Lions Team to Face Sharks

[Donny B.]

Much improved second half performance.

Good performances by Jamie, Wallace, Alun Wyn Jones and Mears in the pack. Croft very quiet. Adam Jones a waste of space. Jenkins frustrated in the first half by Kaplan in the scrums but still worked hard. O'Connell poor. Needs to be told to stop trying to take the ball on all the time cause he's either losing it or taking all the pace out of the move.

Philips improved in the second half but temperment still dodgy. ROG's place-kicking was good but failed to back himself to move the backline and over-used the kick through. Still behind Jones on this evidence.

In the centres Roberts started well but went quiet after taking a knock on the shoulder. Drico improved in the second half and set up two tries. Williams piss-poor again, his chance is gone now I think. Luke looked sharp and took his try well. Good bet for a bench spot at least. Lee Byrne excellent at full-back and barring a stunning performance from Rob on Saturday, he'll be the test 15.

[christy]

The lions scrum was very poor considering the weight advantage they had over the sharks i wasnt impressed by the front rows at all .

[sarah_lennon]

Williams piss-poor again, his chance is gone now I think.

You'd hope!

[rex banner]

Surely Shane Williams has played his way out of the 1st test. He's butchered a number of moves again today. I'd they are waiting for him to rediscover his spark, he'd be better employed off the bench at this stage.
Jamie definetly has done enough to cement the no.8 spot. And as Barnes said all night Luke looked sharp. O'Connell needs to delegate responsibility in terms of ball carrying,its a bit easy to predict if its always him.
The breakdown is a bit worrying, the Boks will be very physical and competitive in this area, so our clearing out will need to improve and as will the speed of service.

[RoboProp]

I have to think that Luuuuuuuuuuuke, Jamie, Phillips and this O'Driscoll kid (I've heard good thing about him! ) have worked their way into the test XV. I know Kaplan was blowing up for penos faster than a hyperactive rabbit on crack but POC really has to watch himself he was pinged a lot. Williams has to kiss starting a test match goodbye, O'Gara too I would think.

[Munsterboy]

Much improved second half performance.

Good performances by Jamie, Wallace, Alun Wyn Jones and Mears in the pack. Croft very quiet. Adam Jones a waste of space. Jenkins frustrated in the first half by Kaplan in the scrums but still worked hard. O'Connell poor. Needs to be told to stop trying to take the ball on all the time cause he's either losing it or taking all the pace out of the move.

Philips improved in the second half but temperment still dodgy. ROG's place-kicking was good but failed to back himself to move the backline and over-used the kick through. Still behind Jones on this evidence.

In the centres Roberts started well but went quiet after taking a knock on the shoulder. Drico improved in the second half and set up two tries. Williams piss-poor again, his chance is gone now I think. Luke looked sharp and took his try well. Good bet for a bench spot at least. Lee Byrne excellent at full-back and barring a stunning performance from Rob on Saturday, he'll be the test 15.

Surprised you thought AWJ was good. I thought he had a fairly bad day by his standards. Improved towards the end but didn't really impose himself and made a few errors.

POC did well imo. He carries when the ball has come back too slowly to be of much use to the backs. He takes it on to get momentum going again, as he did just prior to Meers try. It's the kind of dirty work that needs to be done and I don't recall him losing one ball that he took on today either.

Heaslip cemented his place and Wally is close bar a phenomenal display from Williams on Saturday. POC and BOD are obviously in.

Fitz has a shot at a wing spot. He put in a solid industrious performance and it's between him and Monye now. Shane Williams was cr@p, again.

The lineout was a bit of a shambles at times. Scrum was good once Kaplan took his head out of his arse.

[Terraceman]

I don't recall him losing one ball that he took on today either.

He was pushed in to touch right before he came off. Didn't have a good game IMO, carried way too often I thought.

[Donny B.]

I don't recall him losing one ball that he took on today either.

He was pushed in to touch right before he came off. Didn't have a good game IMO, carried way too often I thought.

He was turned over a couple of times too. No problem with him taking on slow ball around the ruck but too often he's taking on ball in midfield, trundling a few feet forward and going to ground and risking the turnover. He just doesn't seem himself on this tour, he's doing the basics but not dominating in the way we know he can.

[suisse]

Williams piss-poor again, his chance is gone now I think.

You'd hope!

But not confident.

He looks deadly when the referee has blown his whistle, and no-one else is playing, Then, and only then, does he look threatening. He has offered nothing to this Tour.

