Blues v British & Irish Lions, 7 June

First topic message reminder :

Blues v British & Irish Lions
7 June 2017
KO: 19:35 NZST (8.35am BST)
Eden Park, Auckland

Live on Sky Sports, Sky Sports HD and SkyGo

Referee: Pascal Gaüzère (France)
Touch judges: [tbc]
TMO: [tbc]

A. FORM:

19 June 1993: Auckland 23 - 18 British & Irish Lions

18 May 1983: Auckland 13 - 12 British & Irish Lions

23 June 1977: Auckland 15 - 34 British & Irish Lions

B. TEAMS:

Blues 
15 Michael Collins
14 Matt Duffie
13 George Moala
12 Sonny Bill Williams
11 Rieko Ioane
10 Stephen Perofeta
09 Augustine Pulu

08 Steven Luatua
07 Blake Gibson
06 Akira Ioane
05 Scott Scrafton
04 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti
03 Charlie Faumuina
02 James Parson
01 Ofa Tu'ungafasi

16 Hame Faiva
17 Alex Hodgman
18 Sione Mafileo
19 Patrick Tuipulotu
20 Kara Pryor
21 Sam Nock
22 Ihaia West
23 TJ Faiane/Melani Nanai

British & Irish Lions

Halfpenny; Nowell, Payne, Henshaw, Daly; Biggar, Webb; McGrath, Owens (captain), Cole, Itoje, Lawes, Haskell, Tipuric, Stander

Replacements: Best, Marler, Sinckler, Henderson, O'Mahony, Laidlaw, Sexton, L Williams

C. PREVIEW

Liam Williams does the same thing again and gets the yellow this time. It is getting harder by the minute

Williams has been really silly again there. No composure from him. Poor penalty and YC to give away there.

So that's Nowell and Williams playing themselves out of Test spots

Given the tradition of fantastic wingers on Lions tours we really could do with one of ours standing out and doing something good! Seymour and Watson both did fine on Saturday without anything brilliant but sounds like the lot today aren't doing well.

Bring on North....

Seems like, as with Saturday, more guys trying to play their way off the test team rather than into it.

Blues in again in the corner but forward pass

No try

North seeming nailed on for the tests without even playing.

Watson and Seymour for me

LondonTiger wrote:Seems like, as with Saturday, more guys trying to play their way off the test team rather than into it.

I think that Tipuric and Webb have stood up very well and are playing themselves into the test team, as is Lawes.

This is almost as embaressing as englands world cup

Why is our defensive line so often staggered as if we expect to be getting the ball, rather than flat? What has Farrell Sr been doing in training?

Unable to watch this at work - how are the forwards doing?

BigGee wrote:Liam Williams does the same thing again and gets the yellow this time. It is getting harder by the minute

Kicking high to Duffie is daft - he's an ex-RL winger, used to defending the high ball

LondonTiger wrote:Why is our defensive line so often staggered as if we expect to be getting the ball, rather than flat? What has Farrell Sr been doing in training?

It was very good when Payne was on, he was leading them well but since he has gone off the shape has gone with him.

George Carlin wrote:Unable to watch this at work - how are the forwards doing?

Set piece going well.

Referee very quick to penalise Pulu there

15-13 Blues

15 to go

Better by the Lions.

Forwards playing well.

Halfpenny penalty.

15-13.

Feck me this is going to be close - correct call to go for goal.

George Carlin wrote:Unable to watch this at work - how are the forwards doing?

Much better, Mullerring them in the set play and giving decent ruck ball. Unfortunately the backs can't do anything with it

Lions relying on the maul a lot as expected

Tbf Blues had been all over every ruck up to thatbobe

Lions have played out this sin bin period very well. Blues gone off the boil now

Let's all take a moment to watch this next maul

.........ahhhhhh

Whats NZ's set piece like?

RiscaGame wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Unable to watch this at work - how are the forwards doing?

Set piece going well.

They had to swap out front rows early to keep it that way though. And the Blues have had good possession form their own attacking scrum which nearly led to a try.

Standers had a mixed bag by the sounds of it. Lawes and Tipuric grabbing the plaudits through dirty work.

Oh, wasn't straight, damn

Enjoy that one Ebop?

Not sure what that was from cannonball Ken

Blues scrum is getting destroyed.

Scrum penalty on order

Good one by Marler there

Another scrum penalty, really putting down a marker here. Back in the lead if the kick goes over

Sinkler giving it the large, lol

What a dude

Synkler giving them some sh*t too

Yappysnap

The Lions will pull away with the win with their mauls and scrums

We're almost better deliberately (but slyly) knocking on in their half so we can get penalties!

Halfpenny's chance to shine here, get this and he's a nailed on test starter

Sinckler. Sinckler.

16-15 Lions

ebop wrote:Yappysnap

The Lions will pull away with the win with their mauls and scrums

Brilliant, that'll set us up well for the Tests...

Itoje liked that one

Lawes and Tipuric winning that turnover, they have both been excellent.

Blues looking true to form - they've been experts at stuffing up games in the last 20 minutes this year

Williams makes his first legal tackle of the game

yappysnap wrote:Halfpenny's chance to shine here, get this and he's a nailed on test starter

Goes back to the same old debate though - he kicks his goals but has contributed to our lack of cutting edge in the backline!

Cyril wrote:Itoje liked that one

Congratulating Williams on not getting carded again

SBW, that was special from him

Fantastic try. That deserves to win the game.

Awesome try to the Blues!!!

Get in there boys