NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017)
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@JC said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
The Walrus's take on it. Not much to argue with in general, but I didn't think Wyn Jones was all that good.
Alun Wyn Jones leads the charge as Lions stutter against Provincial Barbarians
Stephen Jones, Rugby Correspondent
June 3 2017, 12:01pm,
The TimesIn short, the Lions forwards were disappointing in Whangarei. Up against a scratch combination, their lack of headway at a succession of five-yard scrums was poor - and they could make no dents in the efficient home line-out. Perhaps oddly, amongst all the new Lions desperate to stand out, it was the three-tour veteran Alun Wyn Jones who was the best Lion up front.
The Osprey lock was powerful at the breakdown. He was deft with his handling and clearly played a strong leadership role during the breaks in play. On the day he outshone his partner Iain Henderson, who faded after a bright start. Wyn Jones was hit by injury in the domestic season, never quite finding his best form, and so missed what was once a fighting chance of leading this tour party. Yesterday, he re-established himself - and without him it could have been really gory.
The Lions probably did not want to go to their bench as early as they did, but there was a little more drive in the loose and power in the scrum when Mako Vunipola and Tadhg Furlong arrived. Both men had appeared in major club finals as recently as last Saturday - one of the many lunacies of the tour set-up and its fixture list.
Who else, on this admittedly scant evidence, advanced their cause? Probably those who did not start or even appear. Certainly, the sight of Maro Itoje starting on Wednesday against the Blues will give everyone a lift, although the display of Wyn Jones this morning means that not even Itoje will walk into the Test team.
No team ever won a Test series without a great pack. The Lions will be praying that true power was masked by tiredness and unfamiliarity, rather than indicating a worrying weakness. The excuses run out rapidly on a tour of New Zealand.
I'm an admirer of AWJ and think he's been a great player. He had had his injury problems this season and not looked that good and yesterday (UK time) he definitely looked short of a gallop. Quite underwhelming. I sometimes wonder which games Jones actually watches if any at all. Maybe he pays some teenager to watch the game for him and tell him what happened.
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Three red hot attacking scrums and they just feed it out to the nearest guy and he runs, and gets tackled. No planned move or people running anywhere, just hope for a shove and she'll be right
How come?
No 5m attacking scrum moves to try out?
No contesting lineouts?EDIT MOD: Lets keep that to the Off Topic forum.
Bit hard on the lions there, it's early doors, but by christ there'd better be more innovation and effort at attacking than last night's display.
What was the gameplan?How did they set out to play and win?
Way to put yourselves under pressure form the get go
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@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
That might even get rugby union in The Back Page.
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@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Rapido Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Back Page"?
Aussie sports show on Foxtel.
They actually do feature rugby stuff on occasions. Mehrts has been on a few times.
Also, I always find it odd when NZers say rugby union, rugby was never referred to as rugby union back home yet I have friends who say it all the time over here. It's like they becaome whiny leaguies with a chip on their shoulders over here.
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@booboo said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@JC said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
The Walrus's take on it.
...
No team ever won a Test series without a great pack.
Still talking shit ... 1977 ...
Ah, but the Walrus didn't cover that tour. His first to NZ was 1983....
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@Number-10 said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@booboo said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@JC said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
The Walrus's take on it.
...
No team ever won a Test series without a great pack.
Still talking shit ... 1977 ...
Ah, but the Walrus didn't cover that tour. His first to NZ was 1983....
I wonder how much pumpkin soup was around back in '77?
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@Nepia said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Rapido Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Back Page"?
Aussie sports show on Foxtel.
They actually do feature rugby stuff on occasions. Mehrts has been on a few times.
Also, I always find it odd when NZers say rugby union, rugby was never referred to as rugby union back home yet I have friends who say it all the time over here. It's like they becaome whiny leaguies with a chip on their shoulders over here.
Do Aussies who play it refer to it as "code" e.g. playing a game of code
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@Stockcar86 said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Nepia said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Rapido Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Back Page"?
