British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand (2017)

[zer0]

All in all a fairly typical first half of 2017 Crusaders rugby. Hopefully they follow their typical second half pattern too.....

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

How is AWJ not in the bin yet?

 

[zer0]

 

[ACR]

Time to bring Drummond on, Hall is too slow to release it.

 

[ACR]

Murray's kicks are spot on at the moment. This must be close to the match day 23 for the Lions surely.

 

[zer0]

The Crusaders are really paying the price for their substantial lack of Polynesian jailbreak b-ball factor.

Also this match will, hopefully, put to bed absolutely any notion Hansen may have of playing both Naholo and Savea in the same back three.

 

[ACR]

Itoje with an out and out professional foul. Ref standing 2 metres away, nothing.

 

[GTPIH]

Very casual TMO - "Ok, I'll get back to you"

 

[Dctarget]

bloody hell Angus Gardner is like the one kid that reminds the teacher there was homework due.

 

[ACR]

The Lions did play pretty well. Defended well, kicked well (especially from 9). Gotta say, they got a couple of very favourable decisions in their own 22 in the second half but deserved the win of course.

This looks like just about their best side so, to be expected.

Looking forward to Tuesday

 

[zer0]

Crusaders forwards were decent. Thankfully we'll not have to rely on many of their backs for the tests.

 

[cyclopath]

Watching at a pub - none of the punters around me could fathom much of the reffing. So keen to give penalties at scrums, cynical penalties, not so much. I know which kill a game more. Lions D was very solid and "fast" off the line. What the game needed was more fucking box kicks.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Lions great at protecting own ruck ball. V.solid. That said, what a wildly exciting game of NH style rugby. Something almost happened a couple of times. Bizarre how the pommy commentators seemed quite content and at-home calling a match where no one even looked like scoring a try. Completely normal match to them.

Helpful of referee Alain Mafart to decide pre-scrums that the AB tight 5 don’t know how to pack down a scrum and ping them accordingly.

Don’t think Hansen will be overly perturbed. Lions offered nothing beyond stability and Cantabs were fucken half-asleep out there. G.Bridge shat the bed.

Havili dogshit at 2nd 5. All they needed was Fonotia back to fully reprise Toddy's 2016 side to side horseshit

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Lions great at protecting own ruck ball. V.solid. That said, what a wildly exciting game of NH style rugby. Something almost happened a couple of times. Bizarre how the pommy commentators seemed quite content and at-home calling a match where no one even looked like scoring a try. Completely normal match to them.

Helpful of referee Alain Mafart to decide pre-scrums that the AB tight 5 don’t know how to pack down a scrum and ping them accordingly.

Don’t think Hansen will be overly perturbed. Lions offered nothing beyond stability and Cantabs were fucken half-asleep out there. G.Bridge shat the bed.

Havili dogshit at 2nd 5. All they needed was Fonotia back to fully reprise Toddy's 2016 side to side horseshit

The all blacks will be shaking in their boots.
The only doubt arises from the somewhat bizarre reffing which I gather we can look forward to in the tests.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Lions Tour Diary Day 10

Mummy, we had a lovely little Frenchman refereeing us tonight, he was dashed firm at putting a stop to all of the local savages higgledy-piggledy running-around-all-over-the-shop nonsense. Scrumtime… bind… oops, penalty Lions, time for some more kicking. That’s the English British way. Kaftan Aglet-Smythe, Plumtof'face of House Albumen, Wigglestiffy of Westminster-upon-Westminster, yes, all of us are relieved to have finished another tour match with all of the match scoring points coming from the boot and none of those messy 5-point “try” thingies involved to complicate matters. It can get ever so boggy at the ends of the fields and none of us want to get any nasty stains on our uniforms as matron gets ever so cross with us. In other news, Teddy now smells like chimneys and urine.

Love,

--Tarquin.

 

[RedsHappy]

Whitelock in defeat, his usual gracious losing Captain self:

'We made mistakes and they exploited them'.

The inestimable dignity of a Kiwi losing side.

If we made less errors, we would have conquered all. One of the laws of the sporting universe, close to the laws of gravity in its predictability.

 

[RedsHappy]

The Lions did play pretty well. Defended well, kicked well (especially from 9). Gotta say, they got a couple of very favourable decisions in their own 22 in the second half but deserved the win of course.

This looks like just about their best side so, to be expected.

Looking forward to Tuesday

The Lions bombed at least 3-4 likely tries in the Cru's red zone; if their combinations and short passing game (which was atrocious) were better the score would have blown out in their favour, big time.

I'd say Hansen would be just a tad more nervous than at his last departure from Eden Park mid-week. New nervousness factor perhaps at 4/10 vs 1.5/10 after the Blues match.

 

[Blue]

Whitelock in defeat, his usual gracious losing Captain self:

'We made mistakes and they exploited them'.

The inestimable dignity of a Kiwi losing side.

If we made less errors, we would have conquered all. One of the laws of the sporting universe, close to the laws of gravity in its predictability.

Not so sure. He gave them no credit. He seemed putting down losing solely to them giving the Lions opportunities. He released it about three times. I don't actually care either way. Just an observation.

 

[Blue]

The Lions bombed at least 3-4 likely tries in the Cru's red zone; if their combinations and short passing game (which was atrocious) were better the score would have blown out in their favour, big time.

I'd say Hansen would be just a tad more nervous than at his last departure from Eden Park mid-week. New nervousness factor perhaps at 4/10 vs 1.5/10 after the Blues match.

They will fix this stuff and get better. There is a very, very good foundation and excellent intensity. It's just needs some accuracy which will come on such a long tour..

 

[Blue]

Lions great at protecting own ruck ball. V.solid. That said, what a wildly exciting game of NH style rugby. Something almost happened a couple of times. Bizarre how the pommy commentators seemed quite content and at-home calling a match where no one even looked like scoring a try. Completely normal match to them.

Harsh. I found this game every git as compelling as one where both teams score four tries. Tactically it was great to watch.

Not all rugby has to be helter skelter. This was really good to watch as a neutral.