summer rugby

I think Johnny has better range than Halfpenny, I saw him land two from the halfway line out wide to send Leicester out of the H-Cup. Farrell is very steady but doesn’t have a long range kick. Halfpenny has been outstanding but the commentary team said it was a 45m kick, not so huge and hardly a repeat of Steyn’s kick in South Africa.

It was 53m wasn’t it, no way is sexton as reliable or has greater range.
I think SA may have been at altitude!

By the way, Staurt Barnes – excellent player, good guy, great student of the game is a ****.

FIFY

The advantage thing has been an issue but you can always have a drop goal pop if you want 3 points, advantage counts if it doesn’t go over. Half penny is a little short on range, I wonder how far north can kick the ball?

53m, OK. SA test definitely at altitude but Steyn has a huge boot and those points won that series for them.

I’m still lost as to the advantage rule, I confess it’s a while since I’ve seen a scrum half deliberately knock on but this seems a no brainer to me.

“But Sexton – from two half-breaks – made by far the most metres (41) in attack (the next highest was Sean O’Brien with 17m, and he was only on for the last 16 minutes)”

😯

Half penny is a little short on range

this is just pure bollocks, 1/2p started out for Wales as the long range pot shotter before he became the full time kicker, he’s got a huge boot on him that kick was from 1/2 way and on the angle. It was never more than a 1 in 10 kick imo. Had 1/2p not been there they wouldn’t have taken it on.

Gav would have got it mind 😆

11.50 here, that’s a bloody long kick 55m-60m according to aussie comentators

another couple of examples of his poor range

Wasn’t he on about the range of 1/2ps drop goal ability a_a?

don’t think so

Yes he does have a long range, however on Saturday, not long enough.
I’m not saying anyone else would have got it, but it was clearly a reach too far for 1/2p

but it was clearly a reach too far for 1/2p

indeed he had already missed one from closer. That pitch is bloody massive too!

I thought they should have taken the tap, run some phases and gone for the drop-goal (either by 1/2p or Sexton – whoever was available and in position to take it) rather than gamble it all on a 45m place kick. The match was lost anyway. I’m not saying anything against 1/2p of course – his kicking displays have been amazing (IMO) but I had no faith that he was going to make the range yesterday.

I thought they should have taken the tap, run some phases and gone for the drop-goal (either by 1/2p or Sexton – whoever was available and in position to take it) rather than gamble it all on a 45m place kick.

I totally agree except that it was much longer than 45m and I don’t think I’ve ever seen 1/2p drop a goal so Sexton could have had that pleasure!!

I totally agree except that it was much longer than 45m

Oh right, cheers. I stand corrected. Sorry, I had 45m in my head for some reason.

Glitch

This has got to be my favourite long range kick 🙂

Best long range kick ever

Video is lower down the page

AA good article for dean ryan

my point for vunipola was and is mentally he could have completely cracked, gone awol and been a penalty fest.
Mental toughness and resilance should be admired as integral to the game hence why the public schools love the game!

Ryan said Vunipola being shoved out the side of the scrum, wing forward should be shoving him back in and supporting. Vunipola was hitting square according to Ryan as he was told by the ref.

Grant is a decent scrummmager BUT is a average player at the breakdown and round the field, gave a lot of penalities away midweek game that we lost. Saw a lot of Scotland playing live last winter and grant was not a player I would have choosen for the lions

Hibbert is a better scrummager than Youngs but his throwing has suffered and young is better around the pitch, all about balance.

Corbesario is the answer to the prop if fit.

Backrow is area of concern…balance is all wrong , no cohesion at the moment though some good individual performances.

12/13 is a worry as we are not creating much.

Halfpenny has range and constancy better than Jonny W Halfpenny is a better runner than he being allowed to show.

Gatland has got lots wrong possibly picking Farrell is one them.

Twelvetrees for centre……………..

Best long range kick

Paul Thorburn

I would rather nobody linked that Thorburn kick;I was there and I was NOT willing it over. 👿

LOL duckman so was I and in total agreement with you but still the best long range kick

Here’s my 24 hours too late thoughts after finally watching the game:

What is there in attack for us?! Didn’t even looking like scoring a try. Defence was excellent, but only Youngs and to a lesser extent Heaslip and Mako from the forwards looked capable of making a single yard.

Warburton had his best game on tour for me-ref suited him more though.

For me SOB has to replace Lydiate next week. Roberts in for Davies and Carbs back if fit too. Maybe Grey to get a start-can’t see it though.

Not been blown away by Sexton at all in the tests.

Gatland has got lots wrong possibly picking Farrell is one them.

Twelvetrees for centre……………..

Comment 1 like what? Who should have gone ahead of Farrel?

