Well it’s not as though Leali’ifano isn’t known for injury troubles; from his Brumbies page:
Great player, terrible luck with injuries.
You know what? I am going to be “that guy”.
This game was reffed by by a bloke who seemed unable to see anything that anyone in Yellow was doing. I don’t blame Australia - as I said up thread, they will always make it difficult, are generally a better side than they’re given credit for and got spectacularly unlucky with injuries. They also took what was given to them in large part. They’re a good side, who really put in a great performance in trying circumstances. It sure as shit helps when the ref can’t stick his arm out to the oppo though.
For the avoidance of doubt, I have no problem with Pollock’s interpretation of the breakdown - you have to support your weight on your feet when competing for the ball and once the Lions were penalised a couple of times, they should have adapted. That they kept getting penalised there was just brainless.
What I do have a problem with is the fact that Pollock was incredibly inconsistent about what he was going to penalise. For instance, the Lions were, rightly, penalised for going off their feet at tackle. Australia got away with it all game though. Case in point - the first Australia try was a wonderful piece of play by Will Genia and well finished by Folau. It came from a pen, where the ball came free out the back of a ruck, O’Driscoll swept it up and the first 2 Oz defenders went off their feet. Somehow it was given as a penalty to Australia, from which Genia took the quick tap leading to the score.
The first scrum - Oz engaged early. It was reset. When the Lions went early, immediate free kick.
Midway through the first half, a kick went up and was fielded by a Lions player - a maul ensues, during which Berrick Barnes lifted a Lions player’s leg off the floor and walked it round the outside of the maul. He must have had his leg in the air for 2 or 3 seconds. The ref ignored it - despite it being dangerous play.
A kick goes up, Will Genia fields it and is converged on by 3 Lions. He goes to ground and holds on. Result, scrum Australia, instead of penalty Lions.
The final penalty that Beale slipped over on was given at a scrum. It was the correct call. The Lions got mullered. However, it came from a reset scrum. The first scrum saw the Lions going forward and the Oz loose head hinge it down. No penalty. A reset.
These are just the ones I can remember; I have watched the game twice and was a hell of a lot more calm the second time. My view is the Lions very nearly got hosed by the ref. Perhaps a more charitable view would be that Pollock was just incompetent. There should have been two yellow cards - one for Oz and one on Paul O’Connell - for flagrantly killing the ball in the shadow of their own tryline. It’s possible that Pollock is just fucking weak.
Leaving all of that to one side - the game wasn’t just close because of the ref. The Lions back row selection was revealed to be pretty imbalanced (I am of the view that you can play Croft and Faletau or Lydiate and Heaslip but you can’t play Croft and Heaslip, as they offer too little grunt) and had to be bailed out by their front 5 playing out of their skins. Also curious is that when the opposition have had their full back and inside centre go out with concussion, their replacement centre is off with a neck injury, one of the back line has a dislocated shoulder and Australia have flankers playing in the backs, you should probably not be making the attacking decisions that they made. How about trying to run at the backs instead of sticking to Gatlandball and continuing going around the corner at breakdown?
The Lions’ substitution policy is just mental. Adam Jones was not looking that knackered to me and was just getting on top of his man at scrum when, on 50 minutes, he was substituted. I actually shouted “What The Fuck?” at the TV. Similarly Alun-Wyn Jones was having a belting game and they took him off for Parling - a guy who is a lineout operator but not a great scrummager, after they had weakened the scrum by taking off Adam Jones and Vunipola had to come on for the injured Corbisiero. That final penalty at scrum was waiting to happen. Why are they not just looking at what is in front of them - both in terms of attack and how the game has developed with respect to substitutions - and then deciding accordingly. Pre-planning is all well and good; rigidity though is death.
These two sides are very close to each other and I expect two more close games of rugby. It may, unfortunately, come down to factors that can’t be controlled for though. The ref for one (when Romain Poite - or Random Putain as he is occasionally known - is down to ref the third test, anything could happen) and the sheer weight of injuries for another (O’Connell was immense on Saturday and is now out of the tour, the Lions are now on their 6th choice loose head prop on tour - not to mention the freak run of injuries that has been inflicted on possibly the unluckiest Wallaby squad of all time). All I want for the Lions is for them to wake up and control the factors that they have the ability to control. Get the selection right and play with their heads up instead of to the rigid plan, especially if it’s not working.
The Lions have the advantage, obviously, but this series is still too close to call for me.
I don’t apologise for quoting all the above, because I agree with all of it!
The only thing to add is that there are differences between refereeing styles in the two hemispheres, because the North see the scrum, mauls and rucks as contests of skill; the South purely as a rapid way of getting the ball into play.
Hi Glee.
Yes, I know this - and largely agree with your analysis - but I did say in my polemical screed, that I don’t have much of an issue with the breakdown. The teams are reffed by guys from either hemisphere regularly and should be able to adapt. Where I thought the Lions got done by the ref was that the self same things that they got penalised for, were not penalised when done by Australia. To a certain extent, I’m not even that fussed if the guys is right or wrong in law, so long as he refs both teams to the same standard (which is about the only positive thing you can say about him not hitting his pocket for Palu and O’Connell killing the ball on their own tryline).
