B&I Lions 2017
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@Stargazer said in B&I Lions 2017:
Confirmed: Steve Borthwick (England), Andy Farrell (Ireland) and Rob Howley (Wales) announced by Head Coach Warren Gatland as the 2017 Lions Coaching Team
http://www.lionsrugby.com/news/warren-gatland-announces-coaching-team-15159#.WEgEurJ96Ul
Heard on the radio this morning that Jason O'Halloran is a shot at being involved given his involvement with Scotland.
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@Crucial said in B&I Lions 2017:
Two hacks, one world cup winner and one ex international that insists on proving time and time again what a terrible analyst he is.
Those RWC 2011 panel interviews with Barnes are still comedy gold.An oldie but a goodie.
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@TeWaio I haven't clicked on it yet. I am already squirming with the potential embarrassment factor, given what occurred.
#stillinshock -
@Catogrande Nothing to be embarrased about Cato. Selective quoting followed by selective clips which show the selective quotes as being wrong!
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@MajorRage said in B&I Lions 2017:
@Catogrande Nothing to be embarrased about Cato. Selective quoting followed by selective clips which show the selective quotes as being wrong!
You convinced me. Glad you did. I'd assumed it was from the 2015 RWC, hence the embarrassment factor. Funny to watch though. I have to say, even without hindsight Martin and Barnes were talking absolute bollocks with no justification whatsoever.
Gold
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Tew confirmed some details yesterday:
- There will be no warm-up test for the ABs prior to the 1st test vs Lions (no time in Super rugby schedule)
- The Blues and Crusaders will have their ABs available.
- Highlanders, Chiefs and Hurricanes will be AB-free unless players are released for game-time.
Also, a fourth match will be added to the 2017 EOYT but it won't be England - it could even be a game against a club side.
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@Catogrande said in B&I Lions 2017:
@Crucial said in B&I Lions 2017:
There were also some pundit selections in the Sunday Times (firewalled I think) which included one from Stephen Jones who demonstrated his complete lack of selection ability having players out of position and a large contingent of Welsh.
Edit: found a post on another website with a photo of the selections
There's some odd selections in amongst all that. Sort of "I like this bloke and he has to be in the team but there's someone else I can't leave out, so I'll put him in somewhere". How many are picking Itoje as a 6 based primarily on his zero appearances there at international level and few at club level? It's not as if we don't have some bloody good 6s as it is.
Is that the same Luke Charteris who couldn't make the Welsh starring line up that lost 3-0 to NZ this year?
Maybe he was playing within himself to give AB fans a false sense of superiority.
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It's not an issue of the players being rusty, it is usually that the coaches have changed the playbooks and tweaked the structures so the players have a lot to absorb and get used to in a short period of time.
Shag & Co are well aware of this and it is probably one of the reasons behind the camp earlier in the year. Get some homework in place as much as possible then try and make it gel in the time they have pre-game.
From the schedule it looks like the ABs will have a 2 week camp pre the first test.
Another note of interest is the MAB game in the middle of this. With ABs & MABs taken out of circulation the Chiefs and Highlanders could be well weakened.
Chiefs could be without DMac, Cruden, Hames, Lowe, Weber, BBBR, Cane, ALB, Laulala, TKB, Ngatai, Messam, Harris, Elliot -
@Bovidae said in B&I Lions 2017:
Also, a fourth match will be added to the 2017 EOYT but it won't be England - it could even be a game against a club side.
I know Racing tried to get the ABs to play a club game to open their new stadium & were told "yup, no worries, that'll be €2m"
And that was the end of the discussion.
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Knew that Neil Francis would be the pundit in question before opening it. Luckily his team is more even handed..
The former Ireland forward also picked his test team to face the All Blacks, which featured nine Irishmen: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Stuart Hogg, 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Conor Murray; 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Sean O'Brien, 5 Iain Henderson, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Tadhg Furling, 2 Rory Best, 1 Jack McGrath.
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@Crucial said in B&I Lions 2017:
Another note of interest is the MAB game in the middle of this. With ABs & MABs taken out of circulation the Chiefs and Highlanders could be well weakened.
Chiefs could be without DMac, Cruden, Hames, Lowe, Weber, BBBR, Cane, ALB, Laulala, TKB, Ngatai, Messam, Harris, ElliotA point I mentioned previously. I think more thought could have gone into the schedule so that the Chiefs and Maori didn't play so close together as a lot of players could be involved with both teams. Swapping the Blues and Chiefs game would have made sense to me.
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@Bovidae said in B&I Lions 2017:
Tew confirmed some details yesterday:
- There will be no warm-up test for the ABs prior to the 1st test vs Lions (no time in Super rugby schedule)
No time?
The Blues have 22 days between their last Super Rugby game and the 1st test. 14 days between the Lions fixture and the 1st test.The Crusaders have 21 days between their last Super Rugby game and the 1st test. 11 days between the Lions fixture and the 1st test.
The Hurricanes have 21 days between their last Super Rugby game and the 1st test. Their Lions fixture is after the 1st test.
How is there not enough time to put together a squad/test with those three sides forming a majority of the squad? They should be playing a test on the weekend of the 17th while the Maori are playing the Lions.
Playing a test there makes infinitely more sense than the inconvenient Samoa test during a RWC year.
@Bovidae said in B&I Lions 2017:
Swapping the Blues and Chiefs game would have made sense to me.The would have required the Chiefs to play 3 games in 6 days.
