ljkeane Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 The Lions get a win and take the series to a decider. Good result for the series and probably what I thought was likely to be the best result the Lions were going to achieve. Having said that the Lions were very, very lucky. They were better than last week at the start of the game but a lot of things had to go their way for them to scrape a win. Sonny Bill Williams absolutely deserved his red card but there was no need for him to do it. They Lions were then pretty terrible for the first 20 minutes or so of the second half and they let a 14 man All Black side off the hook, it's a good thing Barrett didn't bring his kicking boots otherwise they would have been out of sight. Finally the winning penalty is technically an offence but Faumuina really hasn't done a lot wrong to end up tackling Sinckler in the air, Sinckler's jumped into the tackle at the last minute. On the other hand the game management of New Zealand down a man was excellent for large parts of the game and I think they'll be pretty fired up for next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 The lions put on 2 very good plays to score their tries. Outside of that I'd say the Lions looked very ordinary, making a lot of unforced errors that failed to put the All Black under pressure for most of the time after SBW was sent off. A deserved red card, but dumb. poor entry into the tackle rather than malicious I think. But Barrett missing 3 kicks, at least 2 of which should have been slotted. Groan! I'm fine with the Lions winning one game. Puts the highest possible interest and tension on the final game. And if the Lions had lost vs a 14 man team there would the rest of the tour would have been in a funk. There would still have been a lot to play for. The Lions would not want to leave being whitewashed in the tests, and the ABs would have wanted to continue their home winning streak. But this is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 34 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said: A deserved red card, but dumb. poor entry into the tackle rather than malicious I think. It might not have been malicious in the sense that he was deliberately trying to smash Watson in the face, it was a bit of a nasty challenge though. It was a deliberate shoulder charge and an unnecessary one given Naholo had already made the tackle. There are a lot of cards handed out nowadays were I feel a lot of sympathy for the carded players; things like challenges in the air when guys clearly aren't trying to take anyone out or high tackles were it's just a reaction to being stepped etc but Williams has only got himself to blame today. 40 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said: But Barrett missing 3 kicks, at least 2 of which should have been slotted. Groan! That's always been a potential risk in a tight game. The up side of the number tries he creates tends to balance it out so far. It might be an incentive to get a kicker into the side in another position in the future though. Maybe his brother? 42 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said: The lions put on 2 very good plays to score their tries. Outside of that I'd say the Lions looked very ordinary, making a lot of unforced errors that failed to put the All Black under pressure for most of the time after SBW was sent off. The Lions really had a bad start to the second half. Having said that conditions did look tough. Both sides didn't look great ball in hand. One thing that stood out for me is it was an interesting decision from Hansen to take Kaino off for a back after the red. The usual thing to do is drop a blindside winger and it's asking a lot for your forwards to play 50 minutes 7 against 8. It looked to me after a great first 20 minutes of the second half their pack ran out of steam a bit towards the end. On the plus sides for the Lions their forwards matched up a lot better with All Blacks pack in the first half than they did in the first test. It wasn't exactly a popular decision to bring Warburton in since it wasn't really a form call but I think adding his physicality was the right choice. Alun Wyn-Jones had a good first half but looked out of steam a good 10 minutes before he came off. It'd be pretty harsh but I might replace him with Lawes next week and bring Henderson onto the bench. Jones looks to have about 50 minutes maximum in him at this pace and intensity and if Itoje got injured early next week they might be in trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted July 8, 2017 Share Posted July 8, 2017 Good first half. The All Blacks look sharp but the Lions are managing to stay in touch. They're having to put in a lot of work though. ETA: Great result for the Lions. I thought winning a game would be a good return for them, a drawn series is fantastic. Having said that Poite bottled it at the end. It was definitely a penalty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted July 8, 2017 Share Posted July 8, 2017 Congrats to the Lions. Seriously - that was the first time in 23 years the All Blacks have been denied a win at Eden Park. I'm now wishing there was a Fourth Test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted July 8, 2017 Share Posted July 8, 2017 Boo for the drawn series. We should have gone to extra time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted July 9, 2017 Share Posted July 9, 2017 I don't mind the draw. But the denial of the penalty at the end was a big misplay by the referee. I fell like he would have made a different decision if it hadn't been a likely win/lose decision and with almost no time left for the Lions to respond. