**Official** 2005 Lions tour of New Zealand

[cbuts]

Officially according to press reports no citings on Umaga or Mealamu for the tackle on Brian O'Driscoll.

However O'Driscoll in his own statement from the hospital has implied deliberateness on the part of the 2 players to take him out of the game and the Tour !! His Lions tour it seems is over !! Seems like he is very bitter about the incident !! Understandably so and obviously very disappointed. But may be he should've taken advice from Lions Management before releasing this statement.

Richard Hill also looks likely to be sent back following his injury .

-4 players after that test. does that mean we are going to get players 50, 51, 52 ,53 flown over?

 

[JASON]

More I hear accounts and opinions on the tackle, I feel Sir Clive has a point about the incident. Spear tackle and taking a player away from the ball are both illegal. But the citing officer has done nothing. So SCW and Lions should move on without harping on it . Today I heard Neil Back whingeing about the incident !!

Graham Henry could counter this SCW psychological back pressure by considering dropping Mealamu or Tana or both and bringing them back for the 3rd Test !! There are plenty of very good replacements in the bench to do that !!

That way if the replacements do well and the Lions are beaten again, they will not be able to continue on about the players that should have been cited and not been playing the second Test ! And this way Henry would put the pressure back on SCW and Lions for the Second Test.

I also fear that if the 2 players do play in the second Test, depending on who the referee is , they are likely to be sent off at the first opportunity and will end up missing the rest of that Test as well as resulting in ABs being down to 14 men!! This is a very likely scenario.

And next time the citing commissioner may not come down as easily as he did this time ?

IMO, Playing the 2 players in the second test is asking for one off them to be Sin-binned
sooner or later or for a big ruckus to develop in the game and spoil the game for good !!

 

[Craig]

Lol Lions 57 -6 over Manawatu.

 

[cbuts]

More I hear accounts and opinions on the tackle, I feel Sir Clive has a point about the incident. Spear tackle and taking a player away from the ball are both illegal. But the citing officer has done nothing. So SCW and Lions should move on without harping on it . Today I heard Neil Back whingeing about the incident !!

Graham Henry could counter this SCW psychological back pressure by considering dropping Mealamu or Tana or both and bringing them back for the 3rd Test !! There are plenty of very good replacements in the bench to do that !!

That way if the replacements do well and the Lions are beaten again, they will not be able to continue on about the players that should have been cited and not been playing the second Test ! And this way Henry would put the pressure back on SCW and Lions for the Second Test.

I also fear that if the 2 players do play in the second Test, depending on who the referee is , they are likely to be sent off at the first opportunity and will end up missing the rest of that Test as well as resulting in ABs being down to 14 men!! This is a very likely scenario.

And next time the citing commissioner may not come down as easily as he did this time ?

IMO, Playing the 2 players in the second test is asking for one off them to be Sin-binned
sooner or later or for a big ruckus to develop in the game and spoil the game for good !!

you are allowed to tackle aanyplayer within a metre of a ruck (think its a metre) called blowing out. y would they be likely to be sent off? first of all there was nothing in the incident. second they did nothing illegal. third different ref. and whens the alst time you saw either of those players in trouble?

109-6. dont think thats a win for anyone really. it was surly obvious that a middle of the road 2nd div team should loose by a hundred plus to an international team of this quality. for more this game just posses more questoins than answers. biggest being, shane williams, how would he go against rico?

 

[shaka]

Is Rokocoko available for the Auckland v Lions clash, should be an awesome game if he is, then they would have roko and dougy

 

[cbuts]

has doug been released?

 

[shaka]

He is not in the 22 for Saturday, so I can only guess he is released for Auckland

 

[shaka]

Doug is not in, damn i really thought he would be, Semisi Telefoni gets a surprise chance against the lions.

http://xtramsn.co.nz/sport/0,,9648-4524226,00.html

 

[KennyD]

biggest being, shane williams, how would he go against rico?

Willims will need ball to win that battle. And I doubt he'll get it. NZ to win the 2nd match.

