Lions squad named

[Banquo]

No Duane, No Faf.

Reinach ridiculously quick - Price needs to be on his mettle.

Mostert to 6 very interesting.

Didn't they move him to 6 when De Jager came on in the second half on the weekend?

Yes and that was when the scrum took a hammering.

[Banquo]

Thank god Faz has been dropped but otherwise underwhelmed

[Spiffy]

Thank god Faz has been dropped but otherwise underwhelmed

Reinach is not a bad replacement. His speed on the break could trouble the Lions.

EDIT : Woops. A little brain fart there!

[Mikey Brown]

Err.

[switchskier]

Lions fans...has any of this been worth it for you? Public health crisis, civil unrest in SA, spiteful social media tactics, no crowds, and the dullest rugby seen for a long time. Would winning this series really vindicate all of this for you? Yes, I am a negative Nellie, but jaysus, what will the benefits of this be?

Winning wouldn't. I fell in love with rugby partly because it wasn't football and the atmosphere at games that had passion without agro. Somehow the lions epitomises that for me so without fans it's all pretty pointless. The turgid rugby really hasn't helped though and neither has the social media rubbish. It's all a bit depressing.

[Sandydragon]

Lions fans...has any of this been worth it for you? Public health crisis, civil unrest in SA, spiteful social media tactics, no crowds, and the dullest rugby seen for a long time. Would winning this series really vindicate all of this for you? Yes, I am a negative Nellie, but jaysus, what will the benefits of this be?

Ive always loved the lions, but some tours are easier to get behind than others. The 2005 shit show was the nadir, but this one is running it close. The tactics are painful to watch and that doesn’t help, and postponing it by a year would have made far more sense. The lack of supporters is painful.

Of particular annoyance is the social media rubbish which just needs to stop. Erasmus has dragged it down to a whole new level but coaches shooting their mouths off pre and post games has been irksome for a fair while.

But for me the problem now is with the lack of respect shown to the concept. The lack of preparation time makes the whole idea almost impossible. The lack of meaningful opposition before tests, bar one game and 30 minutes of another, is really poor. I understand the covid constraints and can only hope that the regional sides in Australia are at full strength prior to the tests.

I’m still in favour and the brand has a lot of credit in the bank to cover for covid influences. But for someone new to the game, this must have been a massive turnoff.

[whatisthejava]

I think Gatland the Lions committee have done a hell of a lot of damage to the lions brand.

People comparing this to 2005 - you that was a shit show, but so was 2009 (thug fest), 2017 was pish rugby where we robbed the all blacks with a pretty shit style.

Gatland is the ultimate professional coach (winning over everything) and Rassie is the optimal post truth coach.

The lions really need to decide if winning is what it’s about or trying to entertain.

I’ve said it before but picking the most players from a team that got beaten was poor only because it showed the style he wanted to play was fixed 12 years ago and hasn’t moved.

I really hope guys like Lam/Toony/pivac get the role next time so we can actually celebrate the rugby.

For me the rugby in the autumn was as shite as I have ever seen it , the 6N thrilled us ans now we are back to 2teams playing a WC final each week and looking less interested in anything except the result.

Added to that the lack of crowds, lack of riots in SA and it’s fucking tripe. It’s a soap opera and it’s shite.

[morepork]

Japan were quality.

[Puja]

Japan were quality.

They were and frankly, I think it's a template for the Lions going forward. Prior to the A game, the Japan match was the only actual preparation we'd had, making it far more valuable than the money it raised. I don't see even full-strength Aussie franchises being more than speedbumps, so why not have a warm-up test or two against Fiji/Samoa/Tonga so we can actually pick the test team based on form in games that actually vaguely challenge us? We'd've got a lot more out of a warmup against a motivated Namibia than against the Springbok shadow provinces.

Puja

[Doorzetbornandbred]

Worst tour Ive watched by a country mile. 2005(the supposed worst Lions Tour ever) we got to see some bloody great rugby all be it from the AB's and Carter in particular. This has been just awful to watch and not enough games. I feel sorry for some of the players who've not had a chance really to bed in and shine. 1997 was the best one even if every game was watched in the pub. I hope Gatland is never allowed near a Lions Tour again, theres a lot of Waikato types hoping he doesn't go back to Mooloo country either...

