that may be so, but if i were a winger, id feel pretty stink if a big bulky forward out sprinted me, :lol:

Well that performance proved any doubters wrong. What a brilliant all round team performance by the Lions.

Yeah that was a demolition. The play between O'Driscoll, Roberts, Jones and Bowe was lovely. Kearney did well but isn't putting any pressure on Lee Byrne. Good to see Ferris get a try at the end.

Lol I was screaming at Ferris to go all the way, didn't think he was gonna make it. The forwards were awesome, the turnovers at the breakdown were almost non existent and the set plays were smooth. Heaslip and Jenkins tore it up as I expected, and I was pleasantly surprised with James Hook when he came on.

Good to see the liions kills the lions, what a match, couldnt take my eyes off the screen

It was a completely different lineup too. I was happy to see Tom Croft in there.

O'Driscoll made a massive difference from what I saw of the match.

Aussie vs Baa Baa's tonight, gonna be an amazing game.

And Aussie destroyed them. They look sharp for the first game of the season. Robbie had them really well drilled.

Havent seen it yet BC, any influence on the game from SBW?

The little I saw of him in the Top 14 didnt impress tbh.

I'd give him a pass mark, but he's got a long way to go.

I think the whole make him and AB by world cup time movement need to sit down and STFU though.

Hes got some serious competition. Nonu is in great form and has learned to kick, Kahui is solid, Conrad Smith is brilliant and so under rated by the masses because he doesnt just run over people.

If he wants to be in ABs frame by world cup time he really needs to get his ass into an NZ team and put a hit (the mob kind) out on one of those guys at least.

So the lions beat a the Sharks B side. Woohoo?

Richard Kahui has been injured in training, and Luke Mccalister has been called in, it'll be interesting to see how he goes given he hasn't played any rugby in NZ for 18 Months.
Rudi Wulf has been injured too, Masanga has been called in, which is freaking sweet, as he had an amazing Super 14, and is an exciting talent.

FRANCE: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Cedric Heymans, 13 Mathieu Bastareaud, 12 Vincent Clerc, 11 Damien Traille, 10 Francois Trinh-Duc, 9 Julien Dupuy, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 6 Thierry Dusautoir (c), 5 Romain Millo-Chluski, 4 Pascal Pape, 3 Sylvain Marconnet, 2 William Servat, 1 Fabien Barcella. Reserves: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Nicolas Mas, 18 Thomas Domingo, 19 Sebastien Chabal, 20 Remy Martin, 21 Julien Puricelli, 22 Dimitri Yachvili, 23 Yannick Jauzion, 24 Alexis Palisson (two to be omitted).

NEW ZEALAND: 15 Mils Muliaina (c), 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Isaia Toeava, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Lelia Masaga, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Liam Messam, 7 Adam Thomson, 6 Kieran Read, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock. Reserves: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 John Afoa, 18 Bryn Evans, 19 Tanerau Latimer, 20 Piri Weepu, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Cory Jane.

Well you only beat what's put in front of you. Lions dominated from start to finish, they just couldn't finish anything in the first half. Made up for that in the second though. Mike Philips' solo try was awesome. I think McGeechan knows most of his test side now. Hope Roberts' strapping of the shoulder when he came off was just precautionary.

I think the Boks will be to strong for the lions.

I just look at the way the Bulls dominated the S14 final, then add more talent and I know S14 form doesnt always translate but they are just a weel sorted outfit all round.

Good players, decent depth, plenty of hardnosed pack experience with some amazing finishers. Its hard to go past them being the dominant force in World rugby this year. And possibly into the next world cup if most of there older heads last that long.

The only issue could be PDV, that guys absolute nutso I think.

The only reason the boks could lose is because of PDV, he's absolute shit.
NZ France tonight, fucken pumped. France doesn't stand a chance. :mad:

:shifty:

Rough game. And I see people are already jumping off the Mc Allistar bandwagon (I was never on it)

That said I dont think we should rubbish the guy for one screw up, he did ok other than the pass.

TBH if anything I think the fault lies with the Pack tonight. Mealamu, Woodcock, Messam and to a smaller degree Thorn showed up to play, the rest backed down to that French pack.

I say sacrifice some skill in the back row of the pack and put a monster in there (who isnt named Lauaki) Im not a fan of the biff but someone who isnt afraid to get involved and sow a bit of niggle. I didnt see a lot of S14 this year but theres always one bruiser in the squads, surely we have someone there???

I played forward all my time as a player and we all know if the forwards arent moving forward the backs dont stand a chance.

Oh and in the midst of that loss how good is Corey Jane, legend.

p.s. someone shoot Toeava, FFS how hard must he be sucking Henrys Wang to keep his spot???

Tommy Bowe is the fucking best. Love him.

Williams is playing class as well. Has to be Williams, Heaslip and Wallace next week.

