Musings/observations/rants about the Lions Tour thus far
*Most fearsome moment of the tour?
Not the way the Queensland Reds tore into the Lions at the start of Saturday’s game one suspected they would tire and be set-pieced out of the game, and Quade Cooper, I thought, did not make a better case for Wallaby selection than the one he already had.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dPR0eLl7pPw
Instead it was seeing Jonny Sexton getting personal hamstring attention from Dr James Robson while Owen Farrell was hirpling around in the dying moments at Suncorp.
The folly of taking just two tens to Australia was underlined then, and Stuart Hogg (18 minutes for Glasgow at Connacht since the Under-15s at Hawick HS) has to fill in. Madness.
*Hoggy’s response to being given the 10 jersey was probably his reaction to any challenge bring it on.
But while he has the skills to play anywhere in the backs, I’m wary of any plan to turn him into a fly-half for fear we have the legendary Chris Paterson mistake in reverse.
At this stage, his speed, elusiveness and instincts are far better utilised at full-back rather than at 13 (where Andy Robinson seemed to think he would eventually play) or at 10. So other than dirt-tracking games against country selects, he should stay a 15.
*Richie Gray has played three of four games so far on the tour, which this early would generally rule him out of the test team.
But such has been his dominance in the air, his tackling (a certain Paul O’Connell influence in the way he’s been wrapping people up) and his incredible mobility, it’s looking like he might be in with a chance of partnering the totemic Irishman in the second row.
Richie has certainly recovered his form of 2011-12, and it’s good news for Scotland that’s he’s out of Sale and headed for the Top 14, which is where he should have gone in the first place if he really was bent on leaving Glasgow.
In fact it’s good news that the entire cabal of Scots seem to have exited Sgt Major Steve Diamond’s Sharks.
*Three of the Lions four games thus far have been virtually training runs.
There has been much fuss over this and the Western Force’s decision to play a second XV against the tourists.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jYY0DBVmAy0
The casualty rate so far shows why. Modern rugby is so much different than even the last-but-one Australia tour, 1989, that it’s barely the same sport.
Matches are more physically intense, and players are forced to play many, many more games of intensity than they ever did. The optimum time between games for rugby players is supposed to be a week to ten days, the Lions are playing a game every three and a half days on this tour.
Thankfully, the biggest injury area is where the Lions can afford it; at prop. Mako Vunipola is regarded as a competent scrummager at best in Europe, where England did not feel secure enough to start him during the Six Nations. But he’s better than just about anything the Wallabies have.
I think there’s about six possible front rows from the Home Nations that would be better in the scrum than Australia’s first choice trio. It’s an advantage that they have to press in the forthcoming tests.
*Warren Gatland has chopped and changed selection in his first four games it’s hard to guess where his intentions are for the first test, especially concerning the back row.
However, given the freedom of no injuries for the next fortnight about as likely as Quade Cooper and Robbie Deans enjoying a man-hug, but still I would think he’ll err on the side of cautionary experience.
That means 2009 veterans O’Driscoll, Roberts, Phillips, Croft, Heaslip, O’Connell and Adam Jones. Hibbard is still the hooker if he stays upright, Sexton is in cotton wool for 10. Halfpenny will play full-back and kick, and George North and Alex Cuthbert are still favoured for the wings, although I reckon Sean Maitland will challenge the defensively suspect Cuthbert.
Loose head is wide open. Vunipola has a head start, but I saw Murrayfield favourite Brian Moore, the former England hooker, bemoan on twitter that he hadn’t been brave enough several weeks ago to bet his conviction that Ryan Grant would be the Lions 1 this summer.