British & Irish Lions Vs. Wellington

Nukem

Backs
15 Josh LEWSEY (London Wasps, England)
14 Jason ROBINSON (Sale Sharks, England)
13 Brian O’DRISCOLL (Leinster, Ireland) CAPTAIN
12 Gavin HENSON (Ospreys, Wales)
11 Gareth THOMAS (Toulouse, Wales)
10 Jonny WILKINSON (Newcastle Falcons, England)
9 Dwyane PEEL (Llanelli, Wales)
Forwards
1 Gethin JENKINS (Cardiff Blues, Wales)
2 Shayne BYRNE (Leinster, Ireland)
3 Julian WHITE (Leicester Tigers, England)
4 Danny GREWCOCK (Bath, England)
5 Ben KAY (Leicester Tigers, England)
6 Simon EASTERBY (Llanelli, Ireland)
7 Neil BACK (Leicester Tigers)
8 Martin CORRY (Leicester Tigers, England) VICE CAPTAIN

Replacements
16 Gordon BULLOCH (Glasgow, Scotland)
17 Matt STEVENS (Bath, England)
18 Paul O’CONNELL (Munster, Ireland)
19 Lewis MOODY (Leicester Tigers, England)
20 Chris CUSITER (Borders, Scotland)
21 Stephen JONES (Clermont Auvergne, Wales)
22 Shane HORGAN (Leinster, Ireland)

Dunno what to make of that team? Its all over the place

Davei141

Im with you there, been looking at the team for a while now and something just doesnt look right.

Bri

Is it?

In regards to the backs, Lewsey has proved himself fairly good contender as Lions full-back, even in the Maori game he didn't have a stinker (the ball hit his face I swear!). O'Driscoll and Henson played together vs. Bay of Plenty, and although the latter didn't shine he was surprisingly physical I think. Robinson needs to start to contend for a place; he's a late arriver too right? Peel deserves another match to cement his position for the test games and Wilkinson should have been replacing Jones after 60mins in the Maori game. Forwards wise is a little shakier but I guess now is the time to experiment. For instance I'd prefer is Gethin Jenkins wasn't starting, but Byrne chosen out of the 4 hookers is a good thing!

AB's like Umanga won't be in the squad for the game so is it not better to try a few questionable placements a few matches in, and with the unofficial 4th test over?

I'm not saying it's a match winning selection but what specifically is wrong with it?

Davei141

Im not saying any of the players are bad, apart from jenkins ha...But they seem more like hastily thrown together 'lets kill them after the maori defeat' and i just feel an imbalance. A knee-jerk reaction team if you will.

Bri

Fair enough I was just thinking about that myself. Given the post-match talk I guess it's fair enough for them to instintively want to win the next one to get back up there. Inclusions of people like Corry should help that mentality.

KnowItAll

I'm more worried about tactics rather than who's playing. I hope they won't be as bad as the Maori game.

If the breakdown doesn't improve then they have no chance in the tests, they'll get hammered. The breakdown is bad because they are too preoccupied defending ( spreading the defensive line accross the pitch) and hope the opponents make a mistake rather than committing numbers to the rucks. This means they are good in defence but it also means they cannot get the ball and so they spend all their time defending. They need to take that risk and throw more men into the rucks (like the All Blacks) because it's impossible to defend for the whole match against anybody nevermind the AB's!

Nukem

With that back row i would be very surprised if the break down wasnt way better.Back is fast to the break down as is Corry and Easterby but all of the three give away a few penalties so they will have to behave

Souless

Heh its a weird team alright but I think it shoudl work out well. Finally we get to see if this hipe about wilko is true or just bull. I dont like the fact O'Connell is on the bench though. Other than that not really a complaint to be made by me accept I hope that they have a had a chance to practice as a team with the new additions of robbinson and thomas I dunno if that will work the best but only time will tell.

sleepwalker

seems like a damn good team to me only problem being jenkins shouldnt be playing after his woeful show on saturday and i would have liked to see murphy play again

BogOak

totally agree about murphy. lewsey's had a fair crack of the whip at this stage. otherwise i think its a good strong team. o'connel will definitely be in the test team but they should be trying out byrne when o'connel is there as well seeing as the line-out is their big shared strength and they already have a working relationship.

zAbbo

19 Lewis MOODY (Leicester Tigers, England) - you can take him out, he's out for the game tomorrow and saturday, if not more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4090716.stm

Hill Takes his place

Nukem

On another note. Gavin Henson bitta fluff Charolette Church flew out yesterday to NZ - was on the front page of some newspaper,like ffs sake they arent the Beckhams :mad: be more worried about winning matches.

Davei141

He also went to the hair stylists haha, wonder if hes afraid to run with the ball incase his messes up the do.

Bri

Did anyone read the long article on him in the IT's Lions Supplement? He seems to lap all the attention up - with the goal of making rugby as popular as soccer (apparantly!). He re-does the hair at half time.

Funniest thing was describing an opposing prop banging away on the changing room wall before a match, yelling out how he's gonna kill Henson. Meanwhile he's lying on the changing room floor applying fake tan happy as larry.

jank

Will there be a live stream be avilable for this match??

Bri

I hope I'm wrong but I doubt it - Sky have the rights to this, although RTE have radio coverage I think...can't see them letting it go out live for free. Plenty of pubs are open for the matches.

sleepwalker

yeh if you dont have sky just head into town, the aussie bar beside ugc is showing all the matches