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted August 10, 2017 Share Posted August 10, 2017 So the Women's World Cup started yesterday. Women's sport is on a bit of a high at the moment in the England with the cricket win and the football going well until it didn't so the RFU's decision to scrap the fulltime XVs contracts after the World Cup, at least until the start of the build up for the next one, has received some negative attention. Unfortunately watching the start of the World Cup I can't say it's the wrong decision though. The main focus for almost every Union is clearly sevens at this point, a number of major Unions appear to have completely given up on XVs. Even Australia, although they have pulled in some sevens players for this tournament, have apparently only played five XVs internationals since the last World Cup. The game's not going to develop like that. It does look to me like investing in coaching for a domestic XVs competition will probably get a better return for the RFU's investment than paying for full time XVs contracts for the Six Nations and the odd game against New Zealand. As a tight five forward I think it's a real shame but it looks like the future of the Women's game is sevens with XVs as an afterthought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted August 28, 2017 Share Posted August 28, 2017 Nice win by both genders for New Zealand this weekend. Great to take the WRWC back off England. And a great intense AU/NZ test match for the guys. For once it seems liek the All Black benefitted from someone elses woeful goal kicking efforts. I think if Foley had made all of his goal kicks AU would have won. I do believe he missed more than 6pts worth of goal kicks. Not sure if it was 7pts or 9pts he missed. Still I think the Aussie boys can be pretty pleased with how much they raised their game. But it is very difficult to beat the All Blacks at home especially when the ABS are able to play with 15 men on the field for all or most of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted September 7, 2017 Author Share Posted September 7, 2017 If you watch this video really carefully, you'll see the precise moment that black #7 decides he's switching to rugby league Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 I'm quite surprised he's managed to walk off without it kicking off there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Which Tyler Posted September 8, 2017 Author Share Posted September 8, 2017 22 hours ago, ljkeane said: I'm quite surprised he's managed to walk off without it kicking off there. Judging by the reactions - everyone was simply too surprised Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted October 8, 2017 Share Posted October 8, 2017 So the Rugby Championship has finished for another year and South Africa did ok against the All Blacks yesterday but I think you have to say overall the competition has been a disappointment again. I was kind of hopeful that it might be a better tournament with this year with the Lions showing New Zealand can be knocked off their stride a bit but even though South Africa were better than last year and Australia probably better than expected it never looked like anything other than another straightforward championship win for New Zealand. Still there was the recent highlight for rugby of Scott Baldwin missing the Ospreys game against the Cheetah's because he got bitten by a lion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted October 13, 2017 Share Posted October 13, 2017 I wasn't really expecting it to be close, just that there would be good games with great action in it. And in that sense it certainly delivered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Shockingly bad performance by England. Eddie Jones looked like he wanted to kill someone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Yeah, wasn’t great even if they never really looked like losing. Underhill looked ok basically playing as a linebacker. Good game in the Rugby League World Cup this morning with Tonga beating New Zealand. Having a side capable of beating one of the big three makes it a much better tournament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The BlackBear Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 Poor performance from Scotland against Samoa. Atrocious defence. Every restart was just a disaster. It's not going to be pretty against NZ next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted November 11, 2017 Share Posted November 11, 2017 1 hour ago, The BlackBear said: Poor performance from Scotland against Samoa. Atrocious defence. Every restart was just a disaster. It's not going to be pretty against NZ next week. It was a bit reminiscent of the Scotland v Samoa game at the last World Cup, both teams seemingly able to score at will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 Good effort from Scotland today, I thought Hogg was in at the end there. When you consider the number of players they’re missing I don’t think Townsend will be too unhappy with that. England weren’t great again, although in fairness conditions looked pretty miserable, the score certainly didn’t really reflect the game. Still they keep winning though which isn’t a bad habit to have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted November 18, 2017 Share Posted November 18, 2017 21 minutes ago, ljkeane said: Good effort from Scotland today, I thought Hogg was in at the end there. When you consider the number of players they’re missing I don’t think Townsend will be too unhappy with that. I thought it was a very encouraging performance, and not far off potentially winning at the end - although even if Hogg or the supporting player he tried to offload to had score there would still be a tough conversion kick to win. Some of the commentators were saying that they thought Scotland should have won but I think it's always going to be difficult to win with such a disparity in the scrum, especially when they'd lost the players who started. Looking forward to the Australia match next weekend, although it looks like the injury list will be even longer by then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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