Highveld XV vs British and Irish Lions Royal Bafokeng 2pm 30th May 2009 match thread.

thomond2006

British and Irish Lions: 15 Lee Byrne, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Jamie Roberts, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Mike Blair; 1 Andrew Sheridan, 2 Matthew Rees, 3 Adam Jones, 4 Simon Shaw, 5 Paul O'Connell, Joe Worsley, 7 Martyn Williams, 8 Andy Powell.

Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 Phil Vickery, 18 Alun-Wyn Jones, 19 Stephen Ferris, 20 Mike Phillips, 21 Stephen Jones, 22 Riki Flutey.

Royal XV: Russell Jeacocks; Egon Seconds, Deon van Rensburg, Hanno Coetzee, Bjorn Basson; Naas Olivier, Sarel Pretorius; Jonathan Mokuena, Devon Raubenheimer, Wilhelm Koch, Jacques Lombaard, Rudi Mathee, Bees Roux, Rayno Barnes, Albertus Buckle.

Replacements: Pellow van der Westhuizen, Stef Roberts, Rynard Landman, RW Kember, Jacques Coetzee, Riaan Viljoen, Jovan Bowles.

Well lads the greatest stage of rugby begins. The Lions begin their tour of South Africa in Rustenburg, where they face a Highveld XV invitational side.

Anyone who expects this to be a training session, you're dead wrong. For these South Africans, this will be their only ever chance to play the Lions. They will play till they are lying flat on the ground.

Looking at the side, it is dominated by Wales, with 10 Welsh players in the 22, along with 5 Irish (minus Leinstermen remember), 6 English and one Scotsman, Mike Blair.

With so many lions debutantes, it will be fascinating to see how they cope in totally different playing conditions. Let's hope that Earls, Bowe, ROG and Ferris take their chance and show McGeechan what they can do.

Good luck to Paul O' Connell who I believe will show the SH over the next 2 months that he is the best 2nd row in the world.

COME ON THE LIONS!!

chupacabra

Where is juvenal when you need him? :pac:

Leslie91

SH?. Apologies.

Can't wait for the tour to start. I really like the look of the backs this saturday. Will b interesting to see how Rees does at lineout time.

thomond2006

chupacabra wrote: »

Where is juvenal when you need him? :pac:

Jaysus, thanks chupacabra.

I'm only trying my best.

chupacabra

thomond2006 wrote: »

Jaysus, thanks chupacabra.

I'm only trying my best.

Nah man im only kidding, relax. Its a good thread.

Lions by 40.

thomond2006

Lions -33 on PP.

Bit dodgy considering that this is the 1st game.

Stealdo

thomond2006 wrote: »

Lions -33 on PP.

Bit dodgy considering that this is the 1st game.

Don't forget that this is an invitational side also. The 'excuse' (reason) that is always used for the Lions being underdogs is that they haven't had any time together, not a regular team etc, man for man the Lions should be 40 - 50 points better than that side, and they may well have had more preparation time.

thomond2006

thomond2006 wrote: »

Lions -33 on PP.

Bit dodgy considering that this is the 1st game.

They are playing the equivalent of Shannon.

Diabhal Beag

Is this on TV? Lions by 44

duckysauce

hope earls does it should be interesting

[Jackass]

Big physical game, smashing hits going on, but Lions skill levels should be light years ahead. It's a soft enough opener, if you're going to call any of these games soft, I'd say Lions by a country mile, and the real result will be a good performance especially from the Irish lads and of course (touching wood) no injuries.

Looking forward to seeing it al the same

jam_on_toast

Lions to win easily enough.

got the feeling it may get over-physical at times, ie, dirty play or punches. Hope not tho.

Noopti

Lions 55 - 7 Royal XV

Earls to get a hat trick.

3 yellow cards for the Royal XV!

Tim Robbins

Noopti wrote: »

Lions 55 - 7 Royal XV

Earls to get a hat trick.

3 yellow cards for the Royal XV!

what level are the Royal XV at? Any Currie cup players? Any super 14 players?

Ciaran-Irl

Leslie91 wrote: »

SH?. Apologies.

Can't wait for the tour to start. I really like the look of the backs this saturday. Will b interesting to see how Rees does at lineout time.

Southern Hemisphere

Articles here and there say that Earls has been very impressive in training. Lets hope he shines.

thomond2006

Is number 16 related to Joost van der Westhuizen I wonder? :pac:

Noopti

Tim Robbins wrote: »

what level are the Royal XV at? Any Currie cup players? Any super 14 players?

Yeah, there are a few mainly from The Leopards (Currie Cup) - but they are nothing special really. If the Lions don't beat them convincingly it will be seen as a bad day at the office.

Goodluck2me

Noopti wrote: »

Yeah, there are a few mainly from The Leopards (Currie Cup) - but they are nothing special really. If the Lions don't beat them convincingly it will be seen as a bad day at the office.

From what Ive read, it will be made up mostly of the Griquas who play in the Currie Cup, hardly Shannon as was suggested!

Noopti

goodluck2me wrote: »

From what Ive read, it will be made up mostly of the Griquas who wont he Currie Cup this year, hardly Shannon as the other eejit suggested!

