summer rugby

I was joking about Morgan. Though Burns got schooled on how to control a game by Contepomi second half. All flash and no substance.

Why would Cole start over Adam? Madness.

It’s not a bad plan IF Cole’s scrummaging proves to be good enough. He does a lot more of the Gethin style work around the loose. Not so much in attack, but great in defence, tackling rucking and ripping.
Far higher work-rate. And with Gethin injured, it looks like a good move.
For all his worth as The Scrumaging God, even Adam wouldn’t claim to be the ideal prop for fast Ozzie pitches. Coming on at 50 or 60 mins knowing he’s got to do 1/2 hour tops, flat out, to really solidify the set peice and push them hard for a winning scrum pen might just be right up Adam’s street on this tour.
That being said, personally I reckon it’s more of an ideal plan for the second and third tests. Let Adam rip their scrum up from the start in the 1st test to establish which way the penalties go.

deadlydarcy – Member
Japan?!?!?!?!?!?!?

USA?!?!?!?!?!?!?

😉

The aussies did a number on Cole in the autumn, Adam will destroy their scrum. Fast aussie pitches!! Like the one on saturday?

Problem is who do you call up. Biggar, Madigan, Laidlaw, Burns or Hook. Bit of a dearth of experienced and quality fly Half wise right now.

Except one of them is Player of the year for the Rabo12 and Amlin Euro cup double Champions.
Golden boot and top point scorer too.
With three Heiny cup winners medals earned already too. Will likely be first choice ten in August with Sexton leaving, but has played more minutes than him anyway due to Internationals. Plays 12 and 15 well enough to be trusted there in the top games (if Sexton is playing at 10) – finals and vs Clermont, and already used to fitting in between Johnny and BOD.
Only reason he’s not had a stack of caps is Kidney’s infatuation with Ronan. Joe Schmidt trusts him, and he’s gonna be the next World Cup winning coach. 🙂 The Lions shouldn’t make the same mistake (twice).
Or just call up ROG 😉

I’d say that they did a number on Youngs rather than Cole. If Youngs isn’t strong enough to hold on to him, there’s not a great deal that Cole is going to do! Adam to start for me though.

Adam probably still hasn’t recovered from the Hongkongshanghaibank game. Hope he’s fit for the tests.

Looked well recovered yesterday.

Almost as if a sixteen minute run out suits him perfectly.
The makings of a test plan, perhaps?

Cole can hold his own in the scrum. The addition of youngs and marler has stuffed England’s scrums up, not cole. He taught Healy a lesson not so long ago.

The aussies did a number on Cole in the autumn

The Aussies have done a number on the entire welsh team since 1989 😛

Gatland rues missed chance to consult public.

anagallis_arvensis – Member
Lawes is pretty dumb too, he’d be outrageously good if he had a brain.

POSTED 21 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

His twin,Samu Manoa got all the brains.

Done by Samoa, at least it was the WHOLE of Samoa, eh A-A? 😀

“In addition, since the implementation of the new scrum engagement calls, Cole has struggled, and adapted less well than others.

“Looking closely at his issues, it’s clear to me that he is far too high on the hit. He is also alongside (level with) his hooker and loosehead, when he needs to be slightly in front of both, and needs to be the first man engaging on the hit. Look at how far his backside was in the air, compared to the Force loosehead. Maybe 30 cms?

“I believe his issues are caused by three main failings; the gap between him and his opponent is too small. Cole is a huge prop, and needs that gap to get into a dynamic power position. He’s engaging too closely, which means his first movement HAS to be to place his outside leg backwards, thus totally depowering the hit and defusing any forward momentum. An old trick, illegal but effective, is to measure your height by touching the ground with your outside hand. Dan is so high I don’t think he could touch it even if he tried!”, laughed ‘Ronnie’.
http://www.planet-rugby.co.za/lions/story/0,25883,3819_8759858,00.html

Beale dragged out of an aa meeting to be added to squad. Quade told to do one.

Well, ill stand corrected. Ronnie knows his stuff. Although a man to avoid if he’s been drinking……

Tuesdays opposition is made up of a mixture of pro and amatuer players so if you did not bring enough 10s on tour it is probably the best opportunity to try players out of position.

Any idea why the likes of Tipuric and J Davies have stopped wearing head gear in OZ, is it another thing that has an official Lions supplier?

aa
Quade told to do one.

He’s a player I’d be happy to be playing against, I think he makes more bad errors than he does good things. His ex-Wallaby team mates have been pretty damning about him not being a team player. His club coach rates him and he gets the Wallaby job perhaps Quade will have another run in the side otherwise I expect to see him move to Europe

Backs: Berrick Barnes, Kurtley Beale, Nick Cummins, Israel Folau, Digby Ioane, Joe Tomane; Adam Ashley-Cooper, Rob Horne, Pat McCabe, Christian Lealiifano, James O’Connor, Will Genia, Nick Phipps.

Forwards: Saia Fainga’a, Stephen Moore; Ben Alexander, Sekope Kepu, Benn Robinson, James Slipper, Scott Sio; Kane Douglas, James Horwill, Rob Simmons; Dave Dennis, Peter Kimlin, Ben McCalman, Hugh McMeniman, Ben Mowen, Liam Gill, Michael Hooper, Wycliff Palu,

This is gonna get messy. Feel sorry for the semi pro guys

It is part of Lions history to play semi-pros. Even though they are going to conceded a shed load of points I bet the electrician playing against BOD will remember it for a long time even if he struggles to lay a finger on him, may even get a jersey out of it. I would have loved the chance to play against the worlds best even though i was a less gifted centre than Nick DeLuca.

