Lions V Wellington (scores)

KevIRL

Latest

Wellington 3 Lions 13

Jenkins with try, Wilko 2 pens and a con

KevIRL

Wellington 6 - Lions 13 HT

KevIRL

Wellington 6 - Lions 16

KevIRL

Wellington 6 - Lions 23 (77 mins)

Thomas try

KevIRL

Full Time

Wellington 6 British and Irish Lions 23

RuggieBear

lions will have to do much better...but there were glimpses of class in an otherwise mediocre display.

uberwolf

my interpretation of BBC text suggests Shane Byrne has done himself some favours. Anyone else?

KevIRL

:cool:

RuggieBear wrote:

lions will have to do much better...but there were glimpses of class in an otherwise mediocre display.

Indeed, but its a step in the right direction. Thought Byrne was good, could have played his way into the test team. Easterby surprised me :eek: O Driscoll was far from his best again.

Long long way to go tho

RuggieBear

byrne is test hooker by default.....he was not very prominent in the loose and failed to gain much ground when carrying. Except for one overthow his throwing was perfect. Pitty Thompson can't throw when the pressure is on.

wilko was good, bad and ugly...good passing, bad kicking and even worse tackling....his right shoulkder is ****ed.

props were excellent...really killed the wellington front row and if the ref wasn't an incompetant biased wanker we would have had another 15 penalties (slight exageration ). The ref inexpicably free kicked and penalised the lions at scrums for most of the second half.

robinson was poor.....but then he got ****all ball but when he did get it he made no ground or kicked it badly.

BOD missed tackles AGAIN. but his rucking was good and he forced a few turnovers almost singlehandedly....no pun intended

refs are letting these NZ teams away with murder....spoiling, late hits, high tackles etc....

Jivin Turkey

Particularly disappointing second half I thought.

The set themselves up well in the first half and totally dominated territory without yielding too much. In the second half it was more end to end (or 22 to 22) without anyone really threatening to break through. Too many handling errors by both sides. The Lions also kicked a lot of ball away aimlessly.

O'Driscoll was average again, I just hope he is saving his big performances for next week onwards.

Byrne did well, hit his man fairly consistently. The lack of a world class hooker could have him in the test side. He has been the most consistent thrower I have seen on tour and that will be vitally important as its one of the areas that we could definitely dominate.

Gethin Jenkins was outstanding and given MOTM by Barnes. The best performance I have seen from a prop in a long time. Held his own in the scrum (where White did most of the damage), but was amazing in the loose. Popping up everywhere, getting his hands on the ball, supporting on the shoulder. There is some pace on him too, he chased an up and under by Wilkinson in the first half and was first to it! Good try too.

I cant see anyone at the moment except White and Jenkins for the props.

For the last 15 or so Woodward brought on Jones for Henson and moved Wilkinson to inside centre, they didnt really have time to gel but it was a formation that I think could work particularly if Wilkinson could rediscover his big hitting form. The one draw back is that it leaves him exposed a lot more than he would be at outhalf as he would be required to take the ball on a lot more.

Overall, not the best, a lot of improvement needed. Some positives to draw from it, but a long way still to go if they want to win the series. NZ will punish them much harder than the teams so far have.

Davei141

I almost teared my hair out second half. Wellington never posed any threats, we had a lead of 7 ( yeah i know one try would of put them level) But when we had 16 points it was the same, yet everytime we were in a position to go for the kill, the ball was handed to wilkinson for a kick at goal. I know it kills off games but this team was really bad. Not once was robinson/lewsey used on the wing...to be honest i dont think a pass ever reached the wing. Wilkinson and peele's passing was really bad, LOTs of balls lost forward. Good points were shane byrne deffinately, great throwing and anihalated the scrum. Danny grewcock had a very good solid game. Gethin jenkins suprisingly upped his game tenfold and was magnificent. Henson showed alot of promise with the runs, if only he could of offloaded. Gareth thomas was brilliant, had an absolutely great game and the commentator went on for 5 minutes about how he was fended off too easily, one time in the whole match. Lewsey didnt put a foot wrong, he had nothing to do. Sheridan looks to of cemented his test place. I hope they choose another fly half, not because wilkinson talents are in question, but because when he plays the adventure and risk is totally taken out of the game.

sleepwalker

well done to the entire front row thought they were superb

o'driscoll did fine i thought, he cant do much attacking wise if he doesnt get the ball but his rucking was excellent.

the back row did well actually the pack is really starting to take shape id like to o'connoll and o'callaghan play together now on saturday


its the backs that are worrying me and im seriously starting to think that murphy and possibly horgan deserve a spot in the test team, looking forward to saturday now to see if they will play the irish back three again the only problem with it really being there fairly fragile in defence at times especially murphy and hickie

they need to sort out the inside centre position though the wilkinson idea is an interesting move 20 minutes isnt long enough to see if it works or not and really why even use it have we have henson and darcy to use.
its fairly worrying though that hodgson has had by far the best game of any out-half yet and perhaps we'll see o'gara get a chance on saturday

RuggieBear

Davei141 wrote:

Sheridan looks to of cemented his test place.

