Official British Lions Tour 05 thread
 

For anyone who is a fan of Rugby Union, what are you thoughts on the upcoming British and Ireland Lions Tour of New Zealand coming up next month?
This is a great rugby tradition started in 1888, with the last Lions tour to New Zealand being in 1993, where New Zealand won 2-1.
An Understrength Lions team have played a warmup match against an equally Understrength Argentina with the result being a 25 all draw due to a last minute penalty by Jonny Wilkinson.
I believe the Lions are really going to have to pick things up if they are to Beat the All Blacks. It should be an interesting series.

Should be a good tour, fills a bit of the gap after the end of the football and rugby union league seasons. Can't really say i'm overly bothered though.

Disappointing result yesterday but yeah, hardly any of them will be in the first choice side.

fills a bit of a gap? :p
This is the begining of the southern hemisphere International Season! :D

Brian O'Driscoll wasn't playing. Gordon D'Arcy played a bit rubbish too. I have every faith in them, and the lads Hickie and Murphy on the wing. Good to see Wilkinson back playing too.

Yeah, he had a solid game after almost 2 years off International Rugby, I don't like him but he's bound to get better... And they need him on top form.

Clive Woodward basically picked all of the world cup winning team. That was 2 years ago, they've performed poorly since, and he's overlooked the Welsh following a surprising Grand Slam. I dunno, I don't have much faith in this Lions team, which is sad because I've been looking forward to this since the last tour.

I think he should of picked more Welsh players considering how dominant they were this season, it's a shame really. Still, They are going to struggle, if not lose 3-0 to the ABs.

lol, the Lions are going to get PLOWED

Yeah, I was just trying to be nicer to the lions fans out there. And we all know how my "all blacks to win RWC03" compaign went :p

Yeah but something happened to English rugby since then, something ugly. And not Martin Johnson ugly, because that would be a good thing.

Also, speaking of Martin Johnson, his final/tribute game is on June 6th. This game is also the comback for Jonah Lomu, who is returning after a couple of years off, and having his kidneys replaced with a new single one that has been placed at the bottom of the rib cage.

The Lions Play their first game of the tour agains Bay of Plenty this Saturday, it should be a good win to the Lions.

It's a pretty strong Lions team aswell, should be good.

Gareth Thomas might miss the first Test as, if Toulouse win their game this weekend, he'd have to play another next week and would consequently have missed half the tour. I'm not really sure if i'd have him in anyway as i love Geordan Murphy.

Gareth Thomas missed the second half of the 6 Nations, and he wasn't too impressive in the games he was in. So Murphy's probably a safer bet anyway. I hate when the games are down under, kick off at like 7:00am on a Saturday morning :mad: Damn time zones.

I'd definetly have 2 of the back 3 as Lewsey and Shane Williams, they've been in fine form and Williams really troubled the All Blacks in the world cup. Lewsey did pretty well against us (Leicester Tigers) in the premiership final though when playing centre, so that could be an option. Henson would be a better bet though really.

-edit- Murphy hasn't really been at his best for us over the season, only on a few occasions. Knowing Woodward he'll probably give it to Jason Robinson anyway.

What's up with Rokococko, BC? heard reports that he's struggling for form.

Jason Robinson really isn't in good form. Even his number one fan Stuart Barnes on Sky Sports the other week was very critical of his performance against Connacht. He's definetely going through a rough patch, he may be a bit of a liability.

Yeah i wouldn't want him in right now, he's been nothing special this season. He'd be a good player to bring on if we're in trouble though. Then again it looks as though Corry will miss out to Dallaglio despite having a superb season.

Dallaglio was always going to start, based on reputation. Lol, and for anyone interested, The All Blacks probables VS the possibles is on tomorrow morning on Sky Sports.

He's had a really quiet season, definately hasn't been one of the form wingers in the Super 12. We are really lucky with our crop of wingers at the moment, we have quality and quantity.
On that note, the All Black trial game is tonight, unfortunately there are no players from the NZ Maori or Canterbury Crusaders sides playing, which really makes it looked washed down and pointless.

I heard Jono Gibbs is captaining New Zealand?

Fuckin hell, so him and Chris Jack locking together eh? Chris Jack is untouchable IMO, but Ali Williams is the fuckin man, don't know why he isn't in there.

Nah, Jono Gibbs won't be captaining the all blacks, I'd say Tana is a definate for that.
Ali has been injured and has poor discipline, so he's not a definate choice for Lock

Yeah I saw him stomp that guys throat/face in a super 12, got suspended for like 6 weeks didn't he?

9 weeks I think, he came back in the trial game last night and played OK.

Can't really say I 100% agree with Doug Howlett being selected, even though he's in the Blues. He has the experience, and he can play big games, but he hasnt being breaking and defense like Sivivatu, Hamilton, Evans or Nonu have been this season. I find it weird that neither Evans or Hamilton are in that lineup.

