[the truth]

Great to see them kick off their tour today in 100 degrees heat in super sultry hong kong, they did the business in some style

Lead out by the great Paul Oconnell (warburton injured) against a star studded barbarians team (with 923 caps between 23 players)

Lions dominated st the scrum at first through the best tighthead prop on the planet, the hair bear adam jones.....Farrell missed one or 2 but kicked the majority of goals, but he did lose it at times, 2 or 3 aimless kicks and threw a swinging arm after being punched. the barbarian very lucky just to get a yelloe card though.

-oconnell looked back to full fitness and scored try 1

-mike spikey Phillips then dummied and smashed his way over try 2

The lions slowly built and built the lead , Jamie Roberts smashed through the centre as did jon davies , szlipping some lovely passes.....hogg was dangerous at full back

maitland looks classy but missed a few chances.

By the second half we saw Phillips smash over again.....then the floodgates opened.....jon davies finished a nice opportunist try ....then Cuthbert finished a great try with excellent support from connor murray, Roberts and tipuric

then a good driving lineout saw lydiate pile over

Cuthbert piled over again , then alun wyn jones came on for oconnell as captain and scored quickly...The back row was superb, faletau was an error free zone, Richie gray showed up well, hibbard was a handful as always, youngs shakey start but improved ...vunipola good game ...tipuric excellent at the breakdown and as a link man...


Overall Id say it was 7 out of 10

They need to improve phase play and keep possession better as this is essential against the wallabies....individually these are my ratings

15 Hogg. 6.5
14 Cuthbert 8
13 J Davies 7
12 Roberts 7
11 Maitland 5.5 (north 6.5)
10 Farrell 6 (sexton 7)
9 Phillips 8.5 (murray 7)
8 Faletau 7.5 (heaslip 7)
7 tipuric 7.5
6 Lydiate 7
5 POC 7.5 (awj 7.5)
4 Gray 7
3 Adam 8 (stevens 6)
2 Hibbard 7 (youngs 6)
1 vunipola 7 b(healy 7)


I also liked the fact the mass substitutions for once didn't disrupt the team, in fact in that heat it was essential and the lions improved as the game wore on

after game 1, several curveballs? will any Englishman make the test team? will Richie gray surprise a few? is tipuric going to oust warburton? is lydiate back to his best? who makes the cut from bowe, north and Cuthbert? how does odriscoll, davies, tuilagi and Roberts fit into 2 places? (the most ferocious competition in the whole squad imho)sexton looks 100% essential if hes injured we may be finished etc

roll on aussie