Twelvetrees my arse, besides they could have had the combined clones of Sella, Guscott and Frank Bunce in the centre it wouldn’t have mattered the front five don’t get the ball, the backrow was fine imo, problems started and finished with 1-5.

Shaun Edwards

36 was a 😉

MIKE PHILLIPS: I thought a knee injury in the first game ended my tour… but I’ll be ready for the Sydney decider if I get the call

By MIKE PHILLIPS

PUBLISHED: 21:05 GMT, 29 June 2013 | UPDATED: 21:05 GMT, 29 June 2013

When Rob Howley told me I hadn’t been selected for the second Test it was absolutely devastating news. My heart sank and I had a weird feeling in my stomach. It was incredibly hard to watch from the stands on Saturday, especially after being involved last week. I thought the boys did brilliantly, but it wasn’t to be.

I’m desperate to play next week, of course, but whether the coaches make that call is up to them. They know the extent of the injury to my knee and it’s their call if I play. If they ask me to, I will.

Rob said the coaches had taken the decision to rest me from Saturday’s game because of my knee, but I’m a proud man and I still felt I could have done a job for the team. I told him I felt I could have played but it was 20 minutes before the rest of the squad were going be told the starting XV, so I knew there was nothing I could do to change anything. But it hurt not being involved.

Next week is the series decider and there’s everything to play for. It was agonising watching Leigh Halfpenny’s last kick fall short. I’m not a great watcher at the best of times and I’m sure all the guys in the stand would have felt they could have made a difference if they’d been out there playing.

Obviously, the coaches wanted to make sure there were 15 fully fit guys out on the pitch. I’m not 100 per cent fit, but then professional rugby players rarely go into games 100 per cent. If I’d been asked to play, I’d have played. The same goes for next week.

I had an injection on Tuesday with the aim to be fit for the second Test. The reaction to it has been great but unfortunately the coaches decided not to play me. It’s frustrating, but ultimately I have to respect the coaches’ decision.

I know I didn’t have my best game last week — it certainly wasn’t a man-of-the-match performance — but I still contributed and we won the game. Overall I’ve been happy with the way I’ve been playing on tour and during the Six Nations and I felt like I might get another shot. But you have to respect the decision. It’s their call at the end of the day.

I picked up the injury in the first half of the Barbarians game. It twisted and I felt something go and since then I’ve just been trying to get it to settle down. Initially it swelled up like a balloon on the flight from Hong Kong and I’m sure the medical guys thought, ‘This isn’t good’ and that they would have to send me home.

I was icing it constantly in the days after that game and doing everything the medics were telling me to do. I compressed it, iced it, missed a couple of games. I did everything to make sure I stayed on the tour and in the end I managed to do that.

It was pretty scary at the start. I was thinking, ‘I’m going to be sent home after one game here’. I think everyone feared the worst but I was determined to stay on the tour and worked really hard to make sure I stayed part of it. I told myself, ‘You’re not going home, no way’. It has got better and it’s been manageable.

The injury has been hanging over me all tour, to be honest. I’ve not really left the hotels at all and when people have been asking me if I’ve been having a good time, I’ve said ‘Yes’ when deep down it’s been pretty annoying.

In some games I haven’t been able to bend my knee properly, but then it’s got a bit better and at the end of the day this is the British Lions tour so, of course, I’ll do everything to try and get on to the field.
Now it’s caught up with me, I suppose.

The coaches have said, ‘Make sure you’re ready for next week’, so that’s what I’ll be trying to do. I’ll train hard and do everything I can to get out on the field.

I don’t want people to think I’m making excuses for anything. We’ve known the score about the severity of the injury from day one. People know what I’ve been dealing with.

It’s upsetting, devastating, of course it is, but I knew I’d been carrying this throughout the tour, so there was always a risk it might catch up with me. Every player here wants to be picked in the Test team and having played in four Tests previously I desperately wanted another crack at it. It’s only natural that I’m disappointed because I’m a competitive person and that’s what’s got me here.

I’ve just got to get myself 100 per cent right and train hard and make sure I’m in the frame for selection for the third Test.

It’s been a tough tour because the knee has been on my mind a lot of it. It’s so frustrating. I felt so sharp in the first game, exactly where I wanted to be.

I don’t want people feeling sorry for me or thinking that I’m making excuses. It is what it is. I played in the first Test and we won so no one can take that away from me.

I would also be interested to know the current laws/ guidelines on playing advantage and calling advantage over.

It seems to differ between referees but this may just be my cynical view. Most call advantage over when the ball is kicked regardless of the type or quality of kick for example whereas other referees look to see if significant territory was gained. Just one example but it still seems a little grey. Deliberate knock ons to end advantage seem to get mixed outcomes so most teams try to keep play going. So what is the proper laws/ guidleines?

