This doesn’t tie in with the ethos of rugby . To be fair NZ people will be embarrassed . Make no mistake about this our lads are playing more than 15 men .
He who pays the Peyper calls the tune.
That’s what Hansen is attempting to do here.
New Zealand have certainly done it in big matches at Eden Park in the past.
NZ people are horrible cunts.
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They aren’t TBH . No better or worse than most .
They wont spare those British Loins tomorrow.
Not going to happen on their home soil.
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I was flicking through Clem Thomas - The History of the British Lions there earlier. This section from the 1977 tour seems particularly apt.
The Lions had a hard act to follow on the 1977 tour and while, before the tour started, it looked quite good on paper, it all went horribly wrong, as many mistakes were made and the pressures became absurd. First of all, they struck one of the worst New Zealand winters on record, for it rained and rained. Once, on the west coast, it did not stop for four days and nights. The weather set the tone and left bitter memories for many. As Peter Wheeler always says in his after-dinner speeches when talking about the tour: “It only rained twice this week - once from Monday To Wednesday and again from Thursday to Sunday!”
The Lions also fell victims to some of the worst and despicable press coverage I have read on tour. There were some awful, undeserved headlines in a New Zealand weekly called Truth, such as Lions are Louts and Animals. These lurid press reports were another example of the dirty tricks brigade which is all too evident in the isolation of New Zealand. It hurt and bit deep into the Lions morale.
'Terry Cobner was to have a huge influence on affairs on that 1977 tour; when things began to go wrong, he was the man who chose the forwards and led and motivated them. Gordon Brown tells the tale that, when they were all feeling depressed before the second test, and very aware of the hostility of seemingly all of New Zealand towards them, Cobner reassured them. Putting it into the context of his native Pontypool, he turned to them and said, ‘You are not alone, because at three in the morning the lights will be going on in the villages and towns of the valleys, and they will be listening on their radios and willing you on, and they will be with you every inch of the way. So remember when you are out there on that pitch, you are not alone.’ This, said Brown had a profound effect on all the team and personally he could relate to such Welsh exhortation.
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Willie John McBride is an orange biggoted cunt.
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He is. I also believe he could grace the People You Suspect Are Smelly thread.
10am Saturday morning in Auckland and its pissing rain, windy and cold and likely to remain like that for the day.
Eden Park can get very messy on a wet day.
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Anything more up to date mate
Showing a clip from 40 years ago is pointless
That’s an incredibly beautiful mental image. Our boys may be 13,000 miles away but they’ll all feel that support from home as if it was cheering from the sidelines at Eden Park.
I well remember turning on the lights in time for the 3:30 kick-off of the final and deciding test in 1993 - the Waddell family had just driven back from Killarney, where we had travelled to after a Where In The World-donated family holiday in Kinsale, and arrived home at around 2:30 a.m. that night. Currow’s Mick Galwey was a member of the touring party that year and there were flags wishing him good luck everywhere as we passed through his home place that evening. It really gave one a flavour of the excitement that having a British Loin can bring to such a rural area - I imagine it’s the same in the home places of Tadhg Furlong and Sean O’Brien this year. I stayed up to watch the match on ITV and went to bed in the by then daylight very disappointed at the result.
Sadly tomorrow’s match has an 8:35 a.m. kick-off, which doesn’t sit well with me for a few reasons - because I’m a traditionalist, because it’s around the time I generally go to bed*, and because a traditional 3:30 a.m. kick-off would mean that social media threads such as this one would be only populated by genuine British Loins supporters rather than trolls desperately hoping that the expedition doesn’t achieve its goal.
*In the popular imagination.
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Injured in the captain’s run?
There’ll be a huge British Lions support in Eden Park and i wouldn’t be surprised if they out number the New Zealand support. When Terry Cobner and the 1977 side were in New Zealand, they really were alone out there 12,000 miles from home as there was no travelling supporter back then.
Great anecdotes about the 1993 tour. Two abiding memories of that tour. The high point the Rory Underwood match winning try in the 2nd test. The low point the daylight robbery of the 20-18 defeat in the first test - defeat snatched from the jaws of victory at the death when that disgrace of a referee Brian Kinsey incorrectly awarded New Zealand a match winning penalty which Grant Fox converted - that was after Kinsey had earlier awarded New Zealand a try when Ieuan Evans had touched the ball down ahead of Frank Bunce and Kinsey also failed to award a penalty try to the Lions when Michael Jones took out Will Carling to prevent a certain try.
A great example of how when you play New Zealand away from home, you’re playing 16 men, quite possibly 18 if you include the touch judges.
That’s the size of the task awaiting the boys.
But in a way, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It only builds the siege mentality.
One for all, and all for one goal.
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Geoffrey and Sidney
Did Sky show the 1993 Tour ?. They definitely had it from 1997 onwards .
No ITV showed the 1993 tour. John Taylor, hero of 1971 was on commmentary duties.
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If there’s one man involved with either team tomorrow who has experience of going into the lion’s den of Eden Park and pulling off a famous victory against all the odds, it’s Warren Gatland.
In 1993, he hooked the Waikato team which took the Ranfurly Shield off the Auckland team which had held the Old Log O’ Wood for eight years and over 60 challenges.
That was a seismic shock - probably the most remembered match in New Zealand domestic rugby history.
I’m optimistic that the lions’ den of Eden Park will tomorrow be the British Loins’ den.
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I’m finding it very hard to sleep tonight
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Thanks