Lions versus highlanders official match thread

 Landers out of their feet, missed tackles all over the field. Not their day today.

 Brilliant Lions score again. man what great rugby. Highlanders simply outclassed.
It' s 42-16

 Highlanders score as Lions get loose.

 jantjies has had a brilliant game, maybe he will get some respect now.

 Good try by the Landers, showing the heart that characterizes this team.

 Great win by Lions. Took off their top players early to save them for hurricanes. Allowed highlanders to compete.

Given a fair shake by ref Lions could do it. But we all know how bent down under refs are!!

 Congrats to the Lions, they deserve to be in the finals & are putting some hope back in SA rugby. Tough luck Landers, I'm sure they are disappointed but they just couldn't pull off another win against the odds.
The final with Canes vs. Lions should be a good one with plenty of skill on the park.

 JW all I ask for is a fair competent ref. Lions will have to travel and that is a big negative. But Lions have lots of go in them and will decimate pap Hurricanes scrum.

 Beanhead Let me give you a heads up what is going to happen to your Lions Team this week.
Jantjies and your half back will be harrassed at every turn, your outside backs will not be given any room to move and we will target your scrum and of course Glen Jackson will return Wacko's favour ensuring the Home Team is well infront before making a show of being fair. Welcome to sea level, Welcome to the Cake Tin.
This I promise.

Hacked Waaaghahaha it all depends  whether crooked Glen Jackson will allow the Hurricanes to camp offsides as they did against the wee chiefies. 
Yes I know the kiwis will now be very worried and will be dependent on their bent ref yet again so I do  know for the Lions to win they must be 30 points better.

Beeno wasting now time as he lunches into his pre-game excuses for the final before the semi final is even over.

 Lets see how Jantjies does outside of Ellis Park.

 hacked waaugh   says the hurricanes are going to target lions scrum! bwahahahahahahahaha very funny one!
Reminds me of the old days when saSUE  used to comment 

I did what I could for him of course!

 Jw I know nz rugby from of old. It's as crooked as crooked Hillary. Yes that bad!

 It's not the Lions fault Beanhead. The coaches are the ones who decided to throw their Home Ground advantage by playing a 2nd Stream Team in Argentina. Now they have to travel away from their Home Crowd and support----->sad really.

 I do hope the good Dr Mozzz has finally clicked the Lions style is what our major franchises and the Boks must move towards playing Dr Mozzz felt we could only defend.

I also hope snapster who struggles to understand the game will realise his big pick Kolisi is very mediocre and nowhere near the class of Kriel.
Hope no Lions are injured. 

Well loads of EGG has just landed for all those blowhard kbbs! hahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahaha haha

 He who laughs last Beanhead - he who laughs last.

 I thought Akkermann should have had his top 8 players on the bench. It would have done the trick.  Anyhow these L ions are a determined lot so barring a typical kiwi ref debacle it could be a great game.

Time for break. You kbs need your beauty sleep too I guess - badly!

 Wacko Peyper won't be there to save them this time.

 Good game by the Lions, the Landers blew their asses big time!! They couldn't even be bothered to run and pass in the end. To much for the Highlanders. Lions vs Canes next week. The Canes will have to be prepared to crank it and not take the pedal of the metal for 80 minutes.  

 

 

 have to admit it does look funny seeing all the springbok jerseys running around the touchline and in the middle of the game. They certainly know how to make the most of a home advantage. 

 SMITH PRAISES 'UNREAL' LIONS; Rugby 365

REACTION: HIGHLANDERS CAPTAIN AND FULLBACK BEN SMITH SAID HE WAS DISAPPOINTED WITH THE WAY HIS TEAM PLAYED IN THEIR SEMIFINAL AGAINST THE LIONS, BUT ALSO GAVE CREDIT TO THE JOHANNESBURG TEAM.

The defending Super Rugby champions lost 30-42 at Ellis Park against a Lions side that played some exceptional rugby from start to finish.

"The Lions played really well today and they fully deserved the win," said Smith.

"The running rugby that they have been playing has been unreal. We wish them all the best for the Final and it will be a great Final."

Smith said their execution let them down throughout the game.

"We are a bit disappointed with the way we played today. We did not put quite enough pressure on the Lions and we did not quite execute the way would have liked. But I am still really proud of the team," Smith added.

Highlanders head coach Jamie Joseph also pinpointed his team's execution as a problem after the game.

"Early on in the game we had a couple of opportunities, which we never nailed," said Joseph. "But at the end of the day I thought the Lions had a marvelous game and they took all their opportunities and put us under pressure.

"You have to give credit where credit is due. They are a very good team; they are a balanced team. We really struggled at the breakdowns today and they got the upper hand at scrum time as well."

The Lions will play the Hurricanes in the Final at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on August 6.

 Good sportsmanship from Landers coach & players in the article above. That's what we like to see. Beeno, please use this article in your remedial sportsmanship classes.
Beeno in uniform & ready to learn, one must be optimistic
Over 20,000 posts documenting his insanity

Anyone who thinks Jaco Peyper was the reason for the Lions win today is about as clued up on rugby as Baboon-ou.
Have a little think about that and confirm if you want to continue to blame the ref for the Highlanders loss today.

 ou rooitwit jumps in to fray not having a clue as usual.JW all I said was what the Highlanders said. The Lions were too good end of story.In stead of bleating about the ref the kbbs should consider how fortunate the hapless highlanders were that Akkers took off his front row player. Saved the hapless highlanders a point point loss. Hahahahahahahahahaha  
Never mind between now and next Saturday the Glen will be working with the Hurricanes on a plan!
Goooo LIONS! 
Bye the way rooitwit your Bok team selections sucks! Your cow towing to quotas is nauseous! Grow a backbone!

Baboon-ou, trust me when I say thank you for disagreeing with me on my suggested Springbok team. You have no idea how much validation your squawking adds to my selections.

 Rooi the Lions are a good side and they deserve to be in the Finals.

I talking about Jacko Peyper's performance and SANZAR's decision to award home refs to the finals. Either they will go out of their way (like Justin Marshall's commentary against NZ Teams) and try too hard to be neutral or they will blatantly go out of the way to help the home team at opportune moments.

Of course the Lions did not need Wacko to help them win.

BUT Wacko does have history.

I can only go by the evidence infront of me. At opportune moments in the games when the game hangs in balance he helps the Lions ahead by giving them questionable penalties.

 The stats are pretty even on attack (but the Landers scored two late tries when the game was beyond doubt). The main problems were on defence and in the scrums (Landers lost two but were under pressure in many more):
TACKLES

10453.6%46.4%90Missed TacklesLionsComparisonHighlanders2845.9%54.1%33
Another problem for the Landers was the fact that they only had two backs on the bench so when Osborne went off after 27 minutes that was a problem. Some terrible tackling in the backs.


                                    T  TM TW15Ben Smith5--14Waisake Naholo32213Matt Faddes14-12Malakai Fekitoa25111Patrick Osborne-2110Lima Sopoaga3539Aaron Smith441
Penalties were even at 8 each.
Bottom line is that the Lions were the better team on the day & the Landers looked knackered fairly early on.