Clearly Lydiate at fault

Can’t see that Lydiate was at fault there, although I’m puzzled as to what he did yesterday. Someone said that he’d made more tackles in 40 mins yesterday than Croft did in 80 in the first test….he can’t have done much second half then given that he only made 10 tackles.

Mako was top tackler for us with 15. Parling and BOD made 14 and Hovis 11. Adam managed a staggering 4 ffs! Cole made 6 in the 20 mins he was on the pitch. Horwill was top tackler for them with 10(I thought that he was excellent).

Gah glitchy¡!!!!!!!!!

Again will repeat

From that scrum and pass to recover and play the full 80mins complete mental toughness

Well done vuniploa……

Suprised at the parking stat

From that scrum penalty to Lions for binding on arm surely?

Agree Vondally he bounced back well…although under a different ref he’d probably have been in the bin for constantly failing to drive straight!

He started his first game in the prem this year and only had 1 test start prior to the Lions series. Pretty awesome to think what a combo him and Tom Youngs could turn into.

From that scrum penalty to Lions for binding on arm surely?

Absolutely correct.

The aussie could have bound to his arse as that was what was in the air!
Lydiate had a good game made some excellent tackles eg on Falou early, hit rucks and made a few good carries in close. Must have been on his knees by the end having played tuesdat too.

Mako was top tackler for us with 15. Parling and BOD made 14 and Hovis 11. Adam managed a staggering 4 ffs!

Stats – what did we do without them!!

The difference between Vunipola and Adam Jones is that one is the best prop in the world and the other shouldn’t be playing test rugby as he cannot scrummage!

In the future Vunipola could be an awesome player but please don’t pick him for the third test. We need a front five who can scrummage – should be Corbs (if fit, if not, Grant), Hibbard, Jones , AWJ, Gray (or Evans).

Hibbard? Only if Mako is starting. Otherwise it’s brainless not to start youngs.

Hah Hibbard, yeah good one 😆

Agreed that Adam is one of the best scrummagers in the game. Unfortunately the scrum isn’t the only thing that happens in a game. One prop out tackling the other four to one is piss poor imo.

Good article above by Dean Ryan.
The Oz front row got on top by working together, as a unit.
All 3 driving left to put pressure on one prop.
He did well to come back from that, but 3-on-1 is not really a problem that he could sort himself. Gotta give some credit to AJ and the rest of the tight five in putting pressure back on the Ozzies. Team game there, and that’s the only way out of that sort of situation.
Very strange that Mako stayed on for the full 80 though. Confidence work by the management, or do they really not rate Grant at all?
It makes not phoning Sheridan look madder by the day.

Looks like good news on Corb’s injury.
More importantly, Roberts too. The Davies at Twelve experiment has failed miserably.
Twice.
http://www.espn.co.uk/lions-tour-2013/rugby/story/188275.html

Grant is Scottish,so he won’t play. if Grey doesn’t make the cut in front of parling then picking Scots for the lions is basically an exercise in trying to maximize replica kit sales north of the border until the series is over. As for vunipola, I am delighted he tackled more than Adam,but he didn’t do the first job of a prop and he never dominated or looked comfy against his opp. Hibbard came on to shore him up; what sort of a sub is that to have to make? Subs should be ideally made to gain a tactical advantage,that was to address a weakness.

Agreed that Adam is one of the best scrummagers in the game. Unfortunately the scrum isn’t the only thing that happens in a game. One prop out tackling the other four to one is piss poor imo.

no its farly usual with loose and tightheads. Adam is easily the most important player for Wales and the lions. Would be a great stat to add up points for and against in this and the last tour when adam is on or not.

Hah Hibbard, yeah good one

Agreed that Adam is one of the best scrummagers in the game. Unfortunately the scrum isn’t the only thing that happens in a game. One prop out tackling the other four to one is piss poor imo.

If the game next Saturday wasn’t so important then I would ignore this post.
However, this, unfortunately, is how I think the Lions’ coaches see the game also and it could cost us a series we should have won 3-0.

I don’t think Vunipola is a poor scrummager per se. He is just too wet behind the ears at this level. A Lions test is no place to be schooled in the dark arts by seasoned internationals which is exactly what’s happening. We’ve just got to keep our fingers crossed that Corbs is fit. I need to see Tuilagi get a run out on saturday. We severely lack penetration and that’s precisely what he brings. I’m betting he gets a bench spot for the test.

Warbs is out of the final test.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/23111990
Feel bad for the bloke, he’s just started to hit some form. What do we reckon for 7, SOB or Tips?