial moments. Kind of felt sorry for the Chiefs after so much graft

I guess the beauty of *proper* rugby is there are many ways to approach a game and many ways to win. It is however eye opening for a Pom to see so little love for Union in Australia and although we know it is struggling in Aus, the level at which the sport is struggling is staggering. A quick Google suggests it is the 26th most popular sport by participation in Australia and when you see it side by side with the more frantic ball sports, with giant crowds, crazy atmosphere at the ground and free to air then it all starts to make sense.

So no, I haven’t lost any allegiances but it is interesting to get a different take on the sporting landscape in Aus

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/behind-the-lines/2016/dec/08/australia-rugby-union-england
http://theconversation.com/four-reasons-rugby-union-in-australia-is-struggling-despite-the-wallabies-success-49741

When do we start the 2017/2018 thread ?

French pre-season starts in a week or two. First games are 26 Aug !

Might be old news but 1/2p potentially playing out West is flippin’ exciting 😀

I thought the latest rumour was 1/2p to Tiggers?

When do we start the 2017/2018 thread ?

The start signal shall be the first equisite pass by Henson!!!

Has anyone else seen the Pro14 schedule? Trips to Africa, two conferences it all looks very confusing 😆

Don’t know if been discussed, but Prem highlight show has moved to Channel 5 for next season. Said they’ll be showing some full games too. Good news for non-BT folk like myself. Flats and Mark DoubleBarrell-Poshbloke still presenting.

So the 1/2p deal is ‘partly funded by the WRU’,so what does that mean? are they going to pay his wages for a year or something? so are all the welsh regions going to be kept afloat by the WRU? Maybe if they cant afford the players off their own back they shouldn’t be signing them.

So the 1/2p deal is ‘partly funded by the WRU’,so what does that mean? are they going to pay his wages for a year or something? so are all the welsh regions going to be kept afloat by the WRU?

They pay a % of his wages. Loafs of welsh players are on central contracts.

Easy, eh?

Gareth Edwards 70th celebrations (This Is Your Life resurrected) on beeb2 now.
Brings a tear to the eye.