Rugby Union

[Savage Henry]

19 minutes ago, John Lambies Doos said:

Very strange no hamish, very harsh on price. Perhaps he's reversing it this week..ie keep it tight then unleash creativity when springboks tire?
Unbelievable that Curry keeps his place.
Oh well, we have 3 starters and 2 will come off bench...so 5 test players involved..can't argue with that

To be fair, Hamish could easily have been sent off.  I think at Lions level that little indiscipline will cost you your place, given how competitive  positions are, particularly in the back row.  
 

I think Price is the unlucky one.  

[GAD]

2 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:

To be fair, Hamish could easily have been sent off.  I think at Lions level that little indiscipline will cost you your place, given how competitive  positions are, particularly in the back row.  
 

I think Price is the unlucky one.  

So could Tom Curry, who also gave away a fair few other penalties, something he's got form for as well. Watson might have been lucky, but it's extremely unlike him and unlikely to happen again. In fact, I think it was the first penalty he's conceded in a test match in a couple of years.

[Savage Henry]

6 minutes ago, GAD said:

So could Tom Curry, who also gave away a fair few other penalties, something he's got form for as well. Watson might have been lucky, but it's extremely unlike him and unlikely to happen again. In fact, I think it was the first penalty he's conceded in a test match in a couple of years.

I’m not saying I agree, but I think if it isn’t injury related, the egregious nature of the incident may be behind him dropping out altogether.  Otherwise, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  

[Snobot]

I think Sutherland and Furlong weathered a pretty tough storm last week and people under-estimate what they did, and then Mako came in and anchored it without trying to be dominant. 
 

I suspect we’ll see Mako struggle in the scrums as the SA front row go after him and be replaced quite early.

Price v unlucky but I suspect this will make him look even better when he comes on and ups the pace after 60 mins of tedium. Delighted for Harris. Who would have thought it a couple of years ago that he’d start for the Lions.

The Welsh tears about Hogg and DVDM are quite something to behold.

[Savage Henry]

34 minutes ago, Snobot said:

I think Sutherland and Furlong weathered a pretty tough storm last week and people under-estimate what they did, and then Mako came in and anchored it without trying to be dominant. 
 

I suspect we’ll see Mako struggle in the scrums as the SA front row go after him and be replaced quite early.

Price v unlucky but I suspect this will make him look even better when he comes on and ups the pace after 60 mins of tedium. Delighted for Harris. Who would have thought it a couple of years ago that he’d start for the Lions.

The Welsh tears about Hogg and DVDM are quite something to behold.

Really is verge of tears/heads gone all over the place. There really doesn’t seem to be any nuance; it’s either every Welsh player starting or taking the ball home and supporting South Africa.  

[honestly united]

I get the impression Gatland is expecting an early onslaught from SA and the game to open up more in the 2nd half like last week. So bring Price on with 30 mins to go against a tiring SA is probably a good cal (depending on how badly Murray does). Im assuming the same thinking with Harris / Daly and the props also with Sutherland / Sinkler more mobile than the starters. Gutted for Watson dropping out, hopefully gets back in the team for the last test and is joined by Russel.

[GAD]

15 minutes ago, honestly united said:

I get the impression Gatland is expecting an early onslaught from SA and the game to open up more in the 2nd half like last week. So bring Price on with 30 mins to go against a tiring SA is probably a good cal (depending on how badly Murray does). Im assuming the same thinking with Harris / Daly and the props also with Sutherland / Sinkler more mobile than the starters. Gutted for Watson dropping out, hopefully gets back in the team for the last test and is joined by Russel.

I think there is still a good chance Russell could play this weekend. Biggar had an HIA and although he's named, I don't think they will know till Thursday if he's actually playing or not.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Price, Daly and Sutherland out, Murray, Vunipola and Harris in

Price had a very good game - perhaps Gatland looking to him to close things out if the Lions are leading?

[GordonS]

Very harsh on Price, but as others have said he's a better impact sub than Murray. He offers far more when carrying and if SA fade like they did last week he could really expose gaps.

Henshaw and Harris is obviously a pairing designed to cope with a storm coming at them. I think they'll cope.

DVDM looked good enough to play on the wing for SA... I wonder if he has any mixed feelings about moving to Scotland now. There's no case for dropping him after his performance last week and any Welsh complaints are obviously parochial.

And only a dense twat could complain about Hogg. An absolute Rolls Royce of a player.