Stuart Barnes made the point late on in the match that the breakdown would be the "flashpoint" of the Test series. Perhaps that was the topical issue when he spoke. There seems to be many areas that the Lions will need to work on. (i) Scrums - the Lions have been dominant in this area all Tour, but are regularly punished. Even Gatland was saying Jenkins is missing his bind at times. They could do with having a few meetings with the referees to see what they are looking for. it would be ridiculous to see a weapon negated. (ii) Again pointed out by Barnes, after a couple of phases, the Lions have a defensive line with Mears, Jenkins and some other plodder. Only once did the Sharks attack that area. If the Boks go right to left, you have Steyn hitting the line and Habana floating out wide. (iii) Finishing. My God, how many chances will these guys butcher? The final score looks imoressive, but only 7 half time points? Wrong decisions everywhere. ROG kicking too much, Phillips taking too much on, and then back to the breakdown. Getting turned over on the line. BOD's intercept not completed. They won't get too many chances against the Boks, so, on this evidence, how can we be confident they'll take them?

[downsouthdukin]

I don't recall him losing one ball that he took on today either.

He was pushed in to touch right before he came off. Didn't have a good game IMO, carried way too often I thought.

He was turned over a couple of times too. No problem with him taking on slow ball around the ruck but too often he's taking on ball in midfield, trundling a few feet forward and going to ground and risking the turnover. He just doesn't seem himself on this tour, he's doing the basics but not dominating in the way we know he can.

i thought this was OConnells first bad game.

[Danthefan]

Heaslip, BOD, Byrne, Roberts, Jenkins (imo), Croft all in now.

Fitz has given himself a good chance, hopefully he gets another start on the wing.

Shane Williams really shouldn't play again on this tour.

[Donny B.]

i thought this was OConnells first bad game.

I'm not saying he was awful in the first two games he played, but there's something not quite right about him. Have you noticed he seems to be a lot more reluctant to talk to the refs than he is when he's Munster captain or even Ireland vice-captain.

Someone on the Lions coaching staff obviously got word to Kaplan to watch Du Plessis's binding cause in the second half he was right on it. O'Connell should have been in his ear a lot earlier in the first half about it.

[exiledinmunster]

The lions scrum was very poor considering the weight advantage they had over the sharks i wasnt impressed by the front rows at all .

Bit hard to scrummage against an opponent who wants to lie down the whole time

[Hickiefan]

i thought this was OConnells first bad game.

I'm not saying he was awful in the first two games he played, but there's something not quite right about him. Have you noticed he seems to be a lot more reluctant to talk to the refs than he is when he's Munster captain or even Leinster vice-captain.

Someone on the Lions coaching staff obviously got word to Kaplan to watch Du Plessis's binding cause in the second half he was right on it. O'Connell should have been in his ear a lot earlier in the first half about it.

Agree - he's usually in the ref's ear all match and he seems very quiet relatively. I saw O'Driscoll talk to the ref as much in the ten minutes he was captaining as POC did all match - what's going on?

Also agree that he got turned over a few times (as well as pushed into touch) but then he wasn't alone in that. What frustrates me is that he had two good opportunities to offload around the 22 and he went to ground and lost the ball once and lost all impetus in attack another time. Bloody offload!!

Hopefully he'll be back rampaging by the first test. Maybe the pressure is getting to him a bit?

[shezba]

Williams piss-poor again, his chance is gone now I think.

You'd hope!

But not confident.

He looks deadly when the referee has blown his whistle, and no-one else is playing, Then, and only then, does he look threatening. He has offered nothing to this Tour.

And don't forget that he's still awful in defence. He was completely out of position twice in the last 10 minutes.

I was pretty disappointed with POC too. He might still be OK but I think it's fair to hold him to a much higher standard than this. BOD is still the guy people look to to win the games.

[ceemec]

The lions scrum was very poor considering the weight advantage they had over the sharks i wasnt impressed by the front rows at all .

Du Plessis was the cause of the issues but Kaplan didn't bother reffing the scrum for the first half. Once he came over the other side the penalties magically disappeared. Jenkins was his usual self. Like an extra flanker, 3rd highest tackle count and carried well. Thought Adam Jones wasn't that bad either. Got through decent amount of work and was more impressive than Murray at weekend for me.

[tones]

i thought this was OConnells first bad game.

I'm not saying he was awful in the first two games he played, but there's something not quite right about him. Have you noticed he seems to be a lot more reluctant to talk to the refs than he is when he's Munster captain or even Leinster vice-captain.

Someone on the Lions coaching staff obviously got word to Kaplan to watch Du Plessis's binding cause in the second half he was right on it. O'Connell should have been in his ear a lot earlier in the first half about it.

I wouldn't have thought POC was good in the first 2 games either.
As for the scrums, its hard to say with Kaplans reffing of it, and refs may be wiser to it the next time and the lions too.

[Danthefan]

If all things were equal I don't think POC would be sure of his place based on the tour so far.

[tones]

If all things were equal I don't think POC would be sure of his place based on the tour so far.

Yeah woudl agree, the fact he is Captain is saving alot.

[Comer Toes]

I thought he was ok last night, but he was definitely among the best 3 or 4 in the first game, and for me he was the best Lions’ player in the Cheetahs game. He has been excellent in the lineout and he has carried effectively, completely eliminating handling errors from his game. While question marks over his leadership may hold some water, I just don’t see how you would select 2 other locks ahead of him for the tests.