Lions Tour

Tommybojangles

Nice to see that all of the "Lions means nothing anymore" horsesiiit is limited to 'journalists' and keyboard warriors and doesnt ring true for the players

razorblunt

Clegg wrote: »

Dan Biggar failed a HIA in Northampton's game. There'll be a lot of crossed fingers over the next few weeks re player fitness.

Biggar will get absolutely hammered in any game he plays out there. He’s had serious head knocks and it’s a bit of a joke it’s not talked about more yet it’s thrown as a reason for skipping Sexton.

lawrencesummers

Buer wrote: »

Two tries for Sam Simmonds today. What a player.

Three cheers for Sammy the Lion.

Technically hes not a lion.

thomond2006

Buer wrote: »

Two tries for Sam Simmonds today. What a player.

Three cheers for Sammy the Lion.

Very good. Very good.

sydthebeat

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Technically hes not a lion.

Got to think about that, think about that deeply

Buer

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Technically hes not a lion.

He has the heart of a lion and that's all that matters.

aloooof

Some of the recent posts here have had a bit of genius, bit of magic.

Louis Friend

Fair play to Sinckler.

PTH2009

Let's hope any of the players picked done get injured before the tour

Sadly it can happen

lawrencesummers

Buer wrote: »

He has the heart of a lion and that's all that matters.

No, he has a regular human heart.

ronanc1000

Would make cracking viewing if Japan couldn't fufill the warm up game and a Barbarians side made up of the best unselected XV took to the field.

Lost Ormond

ronanc1000 wrote: »

Would make cracking viewing if Japan couldn't fufill the warm up game and a Barbarians side made up of the best unselected XV took to the field.

But not much use in prep for the tour/series playing another just put together side especially one that would just be a one off.

lawrencesummers

Lost Ormond wrote: »

But not much use in prep for the tour/series playing another just put together side especially one that would just be a one off.[/

It’s perfect prep when you consider that the SA side will be just put together.

The SA team are effectively coming out of a semi retirement for the lions tour, they haven’t played a game of rugby since the World Cup final, and it’s going to have a massive influence on them.

Look how far back England have gone since that final and they have been playing matches.

swiwi_

Eamonn Sweeney throwing a wee tantrum in the indo.

Bazzo

swiwi_ wrote: »

Eamonn Sweeney throwing a wee tantrum in the indo.

What about? I try to avoid giving the bindo clicks wherever possible.

Louis Friend

Does anyone think travel to the game will be permitted by June 26th?

swiwi_

Bazzo wrote: »

What about? I try to avoid giving the bindo clicks wherever possible.

“ Gatland’s indulgent Lions selection isn’t just an insult to Irish rugby, it’s an insult to the intelligence”

I don’t think some people understand. The Lions isn’t an all-star team with the 37 best players ranked 1 to 37. It’s the team selected to fit gatland’s tactics and game plan. There’s a lot but not complete overlap in personnel.

Louis Friend

Gatland is one of the best coaches in the world. And that Springboks side is a particular type of animal, one that took a superb England side to the cleaners in the World Cup final. The Lions have an inconsequential buildup and then at least two Tests at altitude. Only an idiot wouldn’t realise that a very specific type of strategy is needed to pull off a win down there this summer. And it probably isn’t “let’s pick the 15 best players and give it a go”.

sydthebeat

Eamonn sweeney, as with Keith duggan, are GAA journos who occasionally dip their toe into rugby and expose themselves as having 'the square root of fcuk all' knowledge about the sport.

Sweeneys op Ed pieces are generally best ignored

OldRio

Napolean Bonaparte supposedly said of one of his Generals 'I know he's a good General but is he lucky?'

IMHO Gatland to a tee.

thomond2006

Gatland has been far too successful to put him into the lucky category.

Louis Friend

OldRio wrote: »

Napolean Bonaparte supposedly said of one of his Generals 'I know he's a good General but is he lucky?'

IMHO Gatland to a tee.

That does him a massive disservice.

bilston

OldRio wrote: »

Napolean Bonaparte supposedly said of one of his Generals 'I know he's a good General but is he lucky?'

IMHO Gatland to a tee.

He has done pretty well as a coach (in the NH anyway), he dragged Ireland out of the 90s, won 3 Premierships and a Heineken Cup with Wasps, has won a Lions series in Australia drawn one in NZ and won however many GS's and 6Ns titles with Wales and reached two world cup semi finals, that's a lot of lottery wins Rio!!!

Wayne Pivac on the other hand...there's your lucky general!

Edit - he was lucky in NZ in 2017 though...no doubt about that

molloyjh

thomond2006 wrote: »

Gatland has been far too successful to put him into the lucky category.

He has, but while he has had a lot of success he has also had a lot of poor results too.

Wales under him were either winning the 6Ns or coming 4th or 5th effectively. And they did a lot more of the latter. They couldn't buy a win against SH opposition for years.

Even with the Lions in Australia against what was at that stage one of the worst Aussie sides I'd seen, the series was on an absolute knife edge until the final test where Australia's lack of depth told and the Lions were finally able to cut loose a bit (Australia lost 3 guys to injury in the first half and had a yellow card). The first 2 Tests were 1 score games with the Lions winning the first and Australia winning the second. In the first Beale missed 2 kicks in the last 10 to win it for Australia, slipping for one of those.

The Lions went well in NZ and Wales had a few very successful 6Ns campaigns. But it wasn't all roses for Gatland and he could very easily have lost the series in Australia in 2013 in the first 2 Tests. He's a very good coach, but I think it's also fair to say that he has his limitations too.

EDIT: Actually as bilston pointed out he could very easily have lost the series in NZ 4 years ago too with that controversial refereeing decision at the end.

thomond2006

All well and good, but calling him lucky is crazy.

His success with Wales was pretty incredible considering the underfunded/losing environment that the regional game was for most of his time there.

You also fail to mention his progression at RWCs.

molloyjh

thomond2006 wrote: »

All well and good, but calling him lucky is crazy.

His success with Wales was pretty incredible considering the underfunded/losing environment that the regional game was for most of his time there.

You also fail to mention his progression at RWCs.

I wouldn't call him lucky. Every coach benefits from good luck and suffers from bad luck at times. He is a good coach. But while I wouldn't call him lucky or knock him, I wouldn't be fawning over him either.

His progress at RWCs is that they have won 2 games that we haven't. One against us where our coach bottled the selection call and once against a French side that had yet to find their way. That's not intended to entirely denigrate the achievement, but it is required in terms of putting that achievement into context.

ShatterProof

Louis Friend wrote: »

Does anyone think travel to the game will be permitted by June 26th?

You could probably take the boat to get around it but saying that I did cancel my tickets as you’re still not guaranteed to be allowed into the game depending on number allowed to attend.

Louis Friend

4 Six Nations titles, including 3 Grand Slams.

3 Lions Tours as Head Coach, with a win in Australia, a draw in New Zealand, and a ‘?’ in South Africa.

2 World Cup Semi-Finals.

3 Premiership titles.

1 Heineken European Cup.

1 European Challenge Cup.

“Lucky”

Augme

If WG is lucky or not as good as people make out, then what does that say about every other rugby coach? Who's better than him? For me he is one of the best ever coaches in the modern game.

OldRio

Good grief it was a couple of sentences. Read all of them.
Of course he is good. I never said he wasn't. I did say he was also lucky. I stand by both.