Agreed, the backrow were absolutely appalling, as were Simon Shaw and Matthew Rees. Would have appreciated a few higher camera angles to find out where the forwards were during the breakdown situations: I have the sneaking suspicion that the p¡ss-poor Wasps 3-pod tactic is making a comeback. If it gets found out and binned at this early stage, the tour will be more successful for it.
There's no way that they can seriously expect massive forwards like Sheridan, Adam Jones and Shaw to get back and forth across the pitch at altitude, and yet when you only commit 2 or 3 forwards to a ruck, you stand a real chance of losing the ball, getting penalised or, at best, creating poor possession. Having pods laced across the backline might work if you're guaranteed a quick clean out at rucks, but if you're not, there's simply no point in persisting with it. In contrast to that, they had a good amount of success with a number of mauls; hardly surprising when they picked a huge mauling tight five.
Regarding Earls, as I've said in my two previous posts, I hope he does get an immediate chance to come back and give a proper account of himself [which is looking less likely, as reports are coming in that he took a knock to the shoulder which may keep him out of the next squad]. He's a talented player, and that performance wasn't an indicator of his ability. I don't wish him any bad luck, and I don't begrudge him his place on the Lions. However, he just put in an absolutely [and very visibly] appalling performance: what are people supposed to do, just not mention it because he's from Ireland?
He got picked as a Lion, so surely
he should be judged as a Lion, not just as a young lad filling in at centre for Munster because Rua Tipoki is injured. The latter attitude gives him no credit for his performances this season, which gave the coaching set-up the confidence in his abilities to select him for the squad. You'll have to take my word that I'm not someone who generally goes around mouthing off and saying "
I just tell it like I see it", but I really thought that Earls suffered a serious attack of the heebie-jeebies and had as bad a debut as you can realistically have*. For a guy who was quite a contentious selection – certainly amongst the English, Scottish and Welsh media – it does neither him nor the manager who had final say on his selection any favours. It goes without saying that you want your bolters to shine, not freeze.
*Sorry, scratch that, I remember John McWeeney's Irish debut against the All Blacks in Lansdowne, 1996. Ugh.
