South Africa vs British and Irish Lions, 1st test, Durban Saturday 2pm Match thread

thomond2006

British and Irish Lions:

15 L Byrne (Ospreys and Wales); 14 T Bowe (Ospreys and Ireland), 13 B O'Driscoll (Leinster and Ireland), 12 J Roberts (Cardiff Blues and Wales), 11 U Monye (Harlequins and England); 10 S Jones (Scarlets and Wales), 9 M Phillips (Ospreys and Wales); 1 G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues and Wales), 2 L Mears (Bath and England), 3 P Vickery (Wasps and England), 4 A-W Jones (Ospreys and Wales), 5 P O'Connell (Munster and Ireland, capt), 6 T Croft (Leicester and England), 7 D Wallace (Munster and Ireland), 8 J Heaslip (Leinster and Ireland).

Replacements: 16 M Rees (Scarlets and Wales), 17 A Jones (Ospreys and Wales), 18 D O'Callaghan (Munster and Ireland), 19 M Williams (Cardiff and Wales), 20 H Ellis (Leicester and England), 21 R O'Gara (Munster and Ireland), 22 R Kearney (Leinster and Ireland).

South Africa:

Francois Steyn; JP Pietersen, Adrian Jacobs, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana; Ruan Pienaar, Fourie du Preez; Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis, John Smit, Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Heinrich Brussow, Juan Smith, Pierre Spies.

Replacements: Gurthro Steenkamp, Deon Carstens, Andries Bekker, Danie Rossouw, Ricky Januarie, Jaque Fourie, Morne Steyn.


So, here we are. The day that has been four years coming since the men in red left in shame from New Zealand. The 1st test.

The Lions face the World Champions at King's Park, Durban. The same venue in 1997 where a Jeremy Guscott drop goal clinched the series for the Lions in the 2nd test. That was the year South Africa got down from its high horse to acknowledge the strength of Northern Hemisphere rugby.
Let us hope for a repeat this time around.

It promises to be a wonderful occasion where pride in the jersey will be tested to its limits. As Jim Telfer famously said: "This is your Everest boys".

For Paul O' Connell, it is his stage to prove to the rugby world that he is the greatest lions 2nd row since the legendary Willie John McBride. Tommorrow, we will witness a committed performance where a man proves he is the best in the business and make his club, province and country proud.

For the evergreen Brian O' Driscoll, it is his opportunity to prove that he is the best centre in the world. He has proven his doubters

(me, Stephen Jones, etc)

wrong. He has had a season to remember. We have seen the punishment he can take against England, no doubt he will push through the pain and take the fight to the South Africans tommorrow. What a player.

The South Africans want a series victory more than anything in the world. The entire country is baying for Lions blood after the events in 1997. Great players like Joost van der Westhuizen, Os du Randt and Percy Montgomery can never boast of a series victory against the Lions. It is the the only opportunity these Springboks will have of facing the Lions. No doubt they will take this opportunity with both hands.

However, look at the talent pool the Lions can call upon in its test team and it isn't too difficult to believe that the Lions could win this test series. The back three have wonderful pace, the centre partnership mixes power and class, the half-back pairing is tried and trusted, the back row is finely balanced, the second row boosts power and atleticism and the front row has good scrumagging ability and ball carrying prowess.

Instead of asking why the Lions cannot win this series, we should be asking ourselves, why not? Are they much better than we are? The answer is no.

So, go down to your local or turn on your sky box if you're posh and support the team that represents all of us in four countries.

COME ON THE LIONS!!!!!!

chupacabra

Starting to enjoy your posts more and more, keep it up.

I'll be up for the NZ v France game at 8am, so ill be fairly wrecked by the time this game comes along, i can only hope for a riveting game and an honest game. To be fair to all the other opponents for this lions tour (bar the southern kings) the respect and fair play shown towards us and in return towards them has been admirable, i for one expected every single team to go balls deep into the lions from day one to try and cause some damage, but its been a great series so far in that regard.

As for this test, Spies will be found out for a player who "goes AWOL when the going gets tough", Matfield will be made to look like a fool against the MIGHT of POC and Jones, Smit will see yellow for collapsing the scrum constantly, Pienaar will bottle under the pressure, BOD will make mince meat of De Villiers and Jacobs and Steyn will be taken off after kicking his 15th missed drop goal :pac::pac: you heard it here first folks :pac:

Lions by 5.

