It isn’t at all boring! It was very informative, if a bit doom laden - all that rain! Is there a rugby equivalent to,water polo? Seriously, all we can do is watch it and hope for some drying ground or at least a break in the downpour! Who do you support? I just hope both teams play as well as they can in the conditions and that no Lions get injured, (or drowned!)
Sounds like the Autumn here!
With 10 hours to go to kick-off the rain has stopped. Still, another 48mm overnight - that’s a total of 144mm ((nearly 5inches!) in 36 hours. However it does give some time for the water to drain away and the stadium is very near the river and the Pacfic Ocean.
I will be supporting the Lions, @henddraig, as I only moved here from mid Wales in 2011, just in time for the World Cup where I saw The opening match and Wales play twice (including the Sam Warburton sending off). Last year I saw theWales v All Blacks game at Eden Park in which Wales were in touch till the final quarter - they played well - so let’s hope the Lions do even better.
Incidentally I lived in Scotland as a child and we used to play rugby against Robert Gordon’s College ( in the 50s) and I often wonder when I read @hewrop s posts about Aberdeen whether I played against him.
I left school at 18 in 1963. What school did you play for?
I am watching match recorded while I was in the shower! Half time - yn dda iawn BaaBaas! I noticed in a pan-shot, pretty little lights around in the town. Like uk when I was at school! Now, even here, brilliant street lights pollute the night sky! A difference I hadn’t known until now!
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The BaaBaas deserved to win that!
I respect them and hope the Lions will wake up, smell the coffee and start working for victory, not just presume it in advance!
A win is a win. First game against a very tough team with a lot to prove. The baabaas could earn themselves a place in Super Rugby this season with a performance today. So full credit to them.
Not a lot can be learnt from the Lions first game. It’s almost always forgettable. At least they arrange decent opposite. Last tour to NZ they played an amateur side and ran on 100+ points, what does the prove?
Early days after very little time together. Let’s not hold them to an unreasonable standard. It’s not like Laidlaw regularly passes to Sexton, they need to have time to gel.
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I left Hutchesons’ Boys Grammar at the same age in 1959. So as the school teams were based on age until the first and second XV’s which were made up of mainly fifth and sixth formers there is no chance we could have met. My memory says we didn’t play Robert Gordon’s very often anyway - mainly Glasgow and Edinburgh schools.
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Not sure of his form anyway! BaaBaas also a scratch side. In fact I think they had less time together than the side fielded by the Lions!
Both teams had a week. The barbarians played at home without much travel, and with less pressure (all pressure on the Lions to win). Don’t write the Lions off based on this game (which they still won).
I’m not writing them off. In fact, nearly losing may well be good for them! Certainly winning by huge margin is bad as it encourages complacency! Wales touring team, please note!
Yes, this. There’s no way that performance had anything to do with a lack of hunger or focus - they landed on Wednesday and were on the pitch Saturday evening - that’s barely enough time to get over their jet-lag, let alone start to gel as a team. Oh, and they notched up 12 community visits on Friday, because Gatland knows how valuable it is to avoid the laager mentality.
The core parts of their game, as you’d expect, were all there - solid at the set pieces, and well organised in defence. Their error count in attack was a bit high, but that’s not a surprise when your first match is on your 3rd full day in-country - and none of it was from being overly ambitious (which is what you get when a side genuinely makes the mistake of under-estimating their opposition).
Wednesday is when we’ll find out what this tour is going to be like. The Blues haven’t been having a great time this year, but they’ll be at the top of their game for the chance to beat the Lions. And if the Lions can beat the Blues, they’ll be able to take two or three losses from the other games before the first Test without feeling the wheels have fallen off entirely (as long as they don’t take a real beating anywhere, but I’d be surprised if their defence was far off the pace).
Lose to the Blues, and it starts to look like a long, hard tour. It’s brutal scheduling.
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We’ll see how things go tomorrow! I am sure the Lions will be prepared for battle!
That was a very entertaining game! The Blues backs were so exciting to watch.
Positives:
The Lions front row
Ken Owens had a great game
Stander, Tipuric and Itoje had good shifts.
Webb looked sharper and his delivery was improved from Laidlaw’s. Be interesting to see how Connor Murray plays.
Henshaw’s tactical kicking was good.
I think: Webb, Farrell, Henshaw would be an attacking option!
I felt for Jared Payne. He was so close to having a great game! Unfortunately, those margins can result in the complete opposite.
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Farrell has shown more ability to cope with pressure than looked likely in his first dozen tests or so, but I’d still pick Biggar ahead of him all day long - I hope his knock wasn’t too bad, because he was having a good, controlled game. Enough to have got himself ahead of Sexton in terms of the tour pecking order, I’d say.
But letting that game slip was a bad, bad result. It’s a tough ask to kick-start their tour against the Crusaders…
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I agree he’s ahead of Sexton. Be a good fight between him and Farrell. Farrell at 12 is also an option, so I think he’ll be in the game day squad either way.
Yeah it was a bad slip. Still, to lose to that try… that’s entertaining at least!
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Also, if he has received a concussion he shouldn’t play for at least a month. That’s purely from a player safety perspective, in my opinion.
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Not one I’m very fond of, to be honest! I like to see a 12 with a bit more pace. I think Gatland agrees with you, not me, though…
Yup, agreed. The game is still a long way from being careful enough about concussions.
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well, I am sorry, but I predicted this and was right! It seems to me Lions lack oomph and real desire to win and a certain amount of skill, but also concentration. Where are the really talented side-stepping runners these days? Are they over-coached, penned, cribbed, confined or am I just an old fool hankering for the glories of the past when, especially in Wales, talent, speed and flair won? Was it all loss of Dan which turned everything?
Yeah, he hasn’t really brought pace. It’s something lacking in the 6 nations - a pacey 12. Plenty of option at 13 though. I’m keen to see Davies start, but I have a feeling he might go for Jonathan Joseph. A friend of mine, who works for Exeter Chiefs, was telling me that Joseph and Watson are known to lack a bit of commitment at training though. Having said that, he was trying to make the case for Henry Slade… so, bias may be an issue there…
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Gatland is a big, big fan of Davies. I reckon he’s close to inked in if he’s solid on Saturday. This is the 13 he took ahead of O’Driscoll, after all… and Joseph was pretty anonymous in the first match, so I’d say he needs an eye-catching performance from somewhere to push for a Test spot…
I think leaving Roberts out was a big call - which I suspect means that they’re at least considering two playmakers. I thought Te’o looked good, though - he’d be my Test 12 at the moment.
Considering that their main problem was the amount of penalties they gave away, I’d be inclined to see it as the other way round.
The great side of the 70s was built on an entirely uncompromising pack, and didn’t usually put the ball all that wide until the last 20 minutes or so.
No, it wasn’t. It was the penalty count, and the lack of a really sharp attacking game (which might yet come together for them later on). Biggar was playing well, but the Lions did pretty much the same in both halves.
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