[peasy23]

I think there is still a good chance Russell could play this weekend. Biggar had an HIA and although he's named, I don't think they will know till Thursday if he's actually playing or not.

He still has to clear the daily concussion protocols as well as pass a final check by an independent medical assessor.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I get the impression Gatland is expecting an early onslaught from SA and the game to open up more in the 2nd half like last week. So bring Price on with 30 mins to go against a tiring SA is probably a good cal (depending on how badly Murray does). Im assuming the same thinking with Harris / Daly and the props also with Sutherland / Sinkler more mobile than the starters. Gutted for Watson dropping out, hopefully gets back in the team for the last test and is joined by Russel.

It's obvious that Faletau is only on the bench because he provides more cover at 8 and both flanks than Watson does.

Disappointed for Watson as Curry was bloody awful in the first test.

[scw1987]

Can everyone claiming Watson was lucky not to be carded go and look at the replay again. It's a penalty because he lifted Le Roux's leg, that's the illegal bit. The beyond the horizontal was because one of the Boks hit Le Roux when Mish had him in the air.

I didn't hear it myself but seemingly the ref explained that at the time, the TMO didn't intervene and there was no post match citing for it, work it out for yourself. If there had been a card, THAT would've been where luck got involved, bad luck.

[aDONisSheep]

19 minutes ago, scw1987 said:

Can everyone claiming Watson was lucky not to be carded go and look at the replay again. It's a penalty because he lifted Le Roux's leg, that's the illegal bit. The beyond the horizontal was because one of the Boks hit Le Roux when Mish had him in the air.

I didn't hear it myself but seemingly the ref explained that at the time, the TMO didn't intervene and there was no post match citing for it, work it out for yourself. If there had been a card, THAT would've been where luck got involved, bad luck.

Much though I was delighted he didn't get a card, he was lucky.  It was a poor tackle and had Le Roux not stuck an arm out to break the fall, it would certainly have been 10 mins or even worse.

The onus is on the tackling player, Watson's feet go from underneath him and he's not in control.  Had the ref been Owens or Barnes, I have no doubt he'd have got 10 and there wouldn't be much complaint.

I don't think that's the reason he's not in the 23 though.  I think it is purely to get another lump, that can cover all the back row on the bench (Faletau).

I'm a huge Gatland fan and do trust his judgement.  

Had this been a test series in Aus, then I think he'd be first choice 7, but it's not and so I can see why he's down the pecking order.  I still love him though .

Yours, LIONS!  LIONS! LIONS!

aDONis

[ajwffc]

Very harsh on Price, but as others have said he's a better impact sub than Murray. He offers far more when carrying and if SA fade like they did last week he could really expose gaps.
Henshaw and Harris is obviously a pairing designed to cope with a storm coming at them. I think they'll cope.
DVDM looked good enough to play on the wing for SA... I wonder if he has any mixed feelings about moving to Scotland now. There's no case for dropping him after his performance last week and any Welsh complaints are obviously parochial.
And only a dense twat could complain about Hogg. An absolute Rolls Royce of a player.

DVDM looked good enough to play on the wing for SA... I wonder if he has any mixed feelings about moving to Scotland now.

If Edinburgh/SRU did not take a chance on him due to his hip injury(he failed his medical). He would probably end up out of rugby completely. He stayed at Edinburgh long enough to get a Scotland call up due to this.

[printer]

Interesting changes for this weekend;  can understand the logic for all of them. Obviously delighted for Harris, I think he'll do well. 

[Detournement]

The Edinburgh backs are looking pretty good now. Boffelli has been awesome any time I've seen him for the Pumas. 

I had a busy weekend so I've not posted at all but I was a bit underwhelmed by the first Test. Compare it to the standard of the first Test in 2017 or even 2009 and it's night and day. Obviously due to Covid but also Gatland and Erasmus being safety first coaches. 

 

[Ignoramus]

What a lad, the shithousery on full display now

[GordonS]

One hour, two minutes and thirty-one seconds long.

https://youtu.be/epFrwtfXF64

 

[GAD]

It's funny the amount of "my drinking team have a rugby problem" types on Twitter whose first reaction to this video is to say "but at least it's not as bad as football!". Can you imagine a football manager going away and making a one hour video about a bunch of marginal decisions that went against his team? It wouldn't happen! And if it did he'd be lucky to get back into the dugout before Christmas, and he'd be a fucking laughing stock for the rest of his life!

[John Lambies Doos]

Anyway got some classic Welsh, only 2 players, in team seethe?