ScrubsfanChris

I can't believe no one started this thread untill the night before the match, I was starting to think that I might have to do it myself
Great match thread once again thomond2006

themont85

Wilkos take on the game, interesting perspective.

Make no mistake, I would love to be out in South Africa in that Lions squad. But then again, who wouldn’t want to be in that squad?

But this is what I am thinking when I am imagining being around this Lions squad. I am not thinking: “Poor me, I wish I was there.” I am asking myself: “How close, how tight are they as a squad?” And: “Will the Test team be looking around at each other in the dressing room before tomorrow’s game thinking, ‘I respect you and I will put my body on the line for you’?”

Because the success of the Lions, for me, rises or falls on the trust and the bond that are built. And I know that’s a Lions cliché, so I will rewind to this time four years ago, to the first Test against the All Blacks in Christchurch, and use that horrible, wet night to explain.

Building up to that Test, there were a lot of nerves. The quality of the sides that we had played in the build-up games made clear the quality of the opposition that we would be facing. And let’s not take anything away from those All Blacks, they won 21-3 and they were superb, but the foundations of the Lions’ defensive game fell away that night and it was trust — or lack of it — that was the cause.

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Johnson: Lions are underdogs but can prevail
Defensively, it felt that night as though the All Blacks were a threat from everywhere — from wide, from the blind side, through the middle. We ended up trying to plug holes, but that became like the leaking ceiling: you put a bucket down to catch the drip, but it just comes through elsewhere. And that was a day when it poured. I remember three or four occasions when I was covering out wide and thinking: “We’re three, four, five players short here.”

Because when the trust in the team has gone and your team are under threat, you immediately think: “I’d better go and help.” So you move to the immediate area of threat. But all that does is move players out of position. If the attacking side then switch the point of attack to where you have come from, then you are suddenly one man short.

As soon as you start playing individually like that, rather than as a team, your problems escalate. Every individual in a Lions shirt that night had that hopeless feeling: there’s nothing I can do. That is why faith and understanding and trust are essential to making the Lions work. And it has to go beyond being friends and getting on, it has to go so much deeper so that — unlike in 2005 — it can withstand the first moment the proverbial s*** hits the fan.

All teams that have achieved high levels of success will have known what it is like to defend on your own line, that do-or-die, all-for-one, body-on-the-line experience. Now, it is hard to do that after ten years together — that’s ten years of getting to know your team-mate, knowing that he will make the tackle, that you can trust him to make the tackle, knowing that you don’t have to cover him because he can cover his own turf. That is what the trust, as a defensive unit, is about, and that is a trust built over years of experience together.

But then you go away with the Lions and you have to build the trust in a few weeks. Then it becomes a different trust, a trust built on faith. That faith becomes the glue and it has to hold up under extreme pressure.

I would be the first one to admit that, in that fateful first Test on that Lions tour four years ago, my faith wasn’t strong enough. You think: “Oh, s***, they’re breaking left, I’ll cover left. And then, in a split-second, you’re thinking: “Oh no, they’ve broken right and I’m out of position.” There is another cliché for playing rugby like this; it’s called chasing shadows.

Defence is so hard on a Lions tour. One of the joys of the Lions is playing with some of the greatest attacking players in the world — that is what it was like for me playing with Jason Robinson in 2001 and what it must have been like playing with John Bentley in 1997 and it looks as though that is what it is like playing with Tommy Bowe this time.

The joy of an attacker is that he can beat three men on his own. The problem with defence is that you might be the greatest tackler, the greatest reader of the game, but you cannot beat three attackers. You cannot stop a three-on-one. Attack is often based on freedom. Defence has to be more ruthlessly systematic.

That, for me, is partly why the Lions do all those team-building exercises, to short-cut the knowledge that grows from working together and instil a level of faith in its stead. In a way, it’s a bit false, but when it works it’s wonderful.

