NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017)
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Reminded me of an old fashioned Ranfurly Shield game,with the BaaBaas's as the total outside under dogs giving it 100% for 80 minutes,and the Lions being the shield holders with all the big guns..
Only thing is,the shield holder is normally a very good side.
The boy Luteru Laulala who played at fullback looks a very promising talent,but I did wonder on a couple of occasions if he was sponsored by Velcro.
What should have been a straight draw and pass to an unmarked no 8,resulted in a pass to the 2nd five who always going to struggle to make the line with the great covering tackle from Faletau,
What made it worse,the 2nd five Finau who had been tackling well,he gets carted off with an injury..Laulala's first instinct is to run,before he weighs up were the support is,had a couple of other occasions to offload,but chose to take contact.
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The Walrus's take on it. Not much to argue with in general, but I didn't think Wyn Jones was all that good.
Alun Wyn Jones leads the charge as Lions stutter against Provincial Barbarians
Stephen Jones, Rugby Correspondent
June 3 2017, 12:01pm,
The TimesIn short, the Lions forwards were disappointing in Whangarei. Up against a scratch combination, their lack of headway at a succession of five-yard scrums was poor - and they could make no dents in the efficient home line-out. Perhaps oddly, amongst all the new Lions desperate to stand out, it was the three-tour veteran Alun Wyn Jones who was the best Lion up front.
The Osprey lock was powerful at the breakdown. He was deft with his handling and clearly played a strong leadership role during the breaks in play. On the day he outshone his partner Iain Henderson, who faded after a bright start. Wyn Jones was hit by injury in the domestic season, never quite finding his best form, and so missed what was once a fighting chance of leading this tour party. Yesterday, he re-established himself - and without him it could have been really gory.
The Lions probably did not want to go to their bench as early as they did, but there was a little more drive in the loose and power in the scrum when Mako Vunipola and Tadhg Furlong arrived. Both men had appeared in major club finals as recently as last Saturday - one of the many lunacies of the tour set-up and its fixture list.
Who else, on this admittedly scant evidence, advanced their cause? Probably those who did not start or even appear. Certainly, the sight of Maro Itoje starting on Wednesday against the Blues will give everyone a lift, although the display of Wyn Jones this morning means that not even Itoje will walk into the Test team.
No team ever won a Test series without a great pack. The Lions will be praying that true power was masked by tiredness and unfamiliarity, rather than indicating a worrying weakness. The excuses run out rapidly on a tour of New Zealand.
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@JC said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
The Walrus's take on it. Not much to argue with in general, but I didn't think Wyn Jones was all that good.
Alun Wyn Jones leads the charge as Lions stutter against Provincial Barbarians
Stephen Jones, Rugby Correspondent
June 3 2017, 12:01pm,
The TimesIn short, the Lions forwards were disappointing in Whangarei. Up against a scratch combination, their lack of headway at a succession of five-yard scrums was poor - and they could make no dents in the efficient home line-out. Perhaps oddly, amongst all the new Lions desperate to stand out, it was the three-tour veteran Alun Wyn Jones who was the best Lion up front.
The Osprey lock was powerful at the breakdown. He was deft with his handling and clearly played a strong leadership role during the breaks in play. On the day he outshone his partner Iain Henderson, who faded after a bright start. Wyn Jones was hit by injury in the domestic season, never quite finding his best form, and so missed what was once a fighting chance of leading this tour party. Yesterday, he re-established himself - and without him it could have been really gory.
The Lions probably did not want to go to their bench as early as they did, but there was a little more drive in the loose and power in the scrum when Mako Vunipola and Tadhg Furlong arrived. Both men had appeared in major club finals as recently as last Saturday - one of the many lunacies of the tour set-up and its fixture list.
Who else, on this admittedly scant evidence, advanced their cause? Probably those who did not start or even appear. Certainly, the sight of Maro Itoje starting on Wednesday against the Blues will give everyone a lift, although the display of Wyn Jones this morning means that not even Itoje will walk into the Test team.
No team ever won a Test series without a great pack. The Lions will be praying that true power was masked by tiredness and unfamiliarity, rather than indicating a worrying weakness. The excuses run out rapidly on a tour of New Zealand.
Hmm. Vunipola and Furlong were not in club finals last Saturday. Their teams both exited the previous week in the semifinals. Good to see Jones has his finger on the pulse of European rugby.
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I only watched the game from the 60m mark. After seeing the Lions team List and seeing them bench, with Vunipola and Furlong as bench props ...... I was expecting carnage at that point of the game. The Prov Baabaas scrum was tight as.
Also AWJ lucky not to be carded for twice diving in the box trying to dupe a penalty
. After watching the 05 pop up channel and seeing Kaplan penalising ABs for drivng through a maul and wrapping up the ball carrier , it was good to see defending mauls not being penalised for not sneezing into their elbows.Impressed with Gardiner in the 20m I watched. Maybe you could quibble with a dominant scrum penalty that went against the Lions for not pushing straight , but I would have penalised them anyway for Webb interfering with the halfback and preventing a quick clearance.