Aussie sports show on Foxtel.
They actually do feature rugby stuff on occasions. Mehrts has been on a few times.
Also, I always find it odd when NZers say rugby union, rugby was never referred to as rugby union back home yet I have friends who say it all the time over here. It's like they becaome whiny leaguies with a chip on their shoulders over here.
Do Aussies who play it refer to it as "code" e.g. playing a game of code
No idea, I'm talking about NZers in Oz.
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@Nepia said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Stockcar86 said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Nepia said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Rapido Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Back Page"?
Aussie sports show on Foxtel.
They actually do feature rugby stuff on occasions. Mehrts has been on a few times.
Also, I always find it odd when NZers say rugby union, rugby was never referred to as rugby union back home yet I have friends who say it all the time over here. It's like they becaome whiny leaguies with a chip on their shoulders over here.
Do Aussies who play it refer to it as "code" e.g. playing a game of code
No idea, I'm talking about NZers in Oz.
Over here, it is just rugby or code that I hear from players/supporters
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@Stockcar86 said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Nepia said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Stockcar86 said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Nepia said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Rapido Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Back Page"?
Aussie sports show on Foxtel.
They actually do feature rugby stuff on occasions. Mehrts has been on a few times.
Also, I always find it odd when NZers say rugby union, rugby was never referred to as rugby union back home yet I have friends who say it all the time over here. It's like they becaome whiny leaguies with a chip on their shoulders over here.
Do Aussies who play it refer to it as "code" e.g. playing a game of code
No idea, I'm talking about NZers in Oz.
Over here, it is just rugby or code that I hear from players/supporters
And over here it's just Rugby or Roogbee Leeague.
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@Catogrande said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Stockcar86 said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Nepia said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Stockcar86 said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Nepia said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Rapido Forgive my ignorance, but what is "The Back Page"?
Aussie sports show on Foxtel.
They actually do feature rugby stuff on occasions. Mehrts has been on a few times.
Also, I always find it odd when NZers say rugby union, rugby was never referred to as rugby union back home yet I have friends who say it all the time over here. It's like they becaome whiny leaguies with a chip on their shoulders over here.
Do Aussies who play it refer to it as "code" e.g. playing a game of code
No idea, I'm talking about NZers in Oz.
Over here, it is just rugby or code that I hear from players/supporters
And over here it's just Rugby or Roogbee Leeague.
I find people saying 'the rugby', or 'the football' or 'the hurling'. There is no rugby league. Soccer is just soccer.
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@Stockcar86 I've heard some refer it to as "Code". Cracks me up. I have a chuckle and think you're not on TV bro...
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@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
That is poor. Showing zero awareness or was it the gameplan? Either way, it didn't do us any good.
One of the UK comms, Barnes I think, said that in these games you can't play your way into the test side but you can sure as hell play your way out.
Blokes in danger of doing the latter from the game:-
Henderson
AWJ (unlikely though as he is a favoured son)
Laidlaw
Sexton
Joseph
Hogg -
The Lions were shit but they've had a hit out and will only get better from here. Question is will they get "better" enough by the time the first test comes around to seriously challenege the ABs? I hope so, but they've got a long way to go.
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@Catogrande said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
@Tim said in NZ Provincial Barbarians v B&I Lions (Whangarei, 3 June 2017):
That is poor. Showing zero awareness or was it the gameplan? Either way, it didn't do us any good.
One of the UK comms, Barnes I think, said that in these games you can't play your way into the test side but you can sure as hell play your way out.
Blokes in danger of doing the latter from the game:-
Henderson
AWJ (unlikely though as he is a favoured son)
Laidlaw
Sexton
Joseph
HoggGiven full fitness and form, Gatland's preferred 9, 10, 12 would be Murray, Sexton, Farrell but at the moment a Webb, Farrell, Te'o combo looks more realistic.
LOTS of rugby, and as importantly training, between now and the 1st Test though.
