All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2
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So, the Sporting God Sonny Bill deems that this series is worthy of a decider!
Not surprising that we lost after losing a man that far out from the finish, but a bit disappointing after we'd worked our way to a couple of decent leads.
I think as well as losing a man it was pretty influential that we lost two of our most powerful and physical players in that one fell swoop. As the game went on I think we continued to lose physicality - Ardie for Cane, Cruden for Naholo and the legs started to run out of gas, while the Lions rallied and were well worth their win (albeit that they nearly made a bollocks of it through the middle 40 minutes of the match).
It is a bit concerning the numbers of important players - especially outside backs - that we're going to be short of going into the decider. Potentially, SBW, Crotty, Naholo and Ben Smith. Hopefully we don't lose Sonny Bill to further sanctions, because I think we'll need him, despite that Laumape made a pretty good fist of his debut and certainly generated some go forward.
Well done, Lions. Particularly impressed with your lineout. Two tests in a row that you've edged us there. Thought our scrum held up very well, given we were using ALB in some and seven men on most of their ball.
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@SimonAdd_2 said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
Some on here were questioning the Itoje hype earlier in the tour, well I thought he was the best player on the park today
An early error and his pushing the offside limits means I can't agree with him being the best player on the field. However he was very good.
The hyperbole in the press isn't his fault and kiwis should ignore it when they rate him
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
Jesus golden boy Barrett gets a free ride on here. He was so poor tonight, and kicked away good attacking ball on numerous occassions, none of which came close to working out. Still our best option, and agree Cruden was no better, but you can criticise him you know.
Lions much better than us in contact all night, losing kaino hurt.
I'm bitterly disappointed because I feel that we still should have won that.
I have zero problems with the ref
My only gripe with the ref was the made up penalty at the end. That was a truly astounding call. Otherwise he was mostly fair, both teams got away with a bit and at other times pinged harshly. It's clear he's a significant step down from other refs but anyone blaming him for the loss has rocks in their head (I don't think anyone on here is).
We probably didn't deserve the draw as SBW got himself red carded which is on us, and they did score two tries to nil - we'd alerting everyone to that fact if it was the other way round - but fuck a draw would have been nice given the heroic performance from the likes of Cane, BBBR etc. Going with them for the full 80 a man down is pretty epic.
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well, that was a bit of a cripple fight eh. so many mistakes, so much poor discipline. i think the subbing of a forward rather than a back is a good move. it's just easier to cover a forward. we really missed kaino though - his sort of game - and the extra effort required from the other guys up front got to us in the end.
the ref was fine, didn't affect the outcome overall, and the team that played the better rugby won. he missed a bit of stuff both ways. sbw was a definite red, and as per the consensus, he's a total fucking fluffybunny. vunipola wasn't a card to me, he barely touched barrett, and to be honest i was pretty disappointed he stayed down pretending he was hurt, who does he think he is, brian habana? i hate the last penalty though, that rule must change.
kicking the fucking ball away. barrett and cruden. so, so fucking stupid. they both did it last week too. arrogant, selfish, dumb play. trying for a hero miracle individual play instead of backing your team to do the job and waiting for a proper opportunity. if you're behind with a minute on the clock, you simply must retain the ball, or you lose. such a contrast to the brililant come from behind win over ireland a few years back where everyone trusted the system. fuckwits.
on individual players... the forwards generally did okay playing 7 on 8 i reckon. locks and cane and savea all very good. aaron smith is back to being really good which is nice. none of the other backs really did anything of note, though naholo did okay with what he got. rieko did fuck all, and for those going on about his strength - sure he's strong-ish for a winger, but he's no savea / naholo in contact. not even close.
for the lions, i continue to be impressed by davies, and i think warburton was really good at slowing our ball down. their tackling was a lot better this week. by fuck they did their best to get themselves penalised out of the game though, really stupid shit in a game where you are a man up.
ah well, fuck it. oh yeah did i mention fuck off sonny bill? -
@ACT-Crusader said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
@pakman said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
At last try three Lions impeded AB tacklers, Savea and TJP.
Proud of ABs. Third quarter heroic.
But when Naholo off our makeshift backline was unable to maintain real time defensive sturucture and to their credit Lions had the nous to make us pay for it. And ref seemed to let Lawes do what MI was repeatedly penalised for.
