lions vs blues live thread

 bench noakes and ahki and bring on willonson and hickey.

NZ has the best coaches in smith and rennie, but we also have the worst coaches in hammet and kirwan.

 Yellow card will be over soon.

noakes misses a kick, while hickey has been a revelation with he boot and on attack, i hate kirwan.

23-8 lions lead

another blues try, nice work, :o)

 Try Blues. I wish I could keep typing that, lol

even though noakes got the kick over, i wish hickey was on the filed.

piutaus the man.

should be a knock on to the blues.

 Questionable call.

tough call for the blues, ref called it wrong, but the score is a true reflection of who is the more dominant t eam.

blues body language says it all, they have lost the ,match and are just going through the motions now.

dont klnow why the blues bench are hi fiving themsleves, u hi 5 when u do something good, not when u pllay like shit.

halai with a maori sidestep to score his try, a legitimate try.

great work from brynn hall too who started that.

safe to say that its benji last start, LMAO, :oD

oh wait a inute, kirwan is coach and he dosent have a clue.

didnt know that depression was contaigous, thanks for nothing kirwan.

67mins 33-22 lions lead.

hickey is now on with 10minutes to go, i fucking hate kirwan.

moala scores, nice work blues.

poor defence from the lions, which is not the norm, lions have been solid for 70minutes.

close game now and hickeys first kick is a difficult one and he nails it.

thats why hickey should have been on from the start kirwan u fucking egg.

boshoff hits a penalty and lions lead  35-29 5 mins left.

brings that rubbish try of the lions into perspective now considering its a 7pt lead.
lions still the better team though.

halai knocks on.

smart rugby from the lions going for the penalty.

commentaotr is spot, go for the win every day and twice on sunday.

boshoffs reliable boot nails a tough kick.

lions lead 39-29 2 mins left.

nice try, a bit of beji magic.
39-36 to the lions and seconds remaining.

 I ha d to evacuate the building because of a fire alarm. Came back to see Blues had made a come back - but not enough to win it. Congrats to both teams.

full time 39-36

nice win to the lions, deserved winner in the end, blues playing like shit in the first half and it ended up costing them the match.

blues should be happy they walk away with two bonus points, cos IMO they dont deserve one.

kirwan needs to go, but hes new and hes an auckland legend, so hes going to be plauging the blues for a while yet.

hickey did more positive things in his 9 minutes on the field, then noakes has in his two seasons with the blues.
cos hes clearly the form flyhalf, kirwan will prob play him off the bench for the rest of the season.

benji was pretty ordinary for most of the game, but his brillance gave the blues that extra bonus point, a work in progress, but all is not lost.

fundamental and lack of attacking options is what cost the blues.
aoh and lets not forget the blues forward pack getting pwned in a big bad way, ouchies, :oP

well done lions, but blues can walk away with a smile, cos they got more then they deserved.

Well done Lions a team of average Joes have had a decent season so far. The New Zealand conference just does not have the depth to put together tight fives that are competitive. 

 Sasue
I said it on the past and I am saying it again - you cannot play rugby with crinkle paper forwards.

@mikey,

agreed.

alternatively, u cant play rugby with a crinkle paper body, thats why lady elizebth hasnt played a game yet and stephanie is gone til next year,

Susuke san: the kiwi locks are hard men. I would not care to comment on the