Springboks v British & Irish Lions II
-
The Springboks approach to the refereeing in this game interesting. Firstly, for better or worse, Rassie's pressure on the referee worked and O'Keefe was much stricter (on both teams) than Berry in the first game. But the players also put far more pressure on him. It has been a theme of this tour that the Lions have been "bullying" opposition teams with little hold backs and shit tons of chat. In this game, every time there was a bit of a push the Springboks would rush in and force the ref to deal with it. It made for a terrible spectical, but at least the lions were not allowed to set the narrative the way they have been allowed to on tour.
In the first half it felt like South Africa was playing a bit more of the rugby, but inaccuracies led to consecutive penalties that kept the lions in the game.
I am actually a little more worried about the Boks attack now than I was before the game. Whereas the Lions didn't try to attack, the Boks in patches did, but the passing and alignment was so bad that they couldnt get anything going. A grinding, trench war is good enough to win this week but based on this performance I am worried that we will fall flat on our face if we decide pull the trigger.
And my god was this a stop start affair. For example, in the first 10 minutes of the second half there were about 10 phases of rugby played. Mapimpi scored in the 44th minute, after the conversion and kick off there was a scrum that collapsed three times, leading to free kick to the lions. One or two phases and then a penalty in 50th minute. That's just dreadful.
There's a lot of talk about South Africa winning the aerial battle in the second half, neither team was any good. The lions knocked on a couple balls, but the South African back three were not a lot better. South Africa were just a bit better at recovering loose balls after the kick were miss-fielded.
And can supporters please shut up about cards all the time. Social media is full of calls for five or six citings to be dished out against both sides. It was nasty unpleasant game, but a hundred miles from being truly dirty. It feels like everyone is just looking for drama for drama sake.
-
@gt12 yeah maybe I didn't make my point very well.
Re Hogg, it looks weird/dodgy but without further evidence and if Springboks don't push the matter then I can accept that it is just that, weird.
Re Sinckler - there very little public about the incident. On the ref comms you can hear Kolisi raising something with O'Keefe, who responds that he sees it but that it will have to be dealt with after the game. The speculation is that Mostert showed O'Keefe a bite mark. We will have to wait for the hearing tomorrow to get any more information.
That is dirty incident, rather than a dirty game.
On the internet you are hearing call for citing for all sorts of rugby incidents -
Vunipolu for a high shot on Etsebeth in the first minute.
Kolbe for the head-clash with Curry.
Kolbe for the tackle in the air.
Itoje for his Chauvin inpersonation on DE Allende.
De Klerk for his tackle on Murray.
Mbonanbi for his shove on Biggar in a scuffle.It's just all a little rediculous.
-
@sidbarret said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
@gt12 yeah maybe I didn't make my point very well.
Re Hogg, it looks weird/dodgy but without further evidence and if Springboks don't push the matter then I can accept that it is just that, weird.
Re Sinckler - there very little public about the incident. On the ref comms you can hear Kolisi raising something with O'Keefe, who responds that he sees it but that it will have to be dealt with after the game. The speculation is that Mostert showed O'Keefe a bite mark. We will have to wait for the hearing tomorrow to get any more information.
That is dirty incident, rather than a dirty game.
On the internet you are hearing call for citing for all sorts of rugby incidents -
Vunipolu for a high shot on Etsebeth in the first minute.
Kolbe for the head-clash with Curry.
Kolbe for the tackle in the air.
Itoje for his Chauvin inpersonation on DE Allende.
De Klerk for his tackle on Murray.
Mbonanbi for his shove on Biggar in a scuffle.It's just all a little rediculous.
Spot on!
-
Or as my mate described the second test,
“more citing than exciting”
-
@mikethesnow said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
Or as my mate described the second test,
“more citing than exciting”
Only one citing, shows how low the exciting was = 0
-
@mariner4life said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
@antipodean said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
@mariner4life said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
This series is horrible as an advertisement for rugby.
