Disappointment

Disappointment - that is the only word I can use to describe the Springbok loss at Ellis Park (Or Coca-Cola Park as it is now less than fondly know. This is our damn fortress where we hardly ever lose - 8 years is a long time in international sport.

I personally felt it was disrespectful to both our fans as well as the British & Irish Lions players and supporters for us to make wholesale changes to the squad.

The Lions have toured for the last 5 weeks playing up to two games a week against some bruising opposition and you have not once heard them complain - we decide to basically write off the last test match by replacing 10 players?!

(And then we stick Pierre Spies on the wing? Bizarre)

If this is how we are planning to go into the Tri-Nations then I worry for our side. While the Lions side has some good individual attackers the Australian and All Black back 3's who have played together a lot will make mincemeat of a defence if it is not prepared.... I hope Div has a plan here.

The discipline shown by the Boks in this series has also been poor and the only reason it hasn't seen the side meltdown is because as a team we carry a lot of experience and skills which made sure we were on the winning side.... What's going to happen when we are on the backfoot in the Tri-Nations?!

2nd test - Boks vs. the B&I Lions

The 2nd test match between the British & Irish Lions and the Springboks was an intriguing face-off.

The loss of Burger in the first 30 seconds of the match gave the Lions something to get back "go forward" and they never really looked like giving it up until some late second half substitutions changed things around.

Some observations on the game:

Uncontested scrums:
From the 45th minute of the test match there were uncontested scrums and yet we still stuck to three genuine front-rankers while the Lions enjoyed far more mobility

Jaque Fourie:
Fourie was again expected to come off the bench and make an impact. While I appreciate what Adi Jacobs brings to the side, I don't understand why Peter Devilliers is so hesitant to pair Jean Devilliers with Fourie considering the size and strength of the B&I centres?!

Spies better off the bench:
If you're looking for a way to incorporate the foraging ability of Brussouw as well as Burger and Juan Smith then why not move Burger to 8 and let Spies come off the bench as the impact player for the last 20 minutes or so? Sure he could inflict a lot of pain if used in this manner?

Headache at flyhalf?:
Ruan Pienaar had a competent performance at flyhalf last week but this time around he just didn't click. The side looked far more structured when Steyn came on. (I'm not a Steyn fan but he did the job today).

Dunno

Southern Kings

I thought that the Southern Kings side that they put out to take on the British & Irish Lions wasn't a bad one and thought it bodes well for the potential for this franchise.

Obviously a lot of the players in this setup still are committed to other franchises but there is some talent out there that hasn't yet been utilised.

I thought Gary Owen (the ref) interfered with what was otherwise a good game. That penalty try he awarded was completely unnecessary and the second yellow-card against the Kings was odd considering the number of high tackles that the B&I Lions got away with.

On the penalty try, my understanding is that you can only award a penalty try when a definate try was stopped by a professional foul - the ball spewed out the side of the scrum and the opposition scrumhalf picked it up and I'm pretty sure Owen was unsighted - by all means give the penalty if they had collapsed the scrum but not because the Lions couldn't control the ball....

Sigh

Busy weekend

It's a bit of a crazy sporting weekend and of course there is rugby on the go as well.

Got a coupla outside bets open this weekend which will be interesting to see how they play out. The match ups are also quite close so they're not completely out the money options either:

• Cheetahs to beat the British & Irish Lions
• Argentina to beat the England in Manchester
• Barbarians to sneak past Australia
• USA to shock the Welsh

Could be an interesting day of rugby!

Cheetahs vs B&I Lions...

I backed the Royal XV - basically a Griquas side - to beat the B&I Lions last week and for a while it looked like I was in the money on that bet... But eventually they gave it up in the last few minutes.

Today the British & Irish Lions get a crack at the Cheetahs side and I'm taking an outside bet on the Cheetahs to surprise here... provided they haven't had orders to lose that is ;-)

I don't think you can take the B&I Lions thumping the Golden Lions as a fair reflection of ability. The Golden Lions were missing key players in Ludik and Rose and their management are in absolute disarray - you would have done better to send them out against a school team...

Anyway go Cheetahs!

Hhhhhmmmmm

I'm hearing this second hand so maybe I've got it wrong but did Peter Devilliers really tell the international press that this British & Irish Lions side wasn't as good as the 1974 touring side?! (or more specifically didn't show the same "character".)

Div are you nuts?!

Anyone ever tell you never to grab a tiger (or in this instance a Lion) by its tail?

You might believe that they are kak and you might know that you have the best players in the world at your disposal and available to take on some ordinary opposition - but remember that was exactly the attitude our media and players had to the last B&I Lions side that toured here and we know how that turned out.

Anyway the Boks have now put all the pressure on themselves - hope they know what they are doing...

Mils Muliaina

I have to tip my hat to Mils Muliaina - the captain of the Chiefs side which got thumped in Pretoria last night.

Everyone who was watching the final and listening to the speeches was very impressed by the way he spoke and to be able to cap it off with a "baie dankie" (thank you) to the Loftus crowd and the TV viewers was the mark of a world class sportsman and statesman.

The Bulls may have thumped the Chiefs on the field but Muliaina won more than a few supporters over yesterday.

Well done to the Chiefs and the Bulls for a hugely entertaining final.