On Saturday, the Lions gave a very inept performance and were flattered by the closeness of the scoreline. They were ouplayed in every facet of the field. Steve Thompson played himself off the test team with a pitiful display of throwing;Steven Jones was very ineffectual although playing behind a destroyed pack;Dawson had a chance to rival Peel for a test spot...not any more. D'Arcy will be no more than a midweek player for the remainder of this tour.My revised test team for the first test on Saturday week would be:
Gareth Thomas; Shane Horgan, Brian O'Driscoll, Josh Lewsey, Tom Shanklin; Jonny Wilkinson, Dwayne Peel; Gethin Jenkins, Shane Byrne, Julian White; Paul O'Connell, Danny Grewcock; Richard Hill, Martin Corry, Martyn Williams.
Subs; Gavin Henson, Ronan O Gara, Chris Cussiter, Andy Sheridan, Gordon Bulloch, Donncha O'Callaghan, Neil Back.
I believe that if we go out with a team like this, we have big, strong backs with skill. The problem sadly is up front. We're gonna get murdered up there if it develops in to a forward battle, which I'd say the Blacks are going to try and make it.The squad they announced todaydoesn't even consider Joe Rokocoko to be good enough....rosary beads at the ready.
I watched it myself, very poor performance all round and they'll need to turn it up about 5 levels to compete with the All Blacks.
O'Driscoll and D'Arcy were very quiet but it had as much to do with them not getting a lot of the ball as being just poor. As for Thompson......
In rugby they say the forwards win matches, the backs decide by how much. The Lions pack is too weak at the moment and without the ball the Lions backline can't do anything.
Posting Permissions
Quote
Bookmarks