British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Well, now that the tour is over ..... I thought it was one of the very best Lions tours that I have seen over the past 30 years.
Somehow, yet again, the tour rose above the usual small minded pariochalism, the worst efforts of the home Unions and administrators, the bile and stupidity of the UK and NZ media.
The Lions, a scratch team with almost no time for preparation or training together, went into the homelands of indisputably the best team in the world, a fearsome All Black unit who have swept everything in front of them away. Into a country that genuinely eats, sleeps and dreams about rugby. They were competitive and well coached, and I think the drawn series may well have been the very best series result by any Lions team in history.
Conversely, a young New Zealand side, pretty hard hit by injuries, were on balance the superior side to a rich and well supported foreign team that had been drawn from a population of about 90 million people! They were playing against one of the strongest Lions squads ever assembled.
The Lions fans were great, loud and passionate without generally being obnoxious, superb supporters for the team. The New Zealand fans and public are probably the most knowledgeable rugby people on earth, and the welcome they provided - plus the mutual respect shown by both sets of supporters was brilliant.
The super high quality of the midweek and warm up games helped the Lions team get better. What great depth the New Zealand game has and fair play for not stripping the franschises of their best players, like the Aussies did last time.
On the pitch, I thought New Zealand were marginally the superior team. Their attacking play and speed was incredible. They led for all but three minutes of all three tests and I think they might feel aggrieved about some of the ref decisions. However, the defence and tenacity of the Lions was great, and they played some good attacking rugby too ..... THAT try will go down in history as one of the great Lions tries. However, they All Blacks were genuinely thrown by the ferocity of the defence and the Lions kickers were head and shoulders above poor old Barrett. The way they reacted to the defeat and draw was very classy (I always say that if you feel cheated by a ref decision, the game was too close for you to claim unfairness. A great team would be far enough ahead that a poor decision wouldn't make a difference).
For the record, I thought Sonny Bill deserved a red card, I though Vunipola was skating on thin ice, and I also thought the 'accidental offside' should have been a penalty. Still, that's the way it goes.
Roll on South Africa. What a shame it's 12 more years until we go back to New Zealand!
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
The Lions tour received barely any publicity from what I have saw which was a shame, I only caught yesterdays game and it was fantastic.
New Zealand let themselves down when they squandered a couple of good chances, The lions fought like their name suggests, they managed to get the draw without scoring a single try, yeah, the All Blacks were the better team but The Lions showed the heart and didn't give up.
The offside/accidental offside was pretty dubious, I thought it should have been a penalty but at the same time I can see why the decision went the way it did.
I'm pretty gutted that I missed thought whole tour and only caught the one game, I used to love the rugby but as with the F1 and snooker I have fell out of touch with it all just lately, now that I don't follow the football as much I'm making a concerted effort to get back into other sports evn if it is just so I can hold my own in conversations.
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
I know it was a draw and the manager said that they could have won if they arrived earlier. Not really a fan but England did well, I thought after the first game they were going to get whitewashed.
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
but England did well.
:lol:
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Quote:
Originally Posted by
X
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
but England did well.
:lol:
Yes, the rest were shit.
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
I thought this was about a tourist trip
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Again it was on sky were it should have been on terrestrial tv so it was seen by the few and not the many! I enjoyed the games NZ were just beding in some new
players hell once they click back to World domination, the Lions played well it was a good test the Lions should have had more time to gel but as the norm last minute.:)
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
X
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
but England did well.
:lol:
Yes, the rest were shit.
Have you ever watched a rugby match?
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
X
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
but England did well.
:lol:
Yes, the rest were shit.
Have you ever watched a rugby match?
Chasing eggs is not my cup of tea, the All Blacks are good but I bet New Zealand could beat them.
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
X
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
but England did well.
:lol:
Yes, the rest were shit.
Have you ever watched a rugby match?
Chasing eggs is not my cup of tea, the All Blacks are good but I bet New Zealand could beat them.
Nuff said.
At least we are better than Italy.
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
X
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
but England did well.
:lol:
Yes, the rest were shit.
Have you ever watched a rugby match?
Chasing eggs is not my cup of tea, the All Blacks are good but I bet New Zealand could beat them.
Nuff said.
At least we are better than Italy.
"WE"?
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Primo Carnera
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
Quote:
Originally Posted by
X
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Master
but England did well.
:lol:
Yes, the rest were shit.
Have you ever watched a rugby match?
Chasing eggs is not my cup of tea, the All Blacks are good but I bet New Zealand could beat them.
Nuff said.
At least we are better than Italy.
"WE"?
Yes the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish.
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
The Italians aren't bad at rugby, especially so when you think its not one of their traditional sports and they haven't been playing it that long.
They are a tier 2 country, so not too shabby. I think they are ranked in the top 15 in the world, which is pretty good by anyone's standards.
They play in the Six Nations every year, against Tier 1 and traditionally very strong teams every year so their results always reflect that, but they've produced some wonderful players ..... Sergio Parisse would have walked into ANY international side over the past decade.
Re: British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Quote:
Originally Posted by
X
The Italians aren't bad at rugby, especially so when you think its not one of their traditional sports and they haven't been playing it that long.
They are a tier 2 country, so not too shabby. I think they are ranked in the top 15 in the world, which is pretty good by anyone's standards.
They play in the Six Nations every year, against Tier 1 and traditionally very strong teams every year so their results always reflect that, but they've produced some wonderful players ..... Sergio Parissei would have walked into ANY international side over the past decade.
^^^@Master , read and learn.
