British Lions Test Team

here we go again- the press going overboard after a meaningless win..as the rubber was DEAD!

Originally posted by spurs73
here we go again- the press going overboard after a meaningless win..as the rubber was DEAD!

Yes, the Lions will lauded and feted by the British press, who will go on to say what a good team this was (and they were). More worrying for me as a Bok fan is how poorly the newcomers fitted in. We only have one good team and that is the WC winning one coached by Jake White. The new coach doesn't have a clue and is riding on the skills and experience of the old team.

We might even win the Tri-Nations, but I think the Boks are going to come terribly unstuck next year.

Anyway, it was still a crushing win by the Lions. But in a dead rubber.

SA Coach last word: "We did enjoy the series win but I think today we have to be quite frank and admit the Lions were all over us in every department. All credit to them, we never had a chance today."

As we all know you're only as good as your last game The Lions go away thinking they are the best in the world and that's really what they came for after nailing a few local chicky babes and drinking all the beer.

SA and Aus should show off some good rugby in the Tri-Nations Cup. The ABs roster of the day will chuck it about, drop it and continue to bomb from their own line..

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
SA Coach last word: "We did enjoy the series win but I think today we have to be quite frank and admit the Lions were all over us in every department. All credit to them, we never had a chance today."

As we all know you're only as good as your last game The Lions go away thinking they are the best in the world and that's really what they came for after ...[text shortened]... Bs roster of the day will chuck it about, drop it and continue to bomb from their own line..

A weakened Boks side vs. a weakened Lions side. It's a shame we couldn't have the BANG finish that this series deserved. It has been very exciting all the same. 🙂

Originally posted by buffalobill
The Lions backs looked to me almost always offside, but they got away with it. The Boks' backline play was too one dimensional, anyway.

They've been getting away with it the whole tour unfortunately 😞

Our play was definitely one-dimensional. I was waiting to see what a potentially exciting backline could do. Unfortunately the Lions offside defence and Olivier's inability to pass a ball made it into a wet blanket affair. He did make two good breaks with two good offloads, but then he thought he would just run over the Lions for the rest of the match...

A few other things to note:

Still double standards in the refereeing regarding the two blatant late tackles in the game. The Lions one on Kirchener was actually dangerous play, yet only the bok player gets pinged.

Stuart Dickenson saying he didn't blow the early jump by Muller, so John Smit shouldn't be angry that he didn't blow the Lions for taking his feet out from under him was bloody hilarious!

The Lions can get niggly all they want through Phillips, but Brussouw gets pinged for his little throw.

The Lions were bringing down the scrum all the time after Ralepele popped out in the first scrum and they actually got another penalty out of it, until Dickenson woke up and saw it for what it was. Too bad he only noticed it in the 60th minute...


These days I'm almost not even watching the play - I'm just taking note of ref mistakes.
It really is getting ridiculous...


But, let me be clear, this didn't really affected the result of the B side match.
We have talented depth players, but you can see these guys haven't played together.

Originally posted by buffalobill
Yes, the Lions will lauded and feted by the British press, who will go on to say what a good team this was (and they were). More worrying for me as a Bok fan is how poorly the newcomers fitted in. We only have one good team and that is the WC winning one coached by Jake White. The new coach doesn't have a clue and is riding on the skills and experience o ...[text shortened]... y unstuck next year.

Anyway, it was still a crushing win by the Lions. But in a dead rubber.

It took Jake White 4 years to build up his WC winning squad. It's high time PDV start doing the same, as the wc is only 2 years away.
Yesterdays test was a HUGE step in the right direction, for it answered many questions needed to be answered to win the wc again:

-Proved that theres something wrong with the offensive patterns of the boks. There allways seems to be a forward somewhere in the backline, which slows down the backline, because they can only go as fast as the slowest guy in the line before running away from their support. Yesterday Matfield was caught out as the "slow one" on 3 occasions.

-Kirchner, Odwa, Kakowski needs to be given game time, because if Habana, Petersen, or F Steyn is injusred we'll be in trouble.

-Ruan Potgieter showed once again that hes brilliant as scrumhalf, and its a bonus that he can play flyhalf as well. I would make him an impact player with Fourie and Morne my starting line up.

-Personally i think Pierre Spies should be played at no.7 as it gives him much more mobility and chances to run with the ball.

-Chilliboy is useless and Derick Kuun should be the hooker on the bench.

-Juan Smith should be given more chances at lock because if Bakkies or Vicktor gets injured were in trouble.

Well done to the Lions, -they played admirably and surely was the better team on the field.

Originally posted by Lucardo
It took Jake White 4 years to build up his WC winning squad. It's high time PDV start doing the same, as the wc is only 2 years away.
Yesterdays test was a HUGE step in the right direction, for it answered many questions needed to be answered to win the wc again:

-Proved that theres something wrong with the offensive patterns of the boks. There allways s ...[text shortened]...
Well done to the Lions, -they played admirably and surely was the better team on the field.

