Here is my best effort at being as strict on the Lions in the first half as possible while not looking at any Canes infringements.
Lions guilty of popping heads out of scrum on a few occasions. During this half.
05:22 Mapoe joins ruck from the side
10:15 Jaco Kriel weirdly involved at the ruck. Possible off-side
10:17 Mapoe Off-side
10:35 Mostert Off-side
25:26 Not clear but some Lions players might be involved in play while retreating(not on camera but very possible)
25:48 Combrink Off-side
27:56 Lions off-side penalty given. Seems Faf thought the ball was cleared earlier than it was. Was a great position for the Canes and one could say this is game spoiling.
45:44 Mostert Off-side
45:54 Liona off side
Half time.
I tried. I really tried but apart from one occasion which seemed to be more accidental than anything else I could find no cynical play from the Lions.
Also, after a few more looks at some incidents from the previous post I would have to correct the following.
1) The early line-out drive that I said caused the knock on is very touch and go. One would have to say it was the jumper that knocked on through unforced error.
2) The incident where Barrett was standing in front of Jantjies and thus Faf had to pass to a loosie. This was during a bit of flowing play and though he could have made more of an effort to move, one could probably let it slide.
It’s very possible that I am not able to do this. It has to be said though that the Lions had the majority of the ball in this half, in terms of rucks at least and had the opposition taken the ball into more rucks it is possible that the Lions would have infringed more.
So as concerns the first half. Granted I am not convinced
that I was completely unbiased even though I did my bloody well best to be a Canes fan for 40 minutes, the Canes did seem to infringe a hell of a lot more in various facets.
If any Kiwis could point me to more Lions transgressions that'd be great.