I played in one other first Lions Test, against Australia in Brisbane in 2001, and the faith must have worked because I remember standing next to Brian O’Driscoll, Dafydd James, Scott Quinnell — players I’d barely known a few weeks beforehand — and feeling as though I’d been playing with them for five years. I also remember feeling nervous, more nervous than ever in my life, certainly more nervous than before the World Cup final 2½ years later. And I suspect that this might have been because our team — as any Lions team must be — was built on faith rather than years of knowledge and shared experience.

When I played for England in 2003, you knew where you stood. You knew that, at best, your performance could hit nine or even ten out of ten, and that, at worst, it would go to seven or even a six. But it could never spiral to anything worse than that. With the Lions, so much of your preparation work is to stop the downward spiral. Getting to know each other, building the trust — that all goes towards preventing your bad days becoming worse than a seven or a six out of ten.

But I guess I felt so nervous before Lions Tests because you don’t really know your team, do you? You can’t. Not like your club or your country, as we showed in Christchurch that night when we did spiral downwards. So that is why I hope the Lions feel close and tight. Because tomorrow they will need that faith to be their glue.

Jonny Wilkinson

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article6530886.ece

thomond2006

Good insight from JW there.

Stev_o

Very well written and insightful article by Wilko.

dan719

I've said it already and I'll say it again...

The lions will win this series 2-1....

Can we please stop the interprovincial ****e until then......Please....let's get behind the LIONS

Trojan

Wilko wrote:

One of the joys of the Lions is playing with some of the greatest attacking players in the world — that is what it was like for me playing with Jason Robinson in 2001 and what it must have been like playing with John Bentley in 1997 and it looks as though that is what it is like playing with Tommy Bowe this time.

Interesting that he rates Bowe so highly. Good insight into mentality.

Eyecatcher

Why isnt RTE showing this match !!!!!!

I dont get Sky and that seems to be only place it can be watched and I am reduced to listening to commentary on radio kicking and passing my ball around room

Its an effin disgrace

not happy at all......

took day off work ..I assumed RTE be showing it with a BLOODY IRISHMAN AS CAPTAIN

I am so mad I may write an e mail ........................

thomond2006

Do your research mate.

Oh and go to your local to watch the game.

radio, lol :D:D

Jackz

Super Rob plays for Leinster.

toomevara

Oooh its almost like Chrimbo morning....I believe I may even be somewhat excited (or maybe I just need the loo, getting harder and harder to tell the diff these days)...anyhoo cannae wait, come on the Lions,,,raaaaaarrrrr!!!!

Trojan

Jackz wrote: »

Super Rob plays for Leinster.

Good spot. And Heaslip plays for Munster.

Jackz

Setanta Sports News:

Big pressure on Lions captain, Paul O' Donnell.

thomond2006

Big pressure on Setanta, doubt they'd say it though!

Cheers for all the thanks btw.

Eyecatcher

thomond2006 wrote: »

Do your research mate.

Oh and go to your local to watch the game.

radio, lol :D:D

cant go to local as i promised wife she can go 'visiting' as i would be watching the match and now i have kids to look after and no match to watch

feel like sticking head in oven except its effin electric !!!

thomond2006

Eyecatcher wrote: »

cant go to local as i promised wife she can go 'visiting' as i would be watching the match and now i have kids to look after and no match to watch

feel like sticking head in oven except its effin electric !!!

Ouch, I feel your pain. :(

Trojan

Check out the streams post at the top of the rugby forum - might be something for you there.

netvista

hey guys anyone know where i can watch it on the net?

Jackz

netvista wrote: »

hey guys anyone know where i can watch it on the net?

Streams thread stuck at the top.

netvista

thanks didn't see it before.

Eyecatcher

Thank You.... as long as stream doesnt get swamped

just pessimistic today

but maybe .....................

zAbbo

Is it just me or does Paul Wallace sound like someone punched him in the mouth?

Amabokke

zAbbo wrote: »

Is it just me or does Paul Wallace sound like someone punched him in the mouth?

He sounds like he had a few alright...

zAbbo

He might have bumped into a few Argentinians

toomevara

zAbbo wrote: »

Is it just me or does Paul Wallace sound like someone punched him in the mouth?

Yeah weird,, sounds like he's just had a tooth out and the anaesthetic hasn't worn off!