The boks have never had the flair of the All Blacks, because we have coaches who come from forward dominated rugby and no-one can apparently instil some imagination in our patterns. We have the players, they need the backup and belief of the coach.
Also, the Lions were offside ALL THE TIME, so you can't blame the offensive patterns if the ref won't give you a chance.
The wholesale changes we made also meant untried combinations played together for the first time.

I won't read too much into this test result, really.


Yes to Du Preez and Steyn, also Jacques Fourie should start. Pienaar is an awesome sub and can cover two specialist positions.

Spies at 7? Not a chance. Juan was our best forward on the day and he's been our most consistent flanker for ages. He can slot in at lock, but are you really saying Bekker and Muller aren't good enough cover? They are both world class IMO.
Spies is 8, but it's good that he can cover flanker, though I won't start him there.

All the great sides had the ability to play dominant ten man rugby controlling the ball scoring early tried and then giving backs a run. I still believe NZ has to return to that ethic if they ever want to win the WC.

Don;t be in a hurry to play headless chick rugby like the abs at the moment.. it's diabolical.

Originally posted by Tirau Dan
Why isn't Britain in the World Cup.
One Govt One Country One Team each seems fair or is it that the gentry still think they set the rules...probably do?

culturally and historically we are quite different, and as we like to preserve our cultural identity it may not be desirable.

Originally posted by Crowley
Also, the Lions were offside ALL THE TIME, so you can't blame the offensive patterns if the ref won't give you a chance.
The wholesale changes we made also meant untried combinations played together for the first time.

Yes to Du Preez and Steyn, also Jacques Fourie should start. Pienaar is an awesome sub and can cover two specialist positions.

Spies a ...[text shortened]... IMO.
Spies is 8, but it's good that he can cover flanker, though I won't start him there.

I allso got the feeling that the Lions backline played in front of the ball with their defence, but in such a situation the boks should have fall back a bit to build up some speed for the contact situations.

As for the ref we all know hes crap, but he WILL be in the 2011 wc and chances are better than average that he will ref one of SA's matches. So the Boks need to learn to adapt.

I agree Spies is an awesome no8, but hes a ball carrier, not a fetcher, and he's allso one the best tacklers in the team. Allso hes arguably the fastest forward in SA rugby. This makes him perfect for no.7 as it would give him more opportunity to go for 1st contact against the opposing backline in defence, and (i suspect) more chance to carry the ball.
I would allso give potgieter a chance as hes definitely a young and upcoming star.
Juan is an awesome player, but hes been the no.1 choice for so long that if he gets injured today there would be no one to fill his shoes. There is alot of talent, but not the same experience. We currently have the same situation on fullback with Montgommery retired.
Muller and Bekker is good enough to cover, but they allso cannot fill Bakkies and Matfields shoes. B and M has done so well for so long that we just dont have as experienced players to take their place- same situation as with Monty.
Juan has that experience and big match abillity.

By experience players learn to read a game and the ref, and the lack of this abbility came through in the Boks side on Saturday. Brussouw is an awesome player, had a great match, but did concede 3(?) penalties due to this inexperience.

Roll on the Tri-Nations, looking forward to it, hoping to upgrade my sattlite dish to HD before the games start!😀

Originally posted by Crowley
The boks have never had the flair of the All Blacks, because we have coaches who come from forward dominated rugby and no-one can apparently instil some imagination in our patterns. We have the players, they need the backup and belief of the coach.
Also, the Lions were offside ALL THE TIME, so you can't blame the offensive patterns if the ref won't give yo ...[text shortened]... MO.
Spies is 8, but it's good that he can cover flanker, though I won't start him there.

The wholesale changes we made also meant untried combinations played together for the first time.

Aren't you forgetting that there were many Lions combinations that had never played together? Flutey/Bowe in the centres for instance... Don't get me wrong, I not saying that the Lions were world-beating, just that the Boks were worryingly average. If the Lions can slot players into their set-up and it works, then why can't the Boks?

And with regards to motivation, if an international team can't get up for a Test, a chance to whitewash the Lions for the first time in 118 years, then there is something terribly wrong going on there.

I won't read too much into this test result, really.

You guys have some great players, but I think an awful lot of warning signs have been exposed by this defeat.

Originally posted by HumeA
[b]The wholesale changes we made also meant untried combinations played together for the first time.

Aren't you forgetting that there were many Lions combinations that had never played together? Flutey/Bowe in the centres for instance... Don't get me wrong, I not saying that the Lions were world-beating, just that the Boks were worryingly average. If t ...[text shortened]... great players, but I think an awful lot of warning signs have been exposed by this defeat.[/b]

We had an all new backline, so really, I'm not worried.
Usually one or two changes are made with senior players around for stability - this was not there and it showed.

I'm not ambivalent about the loss, but the Lions team came out with lots of fire, a good helping of lucky rugby ball bounces and showed up a puppy backline with a ref that allowed a defensive line to go offside all the time, so like I said, the defeat means bugger all.