I missed the second test, another nailbiter though. All set for a huge final test this weekend. Far too close to call for me.
There is a cigarette paper between these two sides and it wouldn’t surprise me if the teams finish within 1 or 2 points of each other again on Saturday. Sadly, with the games this close, I suspect that the ref is going to be the centre of attention again and one side or the other is going to feel harshly done by. Hopefully there will be few, if any, contentious calls.
The Lions have some obvious weaknesses - they can’t seem to get over the gain line, their defensive system is dodgy when certain players are not involved and the injuries in the front row have left what seemed like an area of strength as one of weakness. If they can get Corbisiero and Roberts on the field on Saturday, they might be able to do something about some of this but, given both have been injured, they are banking on a long shot for these guys to last 80 minutes. I think Oz are going to win this series but it is going to be mighty close.
I saw that the filth are opening up Sydney’s new, mandatory sobering-up centre just in time for the influx of drunken poms, charging them $200 for the privilege of four hours’ detention under the Central Court building.
I know the game’s being played out at Homebush, but I can’t imagine that the cops won’t keep cycling through two dozen paddy wagons down at the Quay and make their revenue targets for the year in the first week of July.
Enjoy the trip back to Christchurch, Robbie.
Whew! I was not expecting that.
When the Lions jumped out to 13-3 I was thinking “watch them try and sit on a lead for 60 minutes”; when the Wallabies pulled it back to 16-13 I was thinking “here we go”.
With hindsight the 14-man rearguard and then the comeback took too much out of the Wallabies - there were some very tired players in gold shirts in the last half hour.
And kudos to Gatland for having the nerve to drop O’Driscoll for the decider and not letting the press bully him out of it. O’Driscoll has lost a step, he hadn’t been playing well - but how many people would actually drop the 4-time Lion from his redemption game?
I actually said the Lions would lose after they went 27 phases in the Wallibies half without scoring at about 30 minutes into the first half. With the scores at 16-13 early in the second half I felt sure the Wallabies would win. Only to watch them implode in the final 20 minutes. The thirteen-man lineout at the end was taking the piss I bit I thought.
Overall it was a very enjoyable series. Roll on 2017 and the All Blacks. I hope I manage to get lucky again and score tickets to a test in the ballot (like I did in 2005).
I just realised I will be 48 when the Lions come out here next. Probably unlikely that I’ll get a call up.
Well, I was shocked. Didn’t see that one coming at all - given the closeness of the series up to the 55th minute of the final game (when Sexton went over for the Lions), with only 4 points separating the teams over 3 matches, I was expecting it to be very tight.
It was an interesting series from a selectorial point of view for the Lions. Arguably, in using Heaslip and Croft in the first 2 games, it looked like the Lions were trying to play in wider channels off Sexton. In the final game, with the move to Faletau (who was immense) and O’Brien, they played much more off Phillips and concentrated on getting over the gain line. Though Phillips wasn’t great this weekend, this tactic worked much better, principally because the dirty little secret of the Lions tour is that Sexton was pretty poor all series (if you stand that deep at 10, you’re going to make it difficult to get over the gain line - and indeed, Sexton frequently was lining up guys running off him for the Aussie defenders) and they didn’t think Farrell could be trusted to run the game. By bringing in a bunch of power forwards and concentrating on making some yards, they got themselves on the front foot, allowing them to dictate the game. They probably should have been doing this earlier in the series.
It helped, of course, that someone in the Lions medical team is a miracle worker and got Corbisiero back on the field. Pretty much all the Lions points in the first half were due to a dominant scrum. Adam Jones was an absolute rock and Dan Cole picked a good time to have his first decent game on tour too. Richard Hibbard really put himself to the sword as well - he probably should have gone off after that clash of heads with Smith and the delayed concussion that saw him briefly pass out after an ensuing scrummage. In truth, it seems pointless to pick our any members of the pack though - they were pretty much all uniformly excellent, winning the game at breakdown, winning the collisions and providing go forward.
Looks like Robbie Deans is gone now too. Ewen Mackenzie is supposedly coming in. I suspect that this might mean the return of Quade Cooper sooner rather than later.
From a Kiwi perspective it is pleasant to see our Australian rivals lose the series, but not in any nasty way. The Wallabies are a class act and the All Blacks never take them for granted.
What I would like to do is celebrate the success of the British Lions. When they toured NZ in 2005 rugby people were saying that would be the last Lions tour. It was becoming too hard to meld the different nation’s teams into one unit in these days of professional rugby.
Thank goodness all the pundits were wrong.
I was a volunteer at the grounds for one of the 2005 matches and was struck by the genial friendly attitude of the British supporters. They were a pleasure to meet and have as guests in our country. A far cry from the soccer yobbos which some had feared.
Australia should not be dismayed, they were beaten 2 out of 3 but that is unusual - unless they are playing the All Blacks.
At the end of the day it’s a game of two halves, both sides turned up, they played the full eighty minutes, and rugby is the winner. (dammit no irony icon)