Havent caught any Lions play yet other than highlights but it should be an interesting first game thats for sure.

Wondering whether Kearney could get a place on the wing too after today, he was played well. Shane Williams has been poor for a while now and he doesn't look like coming out of it any time soon. Tommy Bowe and Lee Byrne are certainties, Kearney for the other wing spot maybe. O'Driscoll and Roberts at centre seem certain as well.

Of course Kearney goes off injured as I post that.

I'd like to see Monye, Byrne and Bowe next week. Shane Williams has been shit all season and I think he was just picked in hope that he could come out of his funk on the tour, you couldn't not take him really. Stephen Jones didn't have one of his best games today but I'd still pick him over O'Gara any day. Phillips scrum half, and Roberts and O'Driscall in the centre.

Martyn Williams was amazing today. Powell was much more disciplined as well and didn't just run around and smash into people and lose the ball like a caveman, but Heaslip's got that spot tied up already I think.

Fuck

ROFL that pretty much sums the game up better than I did.

Lots of whiny bitch syndrome over it though, the same wankers sucking henrys knob last week are now calling for his head. And the Mc Allistar bandwagon looks like it got hit by a scud its so empty.

Fucking winning only supporters. Dont get me wrong I hate to see the ABs lose but the amount of dummy spitting going on from fans is screwed up.

Yup, we were just fully outplayed. Game is shit without the ELVs though, fucking Northern Hemisphere.

Province did well against the onslaught all afternoon.

It's really hard to tell how strong the Lions are going to be against the Boks.

Can't believe France outplaying New Zealand in New Zealand. Seriously if you guys don't win the next world cup you'll be on the brink of a civil war :$

People are so quick to bash the Lions saying they don't have a chance of beating the Springboks if they're only beating the provincial teams by a couple of points and whatnot. But the whole starting test team have yet to play together yet, it's all half and half at the moment really. That's the beauty of the tour I guess. Saturday will be very interesting.

Yeah I think that's the whole point, to be honest. It's a quick tour, 2 games per week, so the Test combinations have been tried out and every position is up for grabs but the South Africans don't know exactly what's coming until the Test side is actually named.

That has to be a little concerning though, surely you would want your test team to have a hit out as a group somewhere along the line.

If I was a Lions supporter I wouldnt be worrying about lack of talent more lack of a hit out as a top unit. If they take 20 minutes to get into the game and strike up some good combos SA could and I stress could put 20 Points on them in that time.

Yeah lots of talent, it's just a matter of how they all mesh. The Roberts/O'Driscoll combo is something that needs to be there.

They could come out there and destroy, or they could get completely destroyed.

Yeah they could have all the talent in the world but it all depends on how they gel. 2005 was abysmal, didn't click at all (mostly due to Woodward's fetish with his washed up World cup team).

New Zealand seemed shell shocked against France btw. A definite lack of fire power for whatever reason. Really strange to see.

Awesome Haka tho :p

I see they added Kaino and Smith to the team for the 2nd test.

Smith should add a little deception to the backline I think, and he seems to improve nonus game also.

Im not a big Kaino fan but he is a big boy who brings some serious power to the mix. So long as he picks his nuts up and does the hard work he should add to the mix really well. Rather him than Lauaki anyway.

Southern Kings vs. Lions was an absolutely awesome game. Probably the most physical game I've seen in a few years. Great to see some added piss and vinegar in a rugby match like that.

They really took the game to the Lions, I dunno though I thought it was terrible tbh.

Well you were going for the Lions obviously so naturally you'd be disappointed. It was cool to see a South African underdog not back down to a team of what is supposed to be superstars. I mean really, they had no business being in that game at all... but really, the just smashed their way into it... and as a second row forward I love that shit.

I love how Andy Powell is supposed to be a hardman, as far as I'm concerned he's a lot of talk, because he spent most of the game getting fucking flattened. Fuckin douchebag

Yeah it was disappointing as a Lions fan but really I thought it was a scrappy game when both sides had the ball. Physical as fuck though, you're right they were in that game based on grit and intensity.

No doubt it was scrappy. But when the physicallity takes over like that, the game is going to be scrappy.

There were odd flashes of brilliance... Mpho Mbyozo or whatever the fuck his name is looks to be a brand new threat that could be a prospective springbok... Francois Hougard (the scrummy) made some noise as a prospect as well (not for the boks but just as a threat in general).

Keith Earls stepped it up BIG time for the Lions, had some great runs. Ronan O'Gara managed to keep a cool head in the madness. You can't really take too much out of the scrums, the Kings clearly were outweighed by about 200 pounds, and clearly just outclassed. The ref was a big douche about it too.

Also, you had to like Wilie Human's big tackle followed by the mean mug of the century, followed by asking for his asthma puffer (you probably got different feed of the match I dunno lol).