i saw a couple of instances where the ball was ready for him to pass, but he seemed unsure if he was to pass it to wilko or jones surely henson will play the second test
The game has just finished Lions 109-6 Manawatu and I'm not quite sure what to take from this game. The Lions looked good in attack, Shane Williams was absolutely outstanding, and the whole team played well, but the opposition were poor. S Williams now must surely start the game on Saturday, I've been saying all along that he is the devestating runner the Lions need and today was just further confirmation. If I was picking the team for Saturday it would be Sheridan, Bulloch, Jenkins, O'Connell, O'Callaghan, Easterby, M Williams, R Jones, Peel, S Jones, S Williams, Henson, Thomas, Robinson, Lewsey .
great display by williams, but like you say manawatu were poor i found it interesting that robinson got subbed, i would have thought shane williams would have been subbed off, to save him for the all blacks
Manawatu are a Division 2 NPC team with no Super 12 players and only one player who has played Division 1 NPC rugby. They have no professional players, three semi-professional players and the rest of the squad are amateurs. Provincial teams, like Manawatu, are breeding grounds for players but the large Division 1 NPC teams (Auckland, Canterbury, Waikato, Wellington and Otago) soon take any quality players.
not only are we a second div team...we are a poor second div team who struggles to make the second div semis im still wondering how on earth we got a shot at the lions
The teams for the second test have been announced. British & Irish Lions: Josh Lewsey; Jason Robinson, Gareth Thomas (captain,), Gavin Henson, Shane Williams; Jonny Wilkinson, Dwayne Peel; Gethin Jenkins, Steve Thompson, Julian White; Paul O'Connell, Donncha O'Callaghan; Simon Easterby, Lewis Moody, Ryan Jones. Replacements: Shane Byrne, Graham Rowntree, Martin Corry, Martyn Williams, Matt Dawson, Stephen Jones, Shane Horgan. New Zealand: Mils Muliaina; Rico Gear, Tana Umaga (captain), Aaron Mauger, Sitiveni Sivivatu; Daniel Carter, Byron Kelleher; Tony Woodcock, Keven Mealamu, Carl Hayman, Chris Jack, Ali Williams, Jerry Collins, Richie McCaw, Rodney So'oialo. Replacements: Derren Witcombe, Greg Somerville, Jono Gibbes, Sione Lauaki, Justin Marshall, Ma'a Nonu, Leon MacDonald. The Lions have picked a much better team for the second test, far more attacking and Woodward should be applauded. I would still question the selection of Thompson as he cannot throw, but he cannot be any worse than Byrne was and he is much better around the park. New Zealand have made three changes, all in the backs, to their winning team. I think this game should be closer as the Lions should be able to exploit the weaknesses in the NZ defence by running at their men.
According to Grant Fox on Radio Sport last night Woodward requested a game against a Div II side before the second test and he wanted it close to Wellington.
the all blacks weak in defence? errrr. if we try to play expansive running rugby we'll lose horribly. the only way to compete with them is to dominate them in the tight five and to be efficient from set piece play, and play up the jumper rugby. we failed miserably at this in the first test but it's still got to be our primary tactic, we should have been able to do it, that's the only place we have the players to compete with the all blacks. personally i would have dropped peel with jones and brought dawson in, or kept peel and jones together and dropped wilkinson. hopefully we'll execute the line out efficiently, the back row will be more competitive at the break down, we'll be solid in defence and our territorial kicking will function. has to be error free, possession based attrition. defensively, having robinson/williams on the wing versus gear and sivivatu worries me greatly. let's hope the ball rarely gets that wide. personally i think we'll get shat on once more...
I agree with you on the way to beating the All Blacks being attritional rugby, but this went horribly wrong in the first test. So now Woodward has to gamble a bit more, hopefully Johnny Wilkinson will have a great game at fly half, will need him at his best to win this plus a stronger forward effort. I suspect the Lions will go down by about 10 points.
dan carter is officially the best 1st five in the world best part of the match, when shayne williams ran into ali williams
Do you watch rugby other than English rugby? I'm quite chuffed the Lions lost this badly. It's a very nice indictment of how Martin Johnson was the primary personality behind England winning the World Cup, with Clive Woodward riding on his coattails. Perhaps the Queen should switch about the knighthoods a bit.
The scoreline may have been wider, but it was a much better performance from the Lions, the simple fact is that the All Blacks were superb and would have beaten any team in the world on that display. In my opinion the game turned on the Sivivatu try. Byron Kelleher was clearly holding on, and that should have been a penalty to the lions, instead the ref gave a scrum to NZ, from which they scored. That took the All Blacks 8 points clear and we never got back into the game. It was just one of a series of poor decisions. The other thing that stood out (other than the genius of Dan Carter and NZ) was just how dirty a player Jerry Collins is. The off the ball challenge on Jason Robinson and the late tackle on S Jones were appalling. He should be sinbinned at the start of every game, just to save the ref the hassle of doing it later, as he is guarenteed to cheat whenever he can. The Lions should be much more proud this week, and with Carter out of the final test, we have a narrow chance to avoid a whitewash.
the tackle on s jones was not late he was already comitted to making it dirty players are thomsom and julian white, not only do they do everything possible to slow down the ball illegally but they dont seem to understand that they cant enter the ruck from the sides carter will be a big loss, since merths and spencer packed their bags, theres not to many expirienced first fives around
Today's fun stats: Jonny Wilkinson missed TEN tackles in the second Test, and passed the ball to Gavin Henson ONCE. Good to know Woodward's myopia is having him pick a flyhalf who isn't in the top half-dozen flyhalves in Britain at this point..
Wilkinson is the best flyhalf in the squad you clown, and certainly the best in Britain and Ireland even with less than 100% fitness. Henson was not up to the standard of the opposition, much like the rest of the players. New Zealand were just too good and too organised, full credit to them for being excellent. The Lions selections were irrelevant, no touring XV would have stopped the All Blacks on this form. Only chance now is that the Lions will come out with pride and the All Blacks will relax a bit in the third test. We'll see if the All Black form holds on to the next World Cup, they will win it if it does.
It hit him about 2 seconds later, and he made no attempt to pull out. It was clearly late. As for slowing the ball down, it has been funny to hear about it all the time from NZ, but they are just as guilty of it themselves. Entering rucks from the side isn't dirty, it is just stupid, it is proof that most forwards don't have a clue of the rules of the game.
As for Wilkinson, he is either the best or second best fly-half in the squad, with Stephen Jones his only rival to be honest.
its pretty hard to pull out once your comitted to maing the hit on white and thompson its not only their ruck entering technique thats wrong its what they do in the ruck thats dirty but hey im sure s thompsom will get whats coming to him in the third test anyone see the auckland vs lions match...it was bloody awfull
The less said about today's game the better. The defence was poor, the attack was poor, everything from the Lions was poor. This must rank among the worst ever Lions tours, although we were playing a very good team. The tri-nations will tell us just how good NZ really are. For anyone questioning what I said before about Jerry Collins, just watch today's game again. The man just roams around hitting people late. I'm looking forward to NZ's tour in the autumn hopefully we can restore some pride.
jerry did not deserved to be sinbinned, just because a hit is big does not mean it was late or dirty luke macallister had a decent debut, hes no carter but i predict he will be the starting number 12 if umaga plays centre at the next world cup
If you think that tackle was late then you should go support another sport. They are not playing tiddlywinks out there and there will be later tackles in the Bledisloe Cup matches and the players will not complain.