[Son of Mathonwy]

Lions fans...has any of this been worth it for you? Public health crisis, civil unrest in SA, spiteful social media tactics, no crowds, and the dullest rugby seen for a long time. Would winning this series really vindicate all of this for you? Yes, I am a negative Nellie, but jaysus, what will the benefits of this be?

Yeah, just about worth it (if less than the last 3 series), although I did have to think hard before getting Sky Sports for a month. I'm not desperately bothered by the lack of crowds, better to have the matches take place just for TV than not at all. Sure, the buildup was weird and the Gatball predictably boring but, again just about worth it to go toe-to-toe with the world champions. From my POV, AWJs inclusion as captain was enough to make me feel involved in the tests so far (obviously there's a much more healthy Welsh contingent this time )

[Donny osmond]

Lions fans...has any of this been worth it for you? Public health crisis, civil unrest in SA, spiteful social media tactics, no crowds, and the dullest rugby seen for a long time. Would winning this series really vindicate all of this for you? Yes, I am a negative Nellie, but jaysus, what will the benefits of this be?

Pretty much exactly the same as Which's reasons. My sole interest in the series now is to hope that we win because Erasmus has turned into a giant fucktrombone and I'd prefer for him not to have nice things.

Puja

I'm pretty much with Puja and WT.

Winning would bring a semblance of satisfaction being able to tell the Saffers that they can't even be the best at playing shit rugby, but that really doesn't make up for just how shit this whole tour has been across a pretty big spectrum of reasons.

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[Mikey Brown]

That Lions side may have been consumed by SCW’s ego but the 05 All Blacks team played the best rugby I’ve ever seen. Didn't fully appreciate it at the time, as a Lions supporter, but looking back at those performances now they are still incredible. Hard to imagine anyone watching this test series back in full.

[Mellsblue]

Hard to imagine anyone watching this test series back in full.

Even the citing commissioner didn’t bother to watch the second test back in full

[whatisthejava]

If the test including half time completes in less than 100 mins the lions will win, if it is longer the boks will win.

That’s it. How utterly shite is that.

[whatisthejava]

The boks are playing Scotland in the autumn but I really don’t want to go waste 3 hours of my life watching any more anti rugby.

[Digby]

Is Gats a coach boring enough that history would want to look back at a double drawn series?

[Donny osmond]

The boks are playing Scotland in the autumn but I really don’t want to go waste 3 hours of my life watching any more anti rugby.

Paying feck knows how much for the 'privilege'. Nah, me neither.

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[whatisthejava]

I’m taking the kids to the Oz game because at least they can watch some good rugby.
I loved watching SA growing p but this series has pushed me to the limit

[morepork]

Let's see how NZ Oz and Argentina deal with them in September. If the Boks play like they have during the Lions series, I hope they get fucked, and not in a good way.

[Sandydragon]

That Lions side may have been consumed by SCW’s ego but the 05 All Blacks team played the best rugby I’ve ever seen. Didn't fully appreciate it at the time, as a Lions supporter, but looking back at those performances now they are still incredible. Hard to imagine anyone watching this test series back in full.

That’s a fair point. Dan Carter was out of this world.

[Sandydragon]

Let's see how NZ Oz and Argentina deal with them in September. If the Boks play like they have during the Lions series, I hope they get fucked, and not in a good way.

Gwyn Jones has just made a strong point in the Fail that the Lions had a lot of possession in good parts of the field last Saturday but did nothing with it. I can’t see the ABs, or Argentina for that matter, being quite so lame in attack.

[Adder]

Let's see how NZ Oz and Argentina deal with them in September. If the Boks play like they have during the Lions series, I hope they get fucked, and not in a good way.

Gwyn Jones has just made a strong point in the Fail that the Lions had a lot of possession in good parts of the field last Saturday but did nothing with it. I can’t see the ABs, or Argentina for that matter, being quite so lame in attack.

Biggar goes "bam"

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[Danno]

Let's see how NZ Oz and Argentina deal with them in September. If the Boks play like they have during the Lions series, I hope they get fucked, and not in a good way.

In the back of a Volkswagen?

[francoisfou]

I’m not feeling that optimistic of a win, but if the score is close early in the second half, I hope Gatland has the balls to give Russell and Simmons enough time to put their mark on the game.