Sheridan wasn't playing.....white was... and matt stevens came on

Davei141

Haha my bad, the match was early! White was excellent.

Nukem

1.Jenkins - was outstanding in the loose and in the scrum. The guy had the best game of his life.Usually gives away silly penalties but not once today
2.Bryne - Lineout was 90% perfect and in the loose he did his cahnces of a test place the world of good.
3.White.Excellent in the scrum,minced the front row and was effective hitting the rucks
4.Grewcock-did nothing wrong,supported well and good in the line out.
5.Kay-did nothing wrong,supported well and good in the line out.
6.Easterby-looked to have a brilliant game,lineout was solid.Hit every tackle like it was his last.
7.Back-huge fan i am and he didnt disappoint me one bit.First to every ball or close to it all the time.Another game like that and he's the first name on the test sheet.
8.Corry-good support and was handy in the loose.
9.Peel-good but not great,lot of high passes.Counted 7 in a row that Wilko had to readjust to jump or go back for the ball.
10.Wolko-still no where near his best at all.A lot of stupid hospital passes and some dodgy kicking.
11.Thomas-looked poor in defence at times but goin forward was immense.Taking the ball forward with every attack
12.Henson-impressed slightly.Some good moves and tackles.
13.BOD-quiet but in support and always a threat.Lot of people tracking him and gave room for others.
14.Robinson-looked rusty and didnt see much of the ball really.
Lewsey-Quiet but some good touches and a good few kicks.

All in all a good enough performance when it was very wet.Still needs improvement but getting there

Nukem

JuliusFranco

does anybody reckon Easterby is in with a chance for a test spot?

Nukem

JuliusFranco wrote:

does anybody reckon Easterby is in with a chance for a test spot?

Moody out - Easterby puts in another good performace anything could happen

CJhaughey

JuliusFranco wrote:

does anybody reckon Easterby is in with a chance for a test spot?

Who else is there for this position? Seriously he wouldn't be anywhere near my favourite 7 but he will have to do for this.
BUT up against McCaw? I wonder..........

KnowItAll

A poor game but it was never going to be great considering how bad the weather was.

I thought Wilkinson was poor. Passing, kicking and his discision making. I would not start him for the tests as he has only played 4 games since comming back from injury. Even though Hodgeson played the best out of all the no 10's so far, I think he should not be on tour at all. He is a superb player until it comes to the big games. O'Gara can control a game better than Jones or Wilkinson. He played average in the first game but it was only his second game in months.

The front row did well and Byrne will start for the lions.

Easterby had a very good game and I think it could be between himself and Hill for the no 6 jersey.

Henson failed to impress me once again. Apart from his display against England in the 6 nations he has done nothing great. I'd like to see Shanklin playing there instead. Don't know why they brought out Greenwood and Smith because there is too many centers and not enough games.

Robinson got little ball but done little when he did get it. I wouldn't even put him on the bench for the tests. Thomas played very well. I'd play him in the tests because he is a leader as well.

Bri

13.BOD-quiet but in support and always a threat.Lot of people tracking him and gave room for others.

Indeed. I think he's getting too much stick for not skipping around 3+ players to score. He seemed more like a captain in this game, and did plenty of the non-glamorous work. Just because he doesn't have ball in hand doesn't mean he isn't playing well as you say above.

Whatever they said to Jenkins after the last match, lets hope it can be replicated again...he'd better not get on the team and then revert back to his old ways.

Impressed by Kay, Easterby and Byrne.
Think Wilko is showing the lack of match time and under-performed. I'd forgive Peel for some passes given his proper try-creating foresight - Dawson could learn a thing or two!

Overall quite a frustrating game, especially the 2nd half where you were just waiting for them to sew it up after their 'almost' scores throughout the first half.

BogOak

easterby has absolutely no chance of a test place. moody is back and if he wasn't they would have called up o'connor. back and williams would be the number seven contenders. at six someone said it was between easterby and hill. another way of saying that is that its definitely hill. every backrow on tour is higher in the pecking order than easterby i'm afraid.

KnowItAll

BogOak wrote:

easterby has absolutely no chance of a test place. moody is back and if he wasn't they would have called up o'connor. back and williams would be the number seven contenders. at six someone said it was between easterby and hill. another way of saying that is that its definitely hill. every backrow on tour is higher in the pecking order than easterby i'm afraid.

Easterby was the first to almost every breakdown. I used to think he wasn't much good but in terms of keeping hold of the ball he could be usefull.

I think it's a disgrace that Johnny O'Connor isn't on tour! He's by far the best no 7 in Britian & Ire. When I first saw him I questioned what all the hype was about but after some great preformances my questions were answered.