Lions Tour

Watson, VDM and Hogg should be nowhere near the starting 15 next week, all 3 targeted with high balls and all 3 utterly rubbish at dealing with them.

Again I'll ask, what were people expecting from Gatty? People will point to his record with Wales but he isn't actually that good a coach!

Route one didn't work so he hasn't a clue what to do next. He picked a squad to try out muscle the boks on their home patch... not to play rugby. He won the first test because SA were out on their feet after 40 mins.

People forget the only reason he won in 2013 was Corbisiero scrummed aus off the off the park in the third test - a player who was there due to injury.

Too many changes need to be made for the final test. Back 3 need to go and I think both beirne and Hendo need to start. Lions need a proper 13.. but oh look they don't have one

Rassie has become a boards.ie international window seagull.

Rushing defences are killing the game. Too much kicking in the game now. I'm not sure what can be done but hopefully world rugby make some changes to the laws to encourage more running rugby.

I read somewhere that this was the 2nd longest game in history. Over 2 hours to play 80 mins of rugby. Disgraceful.

Hopefully for the 3rd test the lions keep their discipline, keep the ball in play and actually start running with ball in hand.

I'd honestly prefer the play some running attacking rugby and lose the anti-rugby and win.

Biggar made an absolute meal of what was a push.

Curry grabbed kolbes throat in all that too. There was all sort of shenanigans from it

Gatland has taken a very pragmatic approach to this tour. Just like he did with Wales so often. For the latter it was their suffocating defence which kept them in games and their excellent cardio which helped them finish strong.

With the Lions the players aren't familiar with each other so a very basic gameplan is required. Strong set piece, hard up defence and accurate kicking game seems to be the main tactic. It's not a terrible strategy considering the limited time he has with the players. I think it's one that would've worked out better had we a stronger forward line especially in the backrow. We haven't a player to compare to either SoB or Warburton in 2017. Curry, Laws and Conan are all good players, but they haven't the same game changing ability as the former. And loosehead is a big problem too. Vunipola and Sutherland have struggled a lot.

The biggest disappointment is the lack of invention in the backlime. Coaching a functioning, structured backline at test level seems to be the hardest thing to do. There's a level of coordination involved that is hard to reach. And it's almost impossible to drill that into a scratch side. But still, we saw much more ambition in the last Lions tour. Yes, Sexton and Farrell is a far better 10/12 axis than anything on the current tour. But my biggest disappointment is that we haven't even really tried to play beyond 10.

I 100% understand Gatland wanting to be pragmatic, stick to basic rugby, target them in the air.

I 100% do not understand how Duhan Van Der Merwe fits into this plan.

Get Conway and Keenan on an overnight flight.

Sure it's grand, we just need to kick into space more, it's not like any of their backs are.... <checks notes>... oh 😰....

Not sure what’s more tedious. Rassie whinging or whinging about Rassie whinging.

Tom Curry could be surplus to demands in that backrow, I reckon. He's obviously world class, but why waste a spot on a breakdown specialist when the Boks are constantly going to ground in pairs and sealing off? Lions D is solid enough to live without him, especially since the Boks aren't exactly reliant on lightning-quick ball to play their game.

Any word on PSDT's injury? Might be the reason for Duane V called up? I reckon if they go Kolisi-Duane-Weise you might want one of Beirne or Hendy beefing up that back row instead of Curry.

The alternative Platonic approach would be to switch it up completely and try get several link-men onto the field. In which case perhaps Lawes could be the one to make way for a back row of Curry, Watson or Beirne, and Conan or Taulupe?

I agree that it was a stop/start affair and that suited the Boks. Some of that could be accredited to Rassie's rant as the refs took their time with several big decisions.

However Rassie's rant did not stop the Lions from making line breaks. Did they make any? His rant didn't cause the back 3 to drop the ball. His rant did not cause the scrum to creak or the lineout to fall apart. That's all on the players.

As for a 20 point turnaround in week. Seen bigger.

He used them to some degree in the first test. Lawes and Curry both made 6 passes, while Conan made 4.

Cut to the second test, Curry made 3, Lawes and Conan both made 2.

However that fits the wider narrative of the Lions just not playing (or being let play) rugby at all in the second test. Hogg went from 7 passes in the first test to 2. Biggar went from 13 passes to 3!

They absolutely have to do something about that. Makes Schmidt-ball look like a Cirque du Soleil performance.