British and Irish Lions vs Queensland Reds Sat 8 June 10:30am; Sky Sports 1

thomond2006

British and Irish Lions:
15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Manu Tuilagi 12 Jonathan Davies 11 Tommy Bowe 10 Owen Farrell 9 Ben Youngs;
8 Toby Faletau 7 Sam Warburton, 6 Dan Lydiate 5 Richie Gray 4 Geoff Parling 3 Matt Stevens 2 Tom Youngs 1 Gethin Jenkins

Replacements: 16 Richard Hibbard, 17 Mako Vunipola, 18 Adam Jones 19 Paul O'Connell, 20 Justin Tipuric, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Jonny Sexton, 23 George North

Reds:
15 Ben Lucas, 14 Rod Davies, 13 Ben Tapuai, 12 Anthony Faingaa, 11 Luke Morahan, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Nick Frisby,
8 Jake Schatz, 7 Beau Robinson, 6 Eddie Quirk, 5 Ed O'Donoghue, 4 Adam Wallace-Harrison, 3 Greg Holmes, 2 James Hanson, 1 Ben Daley.

Replacements: 16 Albert Anae, 17 Sam Denny, 18 Jono Owen, 19 Radike Samo, 20 Jarrad Butler, 21 Jono Lance, 22 Mike Harris, 23 Dom Shipperley.

The Reds have a full side out minus the Wallabies in camp.

Webbs

Couple of things stand out straight away, firstly is having Jonathan Davies at 12 his distribution can be suspect at times but he is an intelligent footballer so may work well with Tuilagi and they am sure will swap positions at times.
The scrum should be Ok but is the weakest scrummaging front row the Lions can put out. They would however be a very mobile unit, in fact the whole pack is more about mobility rather than brute force
Finally Cuthbert is having to do an awful lot of work to cover 2 wings

jamiedav2011

Don't particularly fancy that team, this could be a fairly close one, Reds team is fairly competent and Cooper should be raring to go.

That front row in particular doesn't look anything special.

Still flabbergasted at Matt fecking Stevens.

bilston

Just Tommy starting out of our lads and he is on the left wing. To be fair while he is clearly better on the right he has made a decent fist of it for Ulster in recent weeks and because he comes off his wing so much it almost doesn't matter in open play.

Not much else to say other than it's good to see Warburton fit and the centre pairing is interesting. Also good luck to the Youngs brothers who are making their first starts together and all the guys making their first starts. As mentioned on the other thread if Parling can repeat his 20 minute cameo from yesterday he'll soon put himself into contention.

sydthebeat

Love the Reds side !!!

Tapuai has been great in any of the SXV games ive seen this year, both him and faingaa will give davies and tuilaig things to think of defensively.
As ever, the reds game will hinge around whether cooper gets front foot ball. Theres plenty of test level experience in the reds squad to make sure this wont be anywhere as easy as the force game, twelve in total.

The 'real' tour beings here!!!

Hype710

Interested to see the line on this one. Garland has asked for proper games, he's getting his wish here. Will be fascinating. Think it would have made more sense to start Stevens against the Force and have Cole for this one. Individually, Warburton and Coopers' performances are the most intriguing.

monkeybutter

Great bench there, least they are staying true to their word and everyone is getting a decent run out.

It was unfortunate that the byes couldn't have been squeeze to one week earlier for the Force, but fair play to the reds for going full strength anyway.

The tour starts here for sure

totallegend

Have to say I don't like the look of that Lions team at all, it looks like they picked it on the basis of who was due a game rather than whether the combinations will actually work. Really not sure about that front-row, if Jenkins isn't fully fit it could be a long day.

Huge performances required from the entire back row after the good performances of O'Brien, Heaslip and Tipuric in the opening games. Gray and Parling is a very dynamic second row but maybe lacks the sort of hard edge that O'Connell or Jones would provide.

Owen Farrell needs to have a massive game or the test jersey is gone. Stuart Hogg needs Farrell to kick over 85% to dampen the clamour for Halfpenny...

Very interesting team. Will be good to see if Parling & Gray can tempt Youngs to hit them in the lineout, as well as seeing the return of El Warbs to an all-Welsh backrow 4.

Looking forward to seeing how Davies & Tuilagi work together. Will be an interesting approach with a seriously hard running midfield and wings, and an incisive Hogg.

If the right holes are opened up for him, that midfield setup is absolutely ideal for Hogg to show how different he is to Halfpenny.

Looking forward to some Q-C magic hopefully too!