EDIT: Think the 2nd half will be even messier once the difference in fitness levels really kick in

Anyone watch it. Anything learnt?

They could do worse than spend the next two weeks playing darts. It’s not good enough yet.

Apart from that, no worries mate.

Cuthbert can look very good when the opponent’s aren’t.
Roberts is the opposite – seems to raise or lower his performance according to the match. Still outclassed his oppo though.
Hogg’s ok at 10.

Cuthbert can look good v good opposition too as long as he’s not asked to defend!

Interesting game. Hogg wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, not bad at all really but no threat to Farrell or sexton. Maitland was ok too. Tips and heaslip should have nailed their shirts on today. Blindside is still wide open. I question the need for SOB if heaslip is playing. Line out was shaky, AWJ didn’t impress hugely. Stevens is still shit.
Nailed on (IMHO);
Tips
Heaslip
North
Halfpenny
Sexton
BOD
Vunipola

Still want another look at Adam, croft, youngs (hooker), tuilagi.
Evans was very good today.

Not sure anyone can nail themselves on against such poor opposition.

Maybe, but some didnt really impress.

Line out was shaky, AWJ didn’t impress hugely.

He was only on for the last 20-25 minutes wasn’t he? By which time the Lions were playing like a bag of nails.

He crammed quite a few mistakes into that time lol. Hey, it’s just my impressions and only mentioned as he was my choice for test starter.

Cuthbert can look good v good opposition too as long as he’s not asked to defend!

Can the opposition really be classed as any good if they don’t ask some questions of his defence?
Does it make sense?

To add a bit about AWJ:
AWJ wasn’t sharp, and seemed to settle easily into the poor standards around him, contributing to taking those standards down further. But he does seem a bit like Roberts in saving his better performances for when it matters.
There was a massive contrast in his 20mins on the pitch with POC’s the other day where he came on, hit the rucks hard, and raised the game of those around him. Absolute night and day difference.
Gray, Evans and Parling are all playing decent too. But our hookers still can’t throw. Would like to see Youngs given another go, but Hibbard must be favourite. So at the mo’, we have to play 6’10 Gray ‘cos Hibbard’s throwing is crap.

Hmmm, Hibbard’s throwing is not unusually bad for a hooker – Wales and the Ospreys seem to cope with him without having 6’10” locks.

I’m suspicious that the hookers are being blamed for dodgy throwing when they are normally reasonably accurate, but the 2nd rows are being absolved of blame?

In fact, you say that Evans and Gray are playing decently but the line-outs were poor and there was no scrum domination by the Lions yesterday. So why are they playing well? Cleaning out rucks? Running around the field? I’d prefer to see them concentrating on their main tasks until they do them correctly.

I don’t think Gatland was impressed with most of the recent performance.

Going back one match, I thought Warbs did ok considering the better opposition and due to injury and Cardiff’s lack of games he hasn’t played for weeks. He will be Captain come the first test.

12trees to join Lions as “Backline cover”, more injury concerns perhaps?

BOD and North have slight knocks.

I’m suspicious that the hookers are being blamed for dodgy throwing when they are normally reasonably accurate, but the 2nd rows are being absolved of blame?

Of the hookers, I’m ignoring Rory Best precisely because I don’t think he’ll play in the tests. And, TBH, I think that’s ‘cos of his throwing. He’s a good player, but the throwing’s not accurate enough (presently). And I reckon that’s how Gatland thinks of him, which is why he didn’t want to take him originally.
Like I said, I’d like to see Youngs given another go before passing any judgement. At the moment, we’re winning lineouts when he’s throwing Suggesting his throwing is ok . And the locks are ok.
So sorry if that looks like I’m picking on Hibbard, but at the moment he’s throwing like Rory Best on a bad day , and looks likely to be starting the test-matches.
And the other reason the locks are absolved from blame is they’re winning opposition ball at line-outs. So can’t be that bad.
In fact it looks like they’re winning more on the opponents throw than on Hibbards.

Wales and the Ospreys seem to cope with him without having 6’10” locks.

We need to be better than Wales to beat Oz, or at least better than their last 7 attempts. We also need to be better than Rabo12 fifth-placed Ospreys. We’ve got a 6’10 player in form who should make it easier for Hibbard. Why not use him?
Who would you have as locks and hooker?

“Backline cover”

Apparently because he’s versatile and can play in a number of positions. Like the very much on form James Hook, you mean, Mr Gatland? Although, 36 isn’t Hook, Y Gat can and will pick him.

He will be Captain come the first test.

As things stand, it would be an utter travesty if he is. The blokes can only play what’s in front of them (and the reds aren’t a patch on the aus national side), and to mark tips down for that is lazy. He was very, very good this week. Considering warbs lack of game time, perhaps he shouldn’t have toured at all let alone be captain. One thing which is puzzling me; why isn’t gats giving him loads of game time? He bloody well needs it.

we are brining in 12trees as cover for 10 and 12 and James Hook can **** right off cause I hate him

said Gatland yesterday.
Wrecker surely Warburton has had less game time because he was broken. Then asking him to play again 3 days later on top of little game time would be very stupid. Tips being better than a bunch out outback plumbers is not relevant.

Tomorrows selection should show us a lot.

Of course it’s relevant! It’s a Lions game. It would have been relevant if he had not played well, therefore it’s relevant that he did. The queensland reds team was hardly their first XV. Should not have been a problem for the wales and lions capt. If he’s not good/fit enough due to lack of game time then he shouldn’t have toured.