Jackz

Might be something to do with those boom mikes, they seem to open air everywhere.

markfla

yeah wallace is in ribbons, real pity Ferris is not in the frame at all with his injury

thomond2006

To get the blood pumping, see my preview. :D:D

zAbbo

thomond2006 wrote: »

For Paul O' Connell, it is his stage to prove to the rugby world that he is the greatest lions 2nd row since the legendary Willie John McBride. Tommorrow, we will witness a committed performance where a man proves he is the best in the business and make his club, province and country proud.

I think it's his stage to banish the demons of 05 & 07 - both occasions he was completely ineffectual, and you could argue - this tour hasn't seem himself redeem any of that.

But that's all out the window, if he could peform today. Serious questions marks over his effectiveness at this level and as a leader of the lions.

Dumbledore

I just cant see the Lions doing it. Not with they form(or lack of) shown as of late and the Springbok team looks so strong. Going to be a great game though!

Stev_o

Monye for the first try after a break by Bowe.

thomond2006

PDV. Jaysus.

As soon i hear him speak, I feel more confident of a Lions victory.

Aidric

thomond2006 wrote: »

PDV. Jaysus.

As soon i hear him speak, I feel more confident of a Lions victory.

What relevance is the way he speaks got to do with whether his team will win or not?

Stev_o

Aidric wrote: »

What relevance is the way he speaks got to do with whether his team will win or not?

Because he sounds like he's managing South Africa U-11's.

Four-Percent

Aidric wrote: »

What relevance is the way he speaks got to do with whether his team will win or not?

He's an eejit.You know this yourself, you're just looking to have another go at thomond.

Amabokke

thomond2006 wrote: »

PDV. Jaysus.

As soon i hear him speak, I feel more confident of a Lions victory.

You do know that he coached the U/19 that won the WC few years ago?

Stev_o

Amabokke wrote: »

You do know that he coached the U/19 that won the WC few years ago?

We all know that we are just pointing out that the way he presents him on interviews makes him seem like he has zero confidence. He just isn't a media person.

thomond2006

Stev_o wrote: »

We all know that we are just pointing out that the way he presents him on interviews makes him seem like he has zero confidence. He just isn't a media person.

That's precisely what i think.

Aidric, what the **** is up with you? :rolleyes:

danthefan

Stev_o wrote: »

We all know that we are just pointing out that the way he presents him on interviews makes him seem like he has zero confidence. He just isn't a media person.

No he's not, but a lot of the SA players rate him highly and that's what matters. Matfield openly admitted he didn't support PdV being appointed as SA head coach initially but having worked with him he now knows he was the right choice.

Stev_o

danthefan wrote: »

No he's not, but a lot of the SA players rate him highly and that's what matters. Matfield openly admitted he didn't support PdV being appointed as SA head coach initially but having worked with him he now knows he was the right choice.

Even if he is a bit mad on selections and other general things.....actually he just seems mad overall. Ill never forget his reaction to Januarie's try against NZ in Carisbrooke last year where he jumped for joy in the box like a little boy.

Aidric

Stev_o wrote: »

We all know that we are just pointing out that the way he presents him on interviews makes him seem like he has zero confidence. He just isn't a media person.

Maybe so but it was a cheap dig.

thomond2006 wrote: »

That's precisely what i think.

Aidric, what the **** is up with you? :rolleyes:

Nothing up, just thought it was a needless comment.

zAbbo

Oh dear God, they're letting Limerick people on Sky doing their thick drunk paddy routine.

Stev_o

Someone tell Gallaimh that colliflower ears plus pink striped collared t shirts don't work at all.

Aidric

zAbbo wrote: »

Oh dear God, they're letting Limerick people on Sky doing their thick drunk paddy routine.

There was a heavy Kilkenny presence there as well tbf.

Mr Magnolia

Any radio stations covering the game folks? Frequency?

RuggieBear

oh sweet jaysus...the boks are doing this stupid turn around and fold your arms intro too.

Stev_o

RuggieBear wrote: »

oh sweet jaysus...the boks are doing this stupid turn around and fold your arms intro too.

It's awesome and you know it.

Odds anyone on Philips throwing a intercept pass today people?

stackerman

Jasus hope not :eek:
Here we go boys !!!

zAbbo

Here we go, laptop off.

stackerman

All about the breakdown, get that right and stand a good chance. Dont think we will though, hope I'm wrong.