Yeah, I really thought Evans was going to be in there, Howlett is a bit of a joke, he hasn't really had any decent form in a couple of years now. They are probably bringing him back for the fiji game.

Bay of Plenty 20-34 Lions

Not a bad performance all in all, but still a lot of work to be done before we want to even think about winning the series. The midfield was weak at times today, and a few slack tackles, from Ronan o'Gara especially. Oh well, the main thing was to win, we needed a good win as a confidence booster to kick off the tour.

Well O'Gara had a slim chance of getting the fly half spot before, pretty much no chance now.

Where's Carlos Spencer for the All Blacks? ripped the England side who didn't travel apart for the Barbarians last week, along with Bruce Reihana and Brent Russell.

Carlos isn't our 1st 5 anymore, he took up a contract to go and play in England. We didn't need him anyway and it's an easy way for him to earn some $$$ before he's completely stuffed.
The Lions are going to need to up it 100% considering BOP is really a B grade provincial side in New Zealand.

Lions team for wednesday's game vs Taranaki:

Geordan Murphy; Shane Horgan, Will Greenwood, Ollie Smith, Denis Hickie; Charlie Hodgson, Chris Cusiter; Graham Rowntree, Andy Titterrell, John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan, Danny Grewcock, Martin Corry (captain), Lewis Moody, Michael Owen.
Replacements: Shane Byrne, Gethin Jenkins, Ben Kay, Martyn Williams, Gareth Cooper, Jonny Wilkinson, Gavin Henson.

I'm getting into it now, i guess it's because it's all started now.

Dallaglio's ankle injury picked up against BOP has ruled him out of the rest of the tour, Simon Easterby replaces him.

The Taranaki game has almost finished, pretty average game. Refereeing wasn't the greatest and the lions were slow against a hard taranaki pack. A bit of bad luck really cost Taranaki, and I think the score looks worse than it was, lions really outplayed them in the 2nd half. All credit to a midweek Lions team vs a 2nd grade provincial team. Boring rugby though, really boring, I think you northern hemisphere people should watch some Super 12 to see what it's all about, but that murphy try was good :D

Fair play to Hodgson, he had a good game. I'd still say he's below Wilkinson and Jones in the pecking order, probably ahead of O'Gara now.

Murphy was back to his best aswell, great hands to set up Horgan and took his own scores well.

Yeah, I thought Hodgson played out of his skin, he had a good game.

New Zealand Maori 19-13 British and Irish Lions

Lions were terrible this morning. So many turnovers. :nono:

Fuck that's pretty bad.

It was 19-6 until The Lions got a consolation try at the end. :$

First ever defeat to the Maori, not looking good.

There's times when i feel like i'm the only one who thinks Steve Thompson is shit.

A hooker who can't throw into a line-out. That can't be good for a team representing the four nations of Great Britain about to take on the best team in the world.

Yeah, but it wasn't a first grade lions team, I'm sure they will do better in the tests.
All Credit to the NZ Maori though, they played really well.
Also, the All Blacks beat Fiji 91-0 on Friday night, the maori did beat Fiji 29-27 the previous week.

That also doesn't bode well, i only saw the second half of that one but Fiji were realllllly terrible though.

Jason Robinson, Gareth Thomas, Neil Back and Jonny Wilkinson ("the big guns") all to start on wednesday.

Yeah, Fiji had given up before it even started by the looks of things.
Sivivatu (or however you spell it) is an absolute machine, I think he'll tear the lions a new asshole.
http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningro...mercials/1749/

That's the Adidas "last man standing" ad for the competition.

The squad is for the tour is:

Backs: Mils Muliaina (Auckland), Leon MacDonald (Canterbury), Doug Howlett (Auckland), Rico Gear (Nelson Bays), Sitiveni Sivivatu (Waikato), Ma'a Nonu (Wellington), Conrad Smith (Wellington), Tana Umaga (captain, Wellington), Aaron Mauger (Canterbury), Daniel Carter (Canterbury), Byron Kelleher (Waikato), Justin Marshall (Canterbury).

Forwards: Rodney So'oialo (Wellington), Mose Tuiali'i (Canterbury), Richie McCaw (Canterbury), Jerry Collins (Wellington), Sione Lauaki (Waikato), Chris Jack (Canterbury), Ali Williams (Auckland), James Ryan (Otago), Carl Hayman (Otago), Campbell Johnstone (Canterbury), Greg Somerville (Canterbury), Tony Woodcock (Auckland), Keven Mealamu (Auckland), Anton Oliver (Otago).

Training with squad: Derren Witcombe (Auckland), Jono Gibbes (Waikato).