2012 S15R10 Lions vs Brumbies @ Coke Tin

This crowd looks like it would be lucky to have a couple thousand in it at most?

Fotu officially MOTM.

His bullying highlight reel is worth his place alone.

McCabe had another great game. had a good linebreak, and a kick to set up a try.

Lilo so good with ball in hand. his goal kicking however took a dive.

Both Brumbies' wingers so dangerous.

And the Brumbies' forwards once again. excellent.

However, aside from the goal kicking I was a bit concerned about some of the backline defence.

Thankfully there were moments of brilliance which prevented tries.

As for Hooper.

Fuck hooper we got Faingaaaaaa

This game wasn't the greatest of spectacle's but there were some highlights.

Fotu Auelua's tackling display is one that people should watch. He was belting blokes all over the place and I wonder why the Lions players kept running into him when they had the ball.

Henry Speight was another who impressed and his 2 tries were very good. His only downside was accidentally taking out his opposite winger whilst contesting a high ball. Joe Tomane was another that played well, despite dropping the ball on one occasion. He set up Andrew Smith's try and collected one himself.

The area's to work on for the Brumbies though, are goalkicking and line defense. Leaving 14 points on the field against better teams will cost them and allowing the Lions back into the game when the finally decided to keep the ball in hand was also a problem. Lucky it took them 60 minutes to work this out.

And I can't leave without commenting on Butch James. Butch James has been known for flying in with his shoulder and generally being reckless. His effort on Scott Fardy after the Lions had secured the penalty on the Brumbies line has to be one of his worst efforts, and he has had plenty. The yellow and white cards he received out of it were justified and he should announce he's leaving Super Rugby after announcing he's retired from Test rugby.

Not the sharpest tool in the shed, old Butch.

Fair play to the Brumbies for taking the 5 points from that game, but that was an absolutely shocking performance from the Lions. There is no excuse for a Super Rugby team putting on a performance like that and I hope that the word 'injuries' was not used by any of the Lions in the post match interviews. I would hate to see their missed tackle stats after that game and their ball security was no higher than schoolboy level. None of the senior players stood up and I'm not sure that Josh Strauss is cut out for captaincy (although who else is there really with Doppies La Grange and Wickus van Heerden missing?!).

After putting on a performance like that there is absolutely no reason why they should not be relegated from Super Rugby next year.

22 missed tackles to the Brumbies 21.
26 turnovers to the Brumbies 18.

I am shocked to see that those figures are so close. The telling factor would have to be that 90% of those errors from the Lions were made in their own half and they were then punished for them. Furthermore, if a Brumbies player missed a tackle there would often be a player behind him waiting to make the next tackle. When the Lions missed a tackle it would lead to a clean line break for the Brumbies. Besides their goalkicking, the Brumbies did well to capitalise on their opportunities and credit to them for doing that.

The Lions atually played well in the last 20, they kept the ball alive and offloaded alot to get in behind the Brumbies.

They were awful in the first half. The tactics were crap also. Mitchell just doesnt seem to cut it as a coach these days.

Lions had 41 missed tackles according to Foxsports. That figure's a lot closer to the game I watched.

Those stats were provided by the good folk at Ruckin' Good Stats.

Well done Brumbies. You got to be happy with that. What I admire the most is for such a young and inexperienced side, they show tremendous amounts of composer. The culture within their squad is impressive.

A bloke that doesn't seem to get a lot of fan love but has been really solid for the brumbies this year is Andrew Smith.

Blues at home to the Lions will be a snor fest of mediocre but surely this lions team is so weak it will be the blues last and only second win of the season. Someone give Butch a ticket back to Europe he is a idiot and an embarrassment to SA rugby.

Being reported that Butch James has got four weeks for his shoulder charge to the head. Yet another sterling performance from the SANZAR judicary. With this blokes record between 6 and 10 weeks minimum I would have thought.

Speight is some talent. He's very good in contact and then has the pace and footwork to go with it. What about that bloke Tomane again?

I love how even the Brumbies forwards look to swing it wide ASAP when it's on.

Brumbies looks the goods this year. Congrats on a good performance. The Lions well they are down the dumbs. Grant Hattingh who have been pulled from the Maties the only shiner in this miserable Lions team. Minnie and Strauss look like lion cups compared to last year. Lions will be out of Superugby, not even prayer will safe them.

Some very good questions Oom Lee.

Saw this interesting article about Jake Whites view on the Lions

Myself see this Kings push is nothing else then a polical one from our ANC government. No way you can justice it. The Lions have three premie league CC provinces while the Kings cant even top the 1st CC div. The Kings have already their own contracted group of players, a lot of up and coming Cheetah players plus the likes of Jaco Engels and others. Depend on their player budget and the racial mix will have to be the same as all the other franchises.