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I watched England V Barbarians last weekend, the Barbarians were rubbish. This game in H.K. was just a training run for the Lions. Could come back to bite them. I don't expect the Force to beat the Lions, but they will know they have been in a game. BobQuote:
Originally Posted by sheerluck
You should be careful, hubris can come back to bite. Don't remember the John Eales days?. And that kick. And the two Wallaby World cups. The best is yet to come, after Deans. BobQuote:
Originally Posted by TerryO
I agree Bob, hence my comment about expecting more resistance in Perth. A scratch team, suitably overrun, and doesn't really give an indication of what the Lions will do.Quote:
Originally Posted by bob10
The Force are way down the bottom of the Super 15, and while I expect it to be much closer than the BaaBaas, I don't expect to see anyone beating the Lions until the Reds game at the earliest.
[QUOTE=sheerluck;1922875]I agree Bob, hence my comment about expecting more resistance in Perth. A scratch team, suitably overrun, and doesn't really give an indication of what the Lions will do.
The Force are way down the bottom of the Super 15, and while I expect it to be much closer than the BaaBaas, I don't expect to see anyone beating the Lions until the Reds game at the earliest.[/QUOTE]
:)I'm not so sure, didn't the Force beat the Reds? On top of that, the Reds will be decimated. TBH I don't expect the Force will knock them off either, but it should be willing, and maybe a bit more entertaining than watching a third string Reds or Brumbies take them on. If however you are an optimist, just remember the Lions havn't really fronted a full strength Super side. In NZ inn 2005 they played Wellington and Auckland, but in their provincial guise , but they were gutted for the AB's. In SA it was provincial games again, so this is going to be an interesting tour, if only because Aus doesn't have provincial teams.
Looking forward to it!
Nick, it's very difficult to take anything meaningful from prior Lions tours, given that the squad and management are generally different for each one, but you're right that there has never been a match against a Super 15 side.
The Super Rugby style is different enough to Northern Hemisphere rugby, that I am expecting there to be a 'shock' defeat of the Lions before they learn to counter it effectively. Though looking at who is missing from the Reds, it may not be able to be them.
Either way, I don't really care. I'm just looking forward to some good matches!
Does anyone remember the Lions tour to N.Z, in 1971? With players such as Willie John McBride, Mike Gibson, David Duckham, Ian Mclauchlan & John Dawes? They stopped in Qld. on the way to N.Z., for a game against a totally amateur Qld. side, the equivalent of the H.K. Barbarians game. Qld. won, 15-11. Jeff Mclean, was pulling beers in his fathers pub in the morning, before knocking off work to play on the wing. Fullback Lloyd Graham kicked the late winning field goal , near touch, just inside the Lions half. [ I do remember the game, but have to admit to getting the finer details out of an article in Saturdays Courier Mail, P102.] BTW., the Lions went on to win a series in N.Z. for the first time in 100 years, after Qld beat them. Bob
McCalmans in the mix, good move, Bob
Ben McCalman ready to plug gap after injuries to Wallabies Scott Higginbotham, Sitaleki Timani
Timani, who was ruled out of the series on Monday night after it was confirmed the lock had broken his thumb, will undergo surgery on Tuesday and is unlikely to return before the Rugby Championship in August.
- By Jamie Pandaram
- News Limited Network
- June 04, 2013 10:38AM
Backrower Higginbotham is now at long odds to play any part in the Lions series, after Wallabies doctor Warren McDonald assessed his scan results and decided a rehabilitation plan must be put in place later this week when the injury settles.
Higginbotham has been in sparkling recent form for Melbourne and will be an enormous loss for Australi
The pair had already been released from the official 25-man Wallabies squad last Sunday, but remained in the camp to get scans on their injuries in the hope they might recover quickly.
But that quickly evaporated on Monday, leaving McCalman an opportunity to play his first Test since December 2011.
His own injury-enforced absence from the game last year has given McCalman plenty of fuel.
"It makes you even hungrier to try to get back in the squad and play for your country again," McCalman said.
"I had a pre-season this year, which I hadn't had since 2009. I played for the Wallabies in my first Super year.
"It has helped me having a full pre-season under my belt.
"It was a very frustrating year for me last year having a broken shoulder and finally getting that right and then breaking my wrist, in total missing nine to 10 months due to injury
"I'm very happy to be playing this year and to be here now
With Wycliff Palu (knee) and Dave Dennis (cork) sitting out Australia's first training session at Hunter's Hill, Force star McCalman was immediately in the thick of the action alongside fellow backrow contender Ben Mowen.
