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The British & Irish Lions Weekly round-up, brought to you by The Famous Grouse
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The Lions are up and running on South African soil, with a convincing 56 – 14 win over their namesakes – the Sigma Lions – in Johannesburg.
TEAM NEWS
Robbie Henshaw will not be available for the game with the C Cell Sharks on Wednesday, a hamstring injury seeing the Irish centre sidelined for the time being, but it’s thankfully mild. “Robbie has a very mild hamstring strain which will keep him out of the next game,” a Lions spokesperson said. Henshaw is a favourite to start the Tests and Warren Gatland will be eager for the Athlone man to be part of the selection conversation in two weeks time.
A positive for the team is that there is hope Alun Wyn Jones could make a miraculous recovery from his dislocated shoulder to play some part in the series against the Springboks. Jones’ replacement Adam Beard starts this week against the Sharks, but there is still hope for the Wales captain after it was initially thought that the injury he sustained in the opening minutes of the match against Japan would rule him out of the tour completely.
OFF THE PITCH
Head coach Gatland admitted that big game nerves still big games, including his matchday toileting habits. “I’m always nervous in the box. It’s probably no different to when I was playing. I go and have a nervous poo, just exactly like I was playing,” the former Waikato hooker said. “I don’t mean to be crass, but I am just as nervous on the morning of the game with the butterflies.”
STAT OF THE WEEK
Josh Adams’ four tries against the Sigma Lions was actually the 29th time a Lions player had bagged that amount or more, as Stuart Farmer pointed out on Twitter. The last player to do so was Shane Williams, who scored five against Manawatu in 2005.
That's the 29th occasion that a player has grabbed four tries for the @lionsofficial. The last was by Shane Williams (he got FIVE) against Manawatu in 2005.
— Stuart Farmer (@Stu_Farmer) July 3, 2021
TOURIST OF THE WEEK
Stuart Hogg stood up to be counted when handed the captain’s armband against the Sigma Lions. His 60 metre chase down of Sibusiso Sangweni stood out.
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This is a brilliant defensive effort from Stuart Hogg to deny Sibusiso Sangweni scoring a try#LIOvBIL #LionsRugby pic.twitter.com/WI0rCovgMq
— EK Rugby Analysis (@ek_rugby) July 3, 2021
Stuart Hogg gone full T-1000 in defence #Lionsrugby pic.twitter.com/4odnJT6CFa
— Alan Dymock (@AlanDymock) July 3, 2021
TWEET OF THE WEEK
Iain Hay didn’t need to explain what he meant when tweeting ‘Too small’ after the Lions victory. Hamish Watson’s all-court performance banished all talk that the Edinburgh flanker’s size might be a factor in South Africa.
Too small. #LionsRugby
— Iain Hay (@iainhay82) July 3, 2021
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Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments