How did those amateurs afford to take three months off work is what Iām wondering?
Presume there employers had no problem given the a leave of absence and the relavent rugby boards/backers compensated themā¦
Iād imagine it was the Sindo I saw it. He made good points and Iād be inclined to agree with him. Things like that only enhance the idea of rugby being an upper class/toffs game. (Obviously things are a bit different these days).
Wales wing Leigh Halfpenny has been forced to withdraw from the British and Irish Lions tour squad in South Africa.
Lions Tour manager Gerald Davies has confirmed the 20-year-old will join Irish flanker Stephen Ferris and fly home injured from South Africa.
Halfpenny joined the Lions tour late due to an injury in his right thigh but the Cardiff Blues player has suffered a a recurrence of the injury in training.
The Lions are not planning to call-up a replacement for Halfpenny.
Bad blow for Ferris and thatās a problem for the Lions now - he was a definite starter I think.
Agreed on the 1974 batch - cunts the lot of them. Theyāre not heroes.
JJ Williams had some pace thoughā¦ And JPR was mad for boxing.
In fairness they seemed to give a lift to the blacks, and they had big support from them.
r.e. Ferris etcā¦ Ferris, Flannery, Halfpenny were all portential starters, but while the latter two are easily replaces, Ferris is massive loss, his physicality was really needed against Spies and Burger. Croft is a bit light-weight and Worsley is shite. Wonder will he now consider Wallace, Heaslip or Powell at 6. Jones if he finds any form will start a test.
Agreed on the cuntish nature of the 1974 tour. They spent their time hob-nobbing with the apartheid classes during their time there. It wasnāt even the last Lions tour to South Africa, they went again in 1980. Ireland played a test series there as late as 1981, the wankers. That was the same year that South Africaās game against New Zealand in Auckland was disrupted by a plane dropping flour bombs and firecrackers onto the pitch. Saw that one last year on ESPN classic. Donāt think they ever played abroad again after that.
Lions team to be picked on Tuesday night acc to McGeechan today.
Try Lions, gerat work from the pack, POC with a great lil opener, and Heaslip with shoulder to the wheel and Mears gets in.
Williams still not firing.
Great cross kick by ROG, poor finishing from WIlliams.
Think Lions will blow them away second half. Sharks are defending excellently but theyāve no ball and youād imagine that will have to tell eventually.
Phillips has been very slow around the base of rucks. Did well for the try obviously but heās not giving the backs many chances.
From an Irish perspective POC has been decent enough but needs to captain more, talk to ref about scrums, get the ruck situation sorted. Wallace has been quiet enough but ok. Heaslip has been decent. Fitzgerald and BOD both look lively. OāGara pretty mixed really.
Philips was obviously listening to me. That right wing looked shite, they need to get Fitzgerald running at him.
How the fuck can commentators not know that rule? It doesnāt matter a shit whether he has his foot on the ground or not. Once itās out itās out. Fools.
ROG been very mixed, kicking too much away. Heās second choice, at best I feel. Luke has looked lively, been there to be put in on 3 occasions but hasnt been played in.
Bout time Kappers sorted out that fucker in the scrum.
Jaysus BOD done all he could there to play Luke in!
ROG kicking on every advantage it seems, I presume its a gameplan from the management.
Decent performance, particularly in the second half.
In terms of the test side:
Jenkins - problems getting pinged for scrums but heād nothing to bind against. Should start anyway
Mears - not as good as last week but important try and lineout was decent in the main
Jones - did fine but heās behind Murray and Vickery. Vickery did himself no favours getting yellow carded for whatever it was.
OāConnell - heās picked anyway but I donāt think heās in great form. You donāt see much leadership from him, he should have been roaring at the pack to clean the ball out first half and he never spoke to the ref at all. Decent individual effort but not much in the way of captaincy.
Wyn Jones - ok, couple of poor turnovers and missed a restart. Shaw was actually the most impressive second row but game was over by then.
Croft - not as prominent as last week. Wonder was he instructed to keep it tighter in an effort to see how heād play as a more genuine 6. Good hands for Lukeās try
Wallace - quiet first half, decent second half. Not guaranteed his place
Heaslip - thought he was oustanding throughout. Ran well at pace, hit a couple of huge tackles and hands were excellent.
Philips - caught far too often, some of which was the packās fault but he wonāt always get clean ball so he needs to get used to that. Took his try well and involved in some good counter attacks. Way out in front for scrum half
OāGara - poor really. Kicked too much, passing was dodgy, handling not great. Didnāt look like he managed the game well at all. Disappointing. Way behind Jones now
Fitzgerald - a few lively carries, involved a fair bit. Nearly overran his try which was a bit poor to be honest but ahead of Monye, Williams and the other contenders anyway
Roberts - certain to start. Not quite as explosive but used as a decoy as much as anything. Still a very good performance
OāDriscoll - pure class act. A class act.
Williams - not involved, not really dangerous, pity really but not likely to figure.
Byrne - nice try, good kicking, good hands. Great player.
OāConnell can count himself lucky that the other second rows on the squad are trying to make sure he is selected. He is certainly trying his best to play himself out of the side but it is proving to be very difficult.
I like Shaw. In 2005 Shaw was the best 2nd row on tour. He was unlucky not to be given a chance in any of the tests.
WOuldnt argue with any of that rocko. POC needs to remember hes captain out there. ITs early doors yet though so I think thereās still time for him to pull it out, his own game is going well though, no issues there.
ROG didnt take his chance, sometimes wonder if heās capable of taking it.
Wallace was very good tonight, test player for sure now.
Heaslip too was impressive.
Luke still has a bit to do, may make test by default though.
Not wumming here but when you looked at their repsective post match interviews BOD seemed much more satisfied and comfrotable in himself
Think the burden of captaincy is weighing heavily on POC.
Iād tend to think that under current circumstances BOD looks like the leader of the team in all but name