Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions
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Have to say well played Lions. They focussed on their strengths and exposed the Maori weaknesses. They were very clinical against a fired up Maori side - Gatland has them improving every match and this was another big step up after the Crusaders match.
The ABs sent a message about the way they want to play last night. The Lions fired the same message right back tonight. As I said earlier, next week is going to be an epic clash of styles and I can't fucking wait.
Not much to say about the Maori side. They were disjointed from the get-go and had no rhythm. I think it was @Mokey that said playing players out of position was a mistake and she was bang on, with little preperation time that was a big risk and it backfired.
DMac looked rattled early and never recovered. Lowe is very inconsistent, especially when the pressure is on. Rieko and NMS were very quiet, though with no possesion or territory the wings are never going to feature.
Akira Ioane was the one massive shining light. He was into everything and muscled up really well against a very strong Lions pack. He has AB written all over him in the coming years - great to see him developing well.
This tour is awesome and has been getting better every week, building nicely to the first test which will be highly anticipated by rugby fans the world over after tonight - bring it on!
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Well played lions, controlled everything.
One thing that shits me is nzers going on about lions 'scoring in 3s', 'playing for penalties', 'not creating anything' etc. If the opposition gives away a penalty every single time you break the line or are in their 22, then that is on the opposition, not the attacking team - taking the points is just sensible.
McKenzie was bad, Lowe was worse. Forwards won very little ball, and all that was got was aimlessly kicked away. Dumb play throughout. -
@Stargazer said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
NZL has won only 1 out of 3 games this weekend. I hope the U20s do the job tomorrow to make it 2 out of 4.
Ah, but if we aggregate the points from all the matches, we're still ahead.
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@Gunner said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
It'd be nice if O'Mahony spoke English in his after match captains interview.
Or maybe Sky should have a translator available?
If you can't speak Munsterish that's your fucken problem...,
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Oh
By the way congrats Lions.
And congrats Scotland, England, Ireland & Wales and Fiji.
Commiserations New Zealand, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Tonga.
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@Tim said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
Might've been an idea to have this game between the tests and give the Maori a warm up game.
Good point, and makes me even more glad the ABs were able to blow out some rust last night. If they played the way they did in the first 20 against that Lions team we'd be way behind the 8-ball at half time.
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Only thing impressive about the Maori was the Haka.
Lions excellent. Bludgeoned the shit out of them.
Watching aftermatch talk now and of course Weepu looks like a fucking dero they picked off the street. Surely he can afford a proper shirt and tie.
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So...Chiefs fans. Happy with Cooper as your coach next season...
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@taniwharugby said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
Haha Lowe giving Furlong a lesson on the ruck.
Those two will be team mates shortly at Leinster, I think.
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More than a bit gutted about that game. Dont think I've ever seen a Maori team look so woefully inept, and to make it worse, they seemed to lose the plot more and more as the game went on after a pretty good start. Akira played well, but can't really think of anyone else to praise. Countless dumb mistakes, terrible ham hands under the high ball, and shitty kicking either out on the full, or straight into the Lions hands.
Very unimpressed with the coaching team. When things started to go to shit, they should have made changes immediately, not waited until the game was lost. McKenzie should have gone to fullback at half time, Lowe to wing, so they were in position at least. Also can't believe players like Hika and Ihaia were left on the bench until the 70th minute. Ben May was fucking shit in the scrums, the Maori forwards were getting owned every time. GAH.
But at the end of the day, the Lions were hungry, and clearly more than a few wanted to put their hands up for the first test. Gatland now has a quite nice problem - who to pick. As for the Maori, well, less said the better. In that these guys were so strong on paper, former All Blacks, fringe All Blacks, Super players, they have no excuses for playing like rank amateurs. The Barbarians played with more heart and cohesion.
Oh yes, and Marshall and Johnson can go fuck themselves. The fellating of the Lions players all game was actually sickening - Hansen and Co will be thoughtful, but I doubt very much scared at what they saw from the opposition. I think they would be far more horrified at what they saw from some of their own. Methinks Dave Rennie will be spitting tacks at how Messam, Lowe, DMac, TKB etc played. Will be very interesting to see the make up of the Chiefs team next week.
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Those chiefs legends were slightly detrimental to the MAB's cause.
Even Ngatai wasn't his usual self, looked short of a gallop. Lowe and Messam just looked like they were playing drunk. What the hell was up with Lowe kicking the ball everytime he got it, even in space on attack? And accurate kicking at that...
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@Gunner said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
DMac will be just fine for the chiefs at 10, coz he almost certainly won't be playing behind a pack that is going backwards...
And he'll have Colin Cooper working out the game plan for him. No wait....
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@Bones said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
Those chiefs legends were slightly detrimental to the MAB's cause.
Even Ngatai wasn't his usual self, looked short of a gallop. Lowe and Messam just looked like they were playing drunk. What the hell was up with Lowe kicking the ball everytime he got it, even in space on attack? And accurate kicking at that...
Those kicks were driving me mental. Either out on the full, or straight to a Lions player, giving him space to work up a gallop. Dire.
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@Stargazer said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
So, bring on West; send DMac to fullback, Lowe to the left wing, and Rieko to 13.
That would have been the obvious starting configuration.
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@pakman said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
@Stargazer said in Māori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions:
So, bring on West; send DMac to fullback, Lowe to the left wing, and Rieko to 13.
That would have been the obvious starting configuration.
The question is, did they start Dmac at 10 at the request of Hansen and co? Or was this Cooper's bright idea?