Fairly galling to lose to a jump penalty.
Would have taken the draw.
Glad I paid up for Eden Park tickets for my old man and me!!Why was it a "makeshift" backline? There was a very high possibility that one of our wingers would've been dragged for Cruden anyway so they would've trained for having Cruden at 10, Barrett at 15 and Dagg at wing.
Agree with theory, but I suspect they didn't train for this under 'man off' scenario. ABs coped remarkably with original lineup and one man short.
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Every AB loss has a "perfect storm" feel to it
No way should a Lions test team not beat any other team, 15 against 14 for nearly an hour.
Our last 10 mins showed it's basically,physically impossible to keep up the speed of the game for 55 minutes with 14 men. The lads were knackered and all those wee mistakes they talk about when you're fatigued, kicked in. i don't think they deserve too vitriolic criticism under those circumstances - one of them will cop it...
Ref was fine. Got heaps of offsides. The problem is that the fucking WR knobs are defying reality to satisfy, presumably, a bunch of pansies who don't even watch rugby. We were told never jump, "it's dangerous, dumb and you'll probably get hurt"
what else can Faumuina do there? And bang, there's the win!
Jumping Jews of Jerusalem would be world fucking champions
However I'm stoked (yep, that word) for the Lions fans. well done, your boys did what they should and tackled like hard bastards (skipper spoke well too) and now we've got the show down next week.
Fucking Great!!
What TRUE rugby fan wouldn't welcome a winner takes all between the Lions and the Al Blacks?
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@SimonAdd_2 I went back and checked and it was O'Brien whose forearm to Naholos head concussed him. That would be a loss and given the circumstances you would have to say he will be sited.
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@Tregaskis said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
@Duluth In venom, or in number of posts?
If it's a linux server hosting it, there is a metric for "heartbreak". And "Fucking stupid ex-league players vitriol"
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Well done Lions. Took your chances and held your nerve at the end. AB's did pretty well playing with 14 for most of the match. Just a few mistakes took it out of our hands, and into the hands of the Lions and, to a lesser degree, the ref.
Our tactics seem to get worse, and in the last 20 we did a bunch of dumb stuff. Alongside the missed kicks that was a bridge too far. Volume went to 11 when Cruden did that lame ass kick for Laumape. Totally missed the fact that holding the ball to force a penalty, or try opportunity, was the far better option.
SBW...fuck... can be a damn hard player to support. Especially when his accidental shit stacks up with his intentional dumb shit!! That was top drawer stupid play. No upside whatsoever with a tackle like that. At the time I wondered if he pulled his arm so he didn't smoke Naholo, but leading with the shoulder and no arms leads to no good.
BB missed a couple of pretty easy kicks. Plus he didn't get any jammy tries either! Big third test for you mate!
Very interested to see what our backline looks like for the last test. SBW and Naholo may be out - and Cruden could get snaked by Lima. Although that's unlikely if we have even more new guys starting.
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@Duluth said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
TSF site traffic has just gone past the Chicago loss
My Facebook feed is full of crowing wallaby fans
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@Duluth said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
TSF site traffic has just gone past the Chicago loss
Nothing like an AB loss to bring out the posters!
I hate it when the ABs lose, but the Lions were very physical and sat our mob on their backsides a hell of a lot tonight. They rushed the line with some force and we did some good things but then made some mental errors due to pressure and poor execution.
My MOTM was O'Brien. A shout out to AWJ and Warburton, two players that I questioned when the team was selected, but both were excellent in these conditions. Itoje was good as was Faletau.
Well done to Farrell for making a couple of those difficult kicks in those conditions.
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@mariner4life said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
@Duluth said in All Blacks v BI Lions Test #2:
TSF site traffic has just gone past the Chicago loss
My Facebook feed is full of crowing wallaby fans
When neutrals crow, just have to take that as a compliment.
It's either that or just go David Bain on the motherfuckers. -
Well, this has been interesting (but expected) reading. No surprise the knives are out for SBW. I think 3/4 of the refs involved wanted to go with a yellow but the Frenchie was always giving a red.
I don't think the Laumape play worked. We missed Kaino and at the crucial stages in the end Read was getting smashed which is frightening.
The winning penalty was utter bullshit, but we really should have been more points ahead by that stage.