Aerial bombardments and blokes running in to each other. Long games. Endless whinging about the refs. Professional rugby at its absolute worst.
Hopefully this makes WR sit up and take notice that the preeminent fixture in the calendar outside the RWC looks like this: The best players from Home Nations and the World Champions are playing this way, with these officials bringing the game into disrepute.
i am not holding my breath
although online chat seems to suggest even the home union supporters think its garbage.
Yes and this is why we should all want the Boks to win - if the Lions win playing this way the narrative will be all about the heroism and uniqueness of the Lions and spirit of rugby etc. If the Boks win the narrative will hopefully be about the death of rugby.
-
@frank said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
@mariner4life said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
This series is horrible as an advertisement for rugby.
Aerial bombardments and blokes running in to each other. Long games. Endless whinging about the refs. Professional rugby at its absolute worst.
South Africa have always played this way.
And the Lions under Gatland the same.The annoying thing about the Boks is that actually have really brilliantly creative and athletic players who can put on an absolute show when they want. The way they move ball and attack in broken play demonstrates this. They regrettably have such an inherently conservative attitude - especially in their halves - to their attack that we seldom get to see it.
-
I wonder what the max number of phases a team has had the ball for so far?
Instead of everyone bleating to hand out more cards - especially red, lets ban the box kick.
Why have we become too scared to try to pay any rugby and just have to kick it?
Why do we have to spend the entire game looking for ways to hand out a card or disallow a try?Just my little rant, still think this second game was better than the first, but that's not saying much.
-
https://i.imgur.com/AxNbQHz.gif
Bongi want to help Kolbey and Hogg took a dive -
@daffy-jaffy said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
The damning statistics of the Lions' second Test attack [13 passes in total from the Lions starting 10-15Pathetic
You’ve seen the team I want
Runners not kickers
-
@mikethesnow I also read somewhere that each half lasted over an hour due to so many stoppages. That's like one backline pass every 9 minutes! (not counting the bench players)
-
Itoje very lucky this was the 2021 Test Series not the 1997 Series
When Allende stands over Itoje and makes him flinch at the end that would have been lights out back in the day
-
@mikethesnow said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
Itoje very lucky this was the 2021 Test Series not the 1997 Series
When Allende stands over Itoje and makes him flinch at the end that would have been lights out back in the day
Itoje said he was going to take the knee.
-
@stargazer said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
I hope he gets an extensive ban and fine, fucking disgusting behaviour
-
@darren said in Springboks v British & Irish Lions II:
lets ban the box kick.
as the founding member of this club, welcome brother
-
Don’t often see eye-to-eye with Foster
“I watched it between 22:00 (New Zealand time) and 01:00, it put me to sleep,” he told reporters.
Foster said the last two Lions series have been tight affairs and feels the current one has become an arm wrestle because the Boks and Lions employ similar methods in their approach to the game.
“The Lions series, the one we had here, the one over there, it’s become very tight, almost risk-free type of series, aren’t they? Teams are almost afraid to play, they are just relying on a low-risk strategy,” he said.
Low-risk rugby
“So we are seeing two teams who desperately want to win a big series playing low-risk, highly-effective rugby.
“Both of them are good at the close contact stuff, the close-quarter fighting, the kick and chase, and the pressure game. Two teams playing a similar style, it’s a bit of a slugfest.”
Foster believes both South Africa and the Lions are not comfortable playing against line speed which results in them employing kicking game plans.
“That’s Test match rugby where stakes are high, it’s the whole risk versus reward, isn’t it?” he added.
“You’ve got two teams over there, who want to get up, their line speed is really strong. It’s all about stopping.
“We’ve been criticised in the past for not being able to play around and through line speed, but what you are seeing is two teams that don’t like playing against line speed either.
“So what do they do? They kick. That’s the answer if you are not willing to play a slightly more risky game. Everyone will choose a different way.””