International Rugby

[VILLA MOLE]

in other topics  i would like us to have Cadbury as our sponsor next season like the Aussies .  looks class

[Meanwood Villa]

Might have spoken too soon

[VILLA MOLE]

Might have spoken too soon

getting good now 😃

[paul_e]

The 2 tries will make this look better but the defending from the lions whilst they were down to 14 was pathetic.

I don't like the balance of the back row, we've gone a little too far too the big and strong end of the spectrum and we're lacking a bit of guilt around the fringe, which they're targeting.

[Meanwood Villa]

Great drama in the end

[paul_e]

The lions were ok but there were 3-4 of them who will be lucky to play the 3rd test. Conan, Lowe and Furlong in particular were very poor.

[olaftab]

Don't understand the technical side of RU but I enjoyed the match. Some may say BILs were fortunate but I didn't think that when final try went over the line. The team that dominated the last 20 mins won.

[paul_e]

Don't understand the technical side of RU but I enjoyed the match. Some may say BILs were fortunate but I didn't think that when final try went over the line. The team that dominated the last 20 mins won.

Our defence was embarrassing, too many missed tackles and too many players slow to fan across. Aside from that the entire setup was to be physically dominant which just about worked but I'd like to see a little more intent to play. We've won the series so any complaints feel a little unfair but this australia team is fucking shit and we've let them be competitive.

[Jon Crofts]

Tizzano feigning a head injury at the end was pathetic and classic whiney arsed Australians will no doubt have plenty to say about the decision, which was perfectly correct, maybe he should be cited the massive wanker.

[PaulWinch again]

I think there was plenty of intent to play, but a slightly misguided view of what you can do with a team pulled together like this. Lions have only won 6 series, so it shouldn’t be scoffed at.

[ChicagoLion]

Don't understand the technical side of RU but I enjoyed the match. Some may say BILs were fortunate but I didn't think that when final try went over the line. The team that dominated the last 20 mins won.

Our defence was embarrassing, too many missed tackles and too many players slow to fan across. Aside from that the entire setup was to be physically dominant which just about worked but I'd like to see a little more intent to play. We've won the series so any complaints feel a little unfair but this australia team is fucking shit and we've let them be competitive.

Why was the defence so poor in comparison to the first test? Not saying they were brilliant but better than for long periods last night.
But like you I thought the speed and numbers into the contact area and to cover gaps seemed to be lacking.

[UK Redsox]

Re the defence…..Aki is still a force in attack, but there were times he was like a bullfighter giving it the big red cloth swish when the Aussies ran at him.

Very good game to watch

[paul_e]

I think there was plenty of intent to play, but a slightly misguided view of what you can do with a team pulled together like this. Lions have only won 6 series, so it shouldn’t be scoffed at.

What I mean by intent to play is to do something other than play the percentages. It's worked and we've won the series but this is the worst Australian squad I can ever recall and we only just scraped by in this game. A big part of it is the over-reliance on physicality, which is common in international rugby right now.

[paul_e]

Don't understand the technical side of RU but I enjoyed the match. Some may say BILs were fortunate but I didn't think that when final try went over the line. The team that dominated the last 20 mins won.

Our defence was embarrassing, too many missed tackles and too many players slow to fan across. Aside from that the entire setup was to be physically dominant which just about worked but I'd like to see a little more intent to play. We've won the series so any complaints feel a little unfair but this australia team is fucking shit and we've let them be competitive.

Why was the defence so poor in comparison to the first test? Not saying they were brilliant but better than for long periods last night.
But like you I thought the speed and numbers into the contact area and to cover gaps seemed to be lacking.

It's a few things, I agree with UKR that Aki was a weakness and I also think that Conan and Beirne are a 5 and 6 who looked slow at 6 and 8.

Aside from that though I'm not sure I can pin down what was wrong because, at times, it's was a tactical clusterfuck where we seemed to have 2-3 different defensive plans in place, one of their tries (the 2nd I think) seemed to be that a couple of the players thought we were fanning out and a couple thought we were blitzing and we just opened a hole for them to run through.

I understand that this is a squad made up of 4 (3 really) squads with different philosophies but having them all know how we're going to defend should have been solved before we got on the plane.

[nigel]

Didn’t know which thread was more relevant to this, so duplicated in another (hope that’s ok)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cpdjn2jzq3zo