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@Pot-Hale said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
According to Gatland, he's planning a new starting XV for next week's match against the Blues so presumably it might look something like this:
McGrath, Owens, Cole, Itoje, Lawes, Stander, O'B'rien/Tipuric, Haskell
Murray, Biggar, Williams, Henshaw, Davies, North, Halfpenny
Reps: George, Marler, Furlong, Kruis, O'Mahony, Webb, Sexton, Payne/NowellThat would mean the blokes who played against the Barbarians get another, probably their last, chance to impress against New Zealand's premier Super Rugby side?
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@antipodean said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Pot-Hale said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
According to Gatland, he's planning a new starting XV for next week's match against the Blues so presumably it might look something like this:
McGrath, Owens, Cole, Itoje, Lawes, Stander, O'B'rien/Tipuric, Haskell
Murray, Biggar, Williams, Henshaw, Davies, North, Halfpenny
Reps: George, Marler, Furlong, Kruis, O'Mahony, Webb, Sexton, Payne/NowellThat would mean the blokes who played against the Barbarians get another, probably their last, chance to impress against New Zealand's premier Super Rugby side?
Some of them might. He may not have a completely new starting XV against Blues but instead use some of the bench players from today's match.
The plan is to have used all 41 by end of Match 3. I'm not sure if he meant that they'd all start, but if you're in the squad and only get a bench appearance then it may not seem like a fair crack of the whip to show your stuff before he moves on to picking the likely test side. But it's possible that some squad players may only get their first game against the Crusaders.
The Crusaders match is shaping up to be the "4th test" rather than the Maori game, so let's wait and see how the Blues game and selection goes.
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@Tim yeah the Lions fans I was talking to breathed a sigh of relief when they changed the front row, only for them to not assert themselves either.
I think the breakdown physicality was the only area the Lions truly had it over the Baabaas, but that seemed from sheer size as they had some big units out there, but that didnt translate to actual domination though, the Baabaas just kept on fighting.
I'd say Stratton and Goodhue were the best for me.
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Stratton making sure he gets to the ruck on time:
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@JC said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
The Walrus's take on it. Not much to argue with in general, but I didn't think Wyn Jones was all that good.
Alun Wyn Jones leads the charge as Lions stutter against Provincial Barbarians
Stephen Jones, Rugby Correspondent
June 3 2017, 12:01pm,
The TimesIn short, the Lions forwards were disappointing in Whangarei. Up against a scratch combination, their lack of headway at a succession of five-yard scrums was poor - and they could make no dents in the efficient home line-out. Perhaps oddly, amongst all the new Lions desperate to stand out, it was the three-tour veteran Alun Wyn Jones who was the best Lion up front.
The Osprey lock was powerful at the breakdown. He was deft with his handling and clearly played a strong leadership role during the breaks in play. On the day he outshone his partner Iain Henderson, who faded after a bright start. Wyn Jones was hit by injury in the domestic season, never quite finding his best form, and so missed what was once a fighting chance of leading this tour party. Yesterday, he re-established himself - and without him it could have been really gory.
The Lions probably did not want to go to their bench as early as they did, but there was a little more drive in the loose and power in the scrum when Mako Vunipola and Tadhg Furlong arrived. Both men had appeared in major club finals as recently as last Saturday - one of the many lunacies of the tour set-up and its fixture list.
Who else, on this admittedly scant evidence, advanced their cause? Probably those who did not start or even appear. Certainly, the sight of Maro Itoje starting on Wednesday against the Blues will give everyone a lift, although the display of Wyn Jones this morning means that not even Itoje will walk into the Test team.
No team ever won a Test series without a great pack. The Lions will be praying that true power was masked by tiredness and unfamiliarity, rather than indicating a worrying weakness. The excuses run out rapidly on a tour of New Zealand.
I'm an admirer of AWJ and think he's been a great player. He had had his injury problems this season and not looked that good and yesterday (UK time) he definitely looked short of a gallop. Quite underwhelming. I sometimes wonder which games Jones actually watches if any at all. Maybe he pays some teenager to watch the game for him and tell him what happened.
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Three red hot attacking scrums and they just feed it out to the nearest guy and he runs, and gets tackled. No planned move or people running anywhere, just hope for a shove and she'll be right
How come?
No 5m attacking scrum moves to try out?
No contesting lineouts?EDIT MOD: Lets keep that to the Off Topic forum.
Bit hard on the lions there, it's early doors, but by christ there'd better be more innovation and effort at attacking than last night's display.
What was the gameplan?How did they set out to play and win?
Way to put yourselves under pressure form the get go
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@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
That might even get rugby union in The Back Page.
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@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Rapido Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Back Page"?
Aussie sports show on Foxtel.
They actually do feature rugby stuff on occasions. Mehrts has been on a few times.
Also, I always find it odd when NZers say rugby union, rugby was never referred to as rugby union back home yet I have friends who say it all the time over here. It's like they becaome whiny leaguies with a chip on their shoulders over here.
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@booboo said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@JC said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
The Walrus's take on it.
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No team ever won a Test series without a great pack.
Still talking shit ... 1977 ...
Ah, but the Walrus didn't cover that tour. His first to NZ was 1983....