Sorry, my mistake. 11 Griquas, 4 Leopards.
3 have S14 experience (2 with Cheetahs, 1 with Lions)

2040

thomond2006 wrote: »

Is number 16 related to Joost van der Westhuizen I wonder? :pac:

There's loads of afrikaaners with that name. I remember discovering a legal academic from South Africa with the exact same name, ie. Joost van der Westhuizen.

sock puppet

goodluck2me wrote: »

From what Ive read, it will be made up mostly of the Griquas who wont he Currie Cup this year, hardly Shannon as the other eejit suggested!

You sure? Aren't Sharks the Currie Cup champions?

Goodluck2me

sock puppet wrote: »

You sure? Aren't Sharks the Currie Cup champions?

Read that on Lions website - see its wrong now though.

Aidric

I'm expecting a 30 point winning margin at least. Each guy on the team is going to be out to impress early. There was a nice piece about Earls on The Rugby Club last night, hope the guy has a big game.

premierstone

Aidric wrote: »

I'm expecting a 30 point winning margin at least. Each guy on the team is going to be out to impress early. There was a nice piece about Earls on The Rugby Club last night, hope the guy has a big game.

Alot of that piece seemed to be about Warick to me, now that would be a suprise call up for the Lions, oh Sky Sports you've got to love em :rolleyes:

Stev_o

premierstone wrote: »

Alot of that piece seemed to be about Warick to me, now that would be a suprise call up for the Lions, oh Sky Sports you've got to love em :rolleyes:

In fairness they look alike at times


http://murfo498.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/keith_earls.jpg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44584000/jpg/_44584916_1904walker416.jpg

sm.org

goodluck2me wrote: »

Read that on Lions website - see its wrong now though.

They won the Vodacom cup , basically a comp for the weaker teams.

premierstone

Stev_o wrote: »

In fairness they look alike at times

Agreed but in fairness a Rugby oientated programme like that should'nt be making that mistake, if RTE did it we would all be slaggin them off

Otacon

On the way to the final last weekend, I bought a Lions magazine with O'Connell on the front of it. Very good read.

In the player profiles section, they had Fitz with a picture of Heaslip beside him! Checked Heaslip'c pic and it was correct.

premierstone

Otacon wrote: »

On the way to the final last weekend, I bought a Lions magazine with O'Connell on the front of it. Very good read.

In the player profiles section, they had Fitz with a picture of Heaslip beside him! Checked Heaslip'c pic and it was correct.

I got the telegraph in the airport on the Friday they were talking about Flannery's injury and they had a picture of Simon Easterby :rolleyes:

Eoin

Is that 2PM Irish time?

Stev_o

eoin wrote: »

Is that 2PM Irish time?

Yes

fifth

Got me sky sports hooked up this evenin..42" screen and a few bob on the lions to win -33pts on paddypower.

Should be good

chupacabra

funkyflea wrote: »

Got me sky sports hooked up this evenin..42" screen and a few bob on the lions to win -33pts on paddypower.

Should be good

Good man, just in time. Got mine 2 weeks ago. Lions, Barbarians, Churchill cup, Super 14.... RTE? Whats that?

2040

Tenner on Earls to score 2 tries in 80 minutes.

chupacabra

2040 wrote: »

Tenner on Earls to score 2 tries in 80 minutes.

Tenner on Powell to turn into a vicious mutant insect due to that bite he recieved yesterday and to devour the Royal XV AND the Lions.

7mountpleasant

Should hockey them allright Gricuas are are poor enough currie cup team (in the connaught mode of the little team that could) 33 points seems fair enough.

danthefan

Both Powell and Ferris are out, Wallace starts at 8 and Heaslip is on the bench.

thomond2006

danthefan wrote: »

Both Powell and Ferris are out, Wallace starts at 8 and Heaslip is on the bench.

Confirmed on SSN.

Doesn't really weaken the side.

Better change my fantasy team. :p

ironingbored

Is RTE or BBC doing any Lions highlights programmes?

chupacabra

Pity about Ferris, hope he's ok for the Golden Lions game next week. Cant wait to see Wallace tear up the Highveld now tho.

Aidric

Nice piece form Gerry Thornley on Keith Earls in today's Times.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/0530/1224247745726.html

thomond2006

one hour from kick off.

The stadium has a 40,000 capacity. I wonder will they fill it??

besty

Bet on Bowe to score twice @ 3/1 and Wallace to score @ 6/4!

Come on Lions!

Jackz

Cool intro on sky, Telford's voice over it.

Stev_o

Jackz wrote: »

Cool intro on sky.

That was pure awesome, don't see roundball do anything as cool as that.

Come on the Lions! Byrne to score the first try imo.

Jackz

:eek: haha green peace might not be too impressed with that add with drico in it.

Maybe it's been on for weeks?

chupacabra

I dont envy the players having to play in that heat. It looks excruciating. Lets hope they can keep the intensity up for the full 80mins.

zAbbo

There really can't be more than 2,000 people at this!

Aidric

zAbbo wrote: »

There really can't be more than 2,000 people at this!

Was just thinking the same. Strange that.

Iang87

is this stadium really out of the way that could make the crowd small too, come on the lions earls to shine and more importantly no injuries