[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

[the truth]

No rugby fans here?

anyways game 2 Versus western force

If game 1 was welsh dominated, game 2 was more Irish dominated with some expert kicking from welsh 15 halfpenny and some good outings from England tuilagi , vinipola and parling and Farrell off the bench

generally a tidy display.....solid in many areas.

ratings halfpenny 7.5 kicked an amazing 12 from 12 kicks and covered everything
14 bowe 8 the man is class
13 BOD. 8.5 written off more times than ali but again he looked awesome
12 tuilagi.7 big game. carried well and put in nice offloads
11 north 7 carried well made a lot of yards nice offload to BOD
10 sexton. 8 class in a glass
9 murray. 6.5 solid
8 heaslip 8. looks to have slight edge over faletau in ball carrying
7 Obrien. 7.5 big game. though I prefer him at 6
6 croft 7 industrious round the park.
5 awj 7.5 huge workload again
5 evans 6.5. didn't notice him much but solid tackles all day too
3 cole. 6. lost a few scrums and didn't pop up much around the field.
2 best 5.5 great player but way too many overthrows and lost scrums
1 vinipola. 8. massive game

healy taken to hospital with suspected sprained ankle



starting to meld now.....everyone seems to be finding form

test team at present looks likely to be

15 hapenny
14 bowe
13 bod
12 tuilagi
11 Cuthbert
10 sexton
9 Phillips
8 heaslip
7 warburton
6 lydiate
5 oconnell
4 alun wyn jones
3 jones
2 hibbard
1 healy (if fit)

[the truth]

ok well it seems Im the only rugby fan on the site so |Ill carry on talking to myself

2 more games now gone so its 4 wins and no defeats

last Saturday hardest game of the tour, lions squeezed a 22-12 win , very hard match

today a 64-0 against a rag bag side, 10 tries to 0

overall the plyers to look really good the last few weeks, halfpenny, odriscoll, George north , jon davies, sexton, vinipolo, Richie gray, oceonnell, obriend, tipuric

its getting harder now though....super 15 opposition Saturday , test series starts week Saturday

bring it on

[Alf]

Originally Posted by the truth

No rugby fans here?

Yes, but the better code of rugby for me

[the truth]

Originally Posted by wannashag

Yes, but the better code of rugby for me

I like both codes, sad you didn't bother contributing

[the truth]

Lions team selected

Team: 15-Leigh Halfpenny (Wales), 14-Alex Cuthbert (Wales), 13-Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland), 12-Jonathan Davies (Wales), 11-George North (Wales), 10-Jonathan Sexton (Ireland), 9-Mike Phillips (Wales), 8-Jamie Heaslip (Ireland), 7-Sam Warburton (Wales, captain), 6-Tom Croft (England), 5-Paul O'Connell (Ireland), 4-Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), 3-Adam Jones (Wales), 2-Tom Youngs (England), 1-Alex Corbisiero (England).

Replacements - 16-Richard Hibbard (Wales), 17-Mako Vunipola (England), 18-Dan Cole (England), 19-Geoff Parling (England), 20-Dan Lydiate (Wales), 21-Ben Youngs (England), 22-Owen Farrell (England), 23-Sean Maitland (Scotland).

[MTVN]

Poor Beale

[the truth]

awesome gorgeous George north.....awesome leigh halfpenny
hell of a game could have gone either way
best atmosphere imaginable and the best sporting occasion of the year imho
I pity anyone who doesn't follow test match rugby

[the truth]

team for tomorrows test

halfpenny - wales
bowe - Ireland
odriscoll - Ireland
jon foxy davies - wales
big George north-wales
sexton-Ireland
youngs-england
heaslip - Ireland
warburton skipper-wales
dan lydiate-wales
parling-england
alun wyn jones-wales
adam hair bear jones-wales
youngs-england
vunipola - England

so its 7 taffs, 4 English and 4 paddies, alas no jocks

bench

grant - Scotland, hibbard wales, cole England, croft England, Obrien - Ireland, murray Ireland, Farrell - England, Cuthbert wales

total nationalities
wales - 9 England 7 Ireland 6 Scotland 1

more importantly this is the chance make history and become the first british lions team to win a series abroad since the legendary 97 tour of south Africa

This will be the mother and father of all dogfights...

carpe diem boys carpe diem!

[MTVN]

the Aussies have just taken a 1 point lead with 3 minutes left

[MTVN]

Useless Halfpenny

[the truth]

crieky another nail biter....1-1....winner takes all in Sydney next week

[JTM45]

Has anyone here got any links they can PM me to watch the final Lions match on Live Streaming ?
I'm not a huge rugby fan but my Dad is and it would make his day!

I've got one that looks like it'll do the job but i don't want to be caught out if it doesn't work when he goes to watch the match on Saturday morning.

[MTVN]

Great start for the Lions

[MTVN]

Lions!!!