 

[Tim]

If the Lions hadn't put at least 60 points on Manawatu then they should have been seriously concerned.
None of the Manawatu players are professional and they all have full-time jobs.

Much better team for the Lions this week though..I think they'll go much better.

Great to see Semesi Telefoni get into the Auckland side. He was a year above me at Primary School & College and is an extremely nice & genuine person.

 

[shaka]

He played a couple of games for Auckland in NPC training matches

 

[cbuts]

He is not in the 22 for Saturday, so I can only guess he is released for Auckland

gotta remeber that there is a test on saturday. he is possibly not playing this week to have a rest. gotta remeber we still got tri natoins and a grand slam tour this year

 

[JASON]

If the Lions hadn't put at least 60 points on Manawatu then they should have been seriously concerned.
None of the Manawatu players are professional and they all have full-time jobs.

A puzzling thing for me is why does Manawatu a second division Team play the Lions , but Waikato a Super 12 franchise and first division Team, doesn't get a game against the Lions ?

 

[shaka]

maybe they wanted to involve the "lesser" clubs to bring in people who may not usually go to watch their team in a big game.

 

[cbuts]

tradition, and also location. lions didnt want to be up the other end of the country when they had a test a few days later. although that really doesnt make sense seeing as you can fly from hamilton to wellington in less than an hour.

 

[JASON]

Prince William the heir to throne of Britain and New Zealand is in the country !!

Nice to see the most celebrated Royal in the country !!

Also Dr.Syd Miller , President of IRB and IIRC an Irish former International !!

So it seems all the Big guns in the country for the Second Lions Test !!

The presence of Prince William bound to have a positive impact on the Lions.

I predict the Lions to win a very very close tussle at Windy Wellington !!

* wonders what the weather Gods have in store for the Test *

 

[shaka]

Harry is also touring NZ at some point in this tour. Is it a record number of royals in NZ at one time, in this case it will be 3

 

[KennyD]

Funny thing about Prince Harry.

After England won the World Cup, he got all ~rah rah~ on Rugby. He was then given like, some underprivelged side to coach back in England. However, he had no Rugby coaching accreditation from any institution sanctioned by the IRB, meaning he would not be allowed to coach due to the whole safety side of things.

When this was brought up, this guy who gave him the job said something like,

"Its alright, Harry has been watching rugby at the highest level for many years"

Pfft, then what kind of Rugby have we been watching???

 

[JASON]

Funny thing about Prince Harry.

After England won the World Cup, he got all ~rah rah~ on Rugby. He was then given like, some underprivelged side to coach back in England. However, he had no Rugby coaching accreditation from any institution sanctioned by the IRB, meaning he would not be allowed to coach due to the whole safety side of things.

When this was brought up, this guy who gave him the job said something like,

"Its alright, Harry has been watching rugby at the highest level for many years"

Pfft, then what kind of Rugby have we been watching???

 

[JASON]

I don't know whether I should commend Sir Clive and the Lions management or not , for turning a week that should've been about the domination of the All Blacks into a week of discussion about spear tackles, illegal tackles and failure or not of the Citing Official !!

Anyway getting onto the Test at Wellington - weather expected to be fine from what I have heard !!

I expect Lions to win by drop goal or a penalty by Johnny W. against a 14 man All Blacks !! ( I predict one AB player to be sent off early at the first given opportunity for no obvious reason other than to appease Sir Clive !! )
Worst case scenario would be for a Full Punching Melee to erupt very early in the game and for several players to be sent off !!

I hope the players put on a decent show for the Royals and everyone without turning this game into a farcical game of 12 vs 13 or some such silly thing like that !! (Which it has a potential to become if the referee and match officials lose control of the game !!)

Ref tonight is Andrew Cole, a Sydney Dentist , but he doesn't have too many Big Test Match refereeing under his belt although he has done a very decent job in the Super 12 !!
He could easily be put under pressure and end up penalising or sending off players, because from what I've seen of him , he does not tolerate nonsense from any body !!