Swiwi

That's the weakest Lions side put out so far. I'd rate the Reds an outside chance, although I reckon without their frontline Wallabies, the Lions should record a comfortable enough victory (20 or so points). At least the Lions have a strong bench.

totallegend

I suppose the question is, given that the Barbarians and Force were pretty awful, will a good performance in this game be given more weight than a good performace in the first two?

Hippo

totallegend wrote: »

Owen Farrell needs to have a massive game or the test jersey is gone.

It's long gone already.

Tox56

What a bench, that's the one big advantage we have on this tour, great strength in depth

sydthebeat

totallegend wrote: »

I suppose the question is, given that the Barbarians and Force were pretty awful, will a good performance in this game be given more weight than a good performace in the first two?

with watartahs and especially brumbies games coming up, i think it will even itself out.... all players will get the same chance.

personally i think most of this team is playing for bench spots, especially:

B Youngs
J Davies
Lydiate
Gray
Parling

totallegend

Hippo wrote: »

It's long gone already.

I suppose Farrell is lucky in one respect that he's guaranteed a spot in the test 23, whatever happens.

irishbucsfan

Ed O'Donghue will rip us apart!

Don't like that midfield at all. I hope we try to kick the ball.

Swan Curry

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Ed O'Donghue will rip us apart!

Don't like that midfield at all. I hope we try to kick the ball.

With Farrell at 10,what else could they do?

irishbucsfan

Swan Curry wrote: »

With Farrell at 10,what else could they do?

Play attacking rugby. Which Farrell has been able to do plenty of in the past.

He's not quite as "rubbish" as people here want him to be, as he showed yesterday.

But that midfield does not suit each other. Unless Hogg shows up in midfield a lot which would be very interesting. I really think this is a case of getting remainding alternates onto the field and supplementing them with those who are most fit.

irishbucsfan

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Play attacking rugby. Which Farrell has been able to do plenty of in the past.

He's not quite as "rubbish" as people here want him to be, as he showed yesterday.

But that midfield does not suit each other. Unless Hogg shows up in midfield a lot which would be very interesting. I really think this is a case of getting remainding alternates onto the field and supplementing them with those who are most fit.

He will have to.

Very one dimensional backline with an element of chaos in Hogg. An excellent stage for him to light it up.

caff

Anywhere in Dublin city centre showing this at that hour of the morning

bilston

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Ed O'Donghue will rip us apart!

Aye...in the pub after the game...

bilston

Swan Curry wrote: »

With Farrell at 10,what else could they do?

Farrell showed plenty with ball in hand yesterday, that said this will be a totally different challenge.

flyingoutside

I really do not like Warburton as captain because in my opinion he would not be in my starting back row for the tests but because he's captain he'll definitely be playing in the test.

dregin

caff wrote: »

Anywhere in Dublin city centre showing this at that hour of the morning

The Woolshed are showing all games:

http://www.woolshedbaa.com/dublin/whats-on/rugby/

JRant

Good to see everyone get a run out if I'm honest.

Looking forward to seeing how B Youngs gets on.

My concern would be how much ball will Bowe, Cuthbert and Hogg see. Not exactly a creative 10, 12, 13 axis.

Would have also liked to see POC start as it's the first big test for the Lions and the pack is a bit light in leadership.

preddy

To me this answers the question of Manu or Bod starting in the tests, this looks like the second team and now he is slowing putting the test side together which he has to start to do so they get a game together.

Test is now for Warburton to show form and Cutburt and Bowe to earn a test place.

JRant

flyingoutside wrote: »

I really do not like Warburton as captain because in my opinion he would not be in my starting back row for the tests but because he's captain he'll definitely be playing in the test.

In fairness if he was fit and on form he would definitely be a deserving starter. To be honest I can't see him lasting the tour anyway. Dodgy knee + hard ground = bad news.

CIARAN_BOYLE

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Ed O'Donghue will rip us apart!

Don't like that midfield at all. I hope we try to kick the ball.

EOD wants to put himself in the frame for a call up when injuries hit the Lions second rows. He is after all Lions eligible.

totallegend wrote: »

Have to say I don't like the look of that Lions team at all, it looks like they picked it on the basis of who was due a game rather than whether the combinations will actually work. Really not sure about that front-row, if Jenkins isn't fully fit it could be a long day.

Gatland promised that the entire squad would get a start in one of the first three matches.

Buer

All being lined up for a run of Roberts and BOD the next game. I expect Tuilagi to get a run outside of Roberts too before the tests. Still lots to play for in the centre. All of them have delivered in their appearances so far.

pickarooney

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

EOD wants to put himself in the frame for a call up when injuries hit the Lions second rows. He is after all Lions eligible.


Gatland promised that the entire squad would get a start in one of the first three matches.

Kearney is not fit so.

danthefan

That is a serious bench.