"There are three hard weeks ahead of us, a lot of tough competition," McCalman said. "We continually try and push each other.
"Whatever team is selected, I'm sure they will be the right people for the job.
"[The Lions series] is something I've been thinking about the last year or two. It's something I'd love to be a part of.
"I'm here now in the 25, who knows, it could be just around the corner."
Winger Digby Ioane (knee), who was dropped from the 25-man list but remains with the team while rehabilitating, watched on from the sidelines along with fellow winger Nick Cummins, who had a tight calf, and prop James Slipper, who had a cork
Things are hotting up, Bob From Fox Sports;
Western Force coach Michael Foley defends weakened team set to face Lions on Wednesday
- By Iain Payten and staff writers
- FOX SPORTS
- June 05, 2013 11.30AM
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...13/06/1313.jpg https://www.aulro.com/afvb/
Former England coach Sir Clive Woodward has labelled Western Force's selection of seven uncapped players for the British & Irish Lions tour opener in Perth on Wednesday night as a "disgrace".
The highly-respected Woodward even questioned in his column in The Daily Mail whether Australia should be stripped of Lions tours in the future if the provincial sides don't play their best players.
The furore erupted when Force coach Michael Foley left out a number of key players - including Kyle Godwin, Hugh McMeniman and Sias Ebersohn - with a view to Sunday's Super Rugby clash with NSW Waratahs.
Catch the Lions clash with the Force live on Fox Sports 2HD from 7.30pm (EST) on Wednesday
Foley's side contains only a handful of regular starters for the Force, although captain Matt Hodgson, Salesi Ma'afu, Richard Brown and Toby Lynn are all playing
But that wasn't enough to placate Woodward, who said: "it's unacceptable and disgraceful to cobble together a weakened, second-string club team to play against some of the best players in the world on one of the great rugby tours."
"Treating the Lions with such contempt threatens to undermine their status in the global game."
The 2003 World Cup-winning coach was also critical of Australia's perceived rhetoric about "violence and fighting."
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans and Force skipper Hodgson have both demanded a physical approach on Wednesday night, with Deans saying he expected Force "to take the Lions apart limb by limb". Hodgson's turn of phrase was just as colourful.
Woodward was clearly affronted by the expression used.
"Too many players are talking in terms of physically harming players rather than winning matches and this never happened in my time travelling to the country as a player or a coach. I thought professional rugby had put an end to all this nonsense," he said.
Foley defended the selections, saying the scheduling of the game just four days before a Super Rugby clash made it "impossible" and "unreasonable" to have all his top-line players line up in both.
"The way we see it we have a Test match tomorrow night and depending on what the ARU decides, we may have another Test match on Sunday. So asking players to do that twice is unreasonable," Foley said.
"What we have had to do is juggle our squad across two games, and look to pick a number of senior, experienced internationals against the Lions. What we said was realistically we weren't able to meet the challenge and do it justice by trying to pick the same 22 guys twice."
When asked why the Lions weren't made a priority over a "dead rubber" clash with the Waratahs, Foley said: "The pressure is to deliver every game you play as a team. When you suggest not putting every effort into the first game I think that is pretty insulting to the guys taking the field.
"We think this is the best team for this game in light of the fixture list we have been given."
Foley believes better scheduling is required by the Lions and host nations in future tours, and questioned why the Force couldn't have played agianst the Lions last weekend instead of the Barbarians, when his side had a bye.
"The Hong Kong game would have been ideal for us. We see the opportunity to play the Lions as a great honour," Foley said.
"Scheduling is pretty important. Everybody wants to see the best players on the field all the time. I think the scheduling has got to support that. If you push for quantity and compromise on quality, players are upset, coaches are upset and fans are upset. I think the scheduling could be a lot simpler."
If the Lions felt disrespected, they weren't showing it. Lions forwards coach Graham Rowntree said: "I have just seen the team, it's not a bad team."
"I can see there's not a lot of guys who've played Super 15 but it still looks a strong enough team to me," he said.
"But we go back to ourselves. It's another chance for a starting XV to show what they can do."
Well Bob, the "weakened team" showed. 69-17 is pretty comprehensive, but still got the impression that there was more to give.
We shall see.
That was a disgrace and Foley should be fired for that selection alone. I paid to go to that game based on it being the one chance a super side had to front with 90% or better of a full team, what a Joke. The tahs game is a cripple fight for the wooden spooners, so he had a chance to redeem the season with this game, but just threw it away with the 'we need to think about sunday' bull****. You can't tell me that the players left out wouldn't have stuck their hand up for the once in a career opportunity either. Gutted.