I got a mail this week from a Kiwi colleague, who's lucky enough to be attending some of the Lions games – the Maoris last Saturday, Wellington yesterday, and heading to the 2nd Test in Wellington. New Zealanders are “underwhelmed and haven't seen anything there that impresses”. “The All Blacks are serious and will be looking for a whitewash.” “The front page of the paper this morning says it all: “PUSSYCATS”. ”

I don't think anyone has told Mike about Sir Clive's strategic brilliance. What's happening, right, is that we've got a brilliant squad of players that perform superbly in the closed training sessions. Because we don't need the match practice and our guys link so well together, we're actually using the Wednesday games to lure the All Blacks into a false sense of security. Sir Clive has ordered the pack to stay out of 2nd phase and the backs to deliberately mis-time passes. And the Kiwi press are falling for this 100%!

When that complacency hits, say 25 minutes into the first Test, and New Zealand think they can sit back and relax on their 56 – 9 lead BAMMM – that's when we're gonna hit them with a sucker punch.

Pure genius. They'll never see it coming. Thanks, Clive!

Tags: Sports, rugby, lions, lions tour.

Back in reality, I'm extremely concerned about what's happening at outhalf (or flyhalf, or first 12/16th or whatever the hell you guys call it: I think we can all agree that it's Number 10).

SCW has been making some strange selections “wrapping Wilkinson in bubblewrap” according to some reports. Going by match form from what we've seen so far this is my lineup:

1. Hodgeson

(excellent on his one appearance)

2. O'Gara

(questions on defense, but was targetted, great tactical kicking)

3. Jones

(has been poor, not linking well, lack of control)

4. Wilkinson

(defense – protecting bad shoulder, match fitness, poor kicking form).

Unfortunately I suspect that Clive's list looks more like this:

1. Wilkinson
2. Jones
3. Hodgeson
4. O'Gara

Tags: Sports, rugby, lions, lions tour.

Scotland hammered an error-prone Baa-Baas team 38-7 in front of a small but vocal crowd of 20,000 in Aberdeen last night.

The somewhat dubious privilege of a Barbarians cap (for the British and Irish players[1]) was devalued even more by the nature of the 5 try to 1 rout. Handling was atrocious with countless knock-ons, defense poor, the attack was weak and disjointed (admittedly in the face of a superb Scotish defensive effort).

In their first game after sacking Matt Williams the Scots looked impressive. I think their next match is Argentina in November. I suspect it won't be half as easy, since after Mondays game Argentina look a match for anyone.

1. Whilst the Lions are packing their bags…

Tags: Sports, rugby, lions, lions tour.

Lions 25 – 25 Argentina

Congratulations to the Pumas for holding the British and Irish Lions to a draw in Cardiff this evening.

In an exciting end game Argentina were 25-22 up with 3 minutes of extra time gone – most spectators believed it was game over when the Lions lost possession. The Argentinians had had a superbly resolute defense which answered everything the Lions could throw against it, including some decent moves from the Irish contingent of Hickie and D'Arcy (despite his several dropped balls), a nice break from the English pretender to RoGo's throne, Wilkinson[1].

Despite the best efforts of the Lion's backs at the end of the 2nd, it was really a forwards game throughout, which suited the Puma's big pack just fine. The Lions went nowhere fast with their several lineout-to-maul movements on the Puma 5 yard line as they struggled to turn the 25-22 deficit around. After 6 minutes of extra time they had to finally concede that time had beaten them and they must turn to the reliable boot of Jonny to steal the draw – and in inimitable style, he did so. Beautiful kick for a left-footed guy too (I must admit to sometimes wishing he was Irish).

The Lions are left with much to think about. It's hard to know how much this game really mattered – it's a half and half mix of mid-week and Test teams, played at home (strange), and it's early days. The first tour match is still a long time away, on Saturday the 4th of June (FYI 8am Irish time, Sky Sports 1 I believe).

BBC Sport report

Tags: Sports, rugby, lions, lions tour.

1.

I was stewarding at Lansdowne last Saturday for the Celtic Cup final. After an entertaining 1st half of good rugby but a disappointing 2nd, Munster came out on top with a 27-16 victory over Llanelli Scarlets[1].

I've been stewarding at quite a few matches this season – it's a great way to be guaranteed a ticket for the big international games (Six Nations: England and France at home this year) and big European games (Leinster vs Leicester – the less said the better). I'm also guaranteed a great view, normally from the West Upper just above the camera nests.

The downside of it is having to be at the stadium 3 hours before the scheduled kick-off time (yeah, you read that correctly – three hours!), which is quite a long time to be standing around. I've gotten the organisation down – to be comfortable on a cold day I need woolly hat, gloves, warm jacket, small radio (both for match commentary and pre-match boredom), sandwiches and a drink of some sort. And generally it's too hard to carry a bag, so I end up looking like I weight 300lbs (instead of my actual ~220) because of all the stuff in my pocketssss (Gollum would have a good time riddling with me).

Once the earliest fans start arriving 70-80 mins before kick-off things become more entertaining – there's no sport in the world with fans better than in rugby for their good natured bantering and discussion of the game with their opponents, the man in the street, and the steward in the stand.

Lansdowne Road in glorious May sunshine. Not as impressive as Croker by a long shot unfortunately. Taken from the south west corner looking north east.

My fellow stewards standing around under the West stand about 2 hours before kick-off. Quite cold in the shade!

Some of the Scarlets players just after the game. I was on the pitch, protecting them from crazed fans, somehow found time to get a picture or 2…

1. (For those unfamiliar with Welsh placenames, Llanelli is pronounced something like “cthlan-ehcth-li”)

Tags: Sports, rugby.

I'm a hooker and love it. The rough and tumble of the front row is a fantastic place to be.

I play for Clontarf FC, a large rugby club here in Dublin. I play for our J4 side, which is way way way down the leagues – we're the 5th adult mens team in the club. We play for the love of the game and try not to take it too seriously.

We've been doing quite well this season, with 6 wins from our first 6 games. Two weeks ago we had a first loss, which was unfortunate, but it was to the only other unbeaten team in our league. We put more points against them than all of their other opponents collectively. This kind of defeat is disappointing, but you can turn around and admit to being beaten by a better team – it doesn't hurt so much.

Last night we fielded a pretty good team against AIB – one of Irelands largest banks. We led the game for 79 of the 80 minutes, being ahead by 14 pts to 3 at one stage. Somehow in the last 20 we managed to lose the plot, and conceding 3 scores and the the game.

We did not keep possession well. We had 35-45% during most of the game, and only had the ball for about 5 minutes out of the last 20. We didn't have ball because either we lost it in contact, or we kicked. Some of our kicking game was good but there was a good breeze, and we didn't make touch, thus giving them possession and room to play with.

Losing the ball in ruck contact was the one glaringly obvious mistake. Our backs took the ball into contact, held it up for a split second, and we (the forwards) didn't clean it properly. A lot of the time we were getting there, but not setting it up, bridging and giving controlled ball to our scrumhalf.

I talked to the ref after about the number of penalties at the ruck (maybe 8 or 9 I'd say). He seemed to have one main concern in reffing, particularly at this level – safety. He sees us coming in over the ruck dangerously he's immediately going to blow us up. We need to control the ruck with guys in pillar positions, and clear out the tacklers while staying on our feet.

There were some good points: our tackling was quite good. The forwards were getting to the breakdown on time – we just needed to do the right thing when we got there. Our scrum was good for the most part. Our maul was relatively good. Our scrumhalf dealt excellently with the sloppy ball he was getting, with great passes to #10. We dominated the game in spells, but didn't put it together to kill it off.

I'm gutted that we lost it from 14-3.

I'm not going to make to training tonight, I'm still carrying some injuries. I'll take a couple days off, head to the West of Ireland tomorrow night, and spend a long Paddys weekend there.

Hopefully Ireland can cheer me up on Saturday and beat Wales by 15-20 points to win the 6N. But I'll settle for a Triple Crown 🙂

For the gamblers out there (I'm not one,
and #include ), I do know that France at 18-1 against for the 6N is not a bad deal. They need to beat Italy by 40+, and hope that Ireland beat Wales, but by a small margin. Quite plausible.

Enjoy Paddy's day y'all.

Tags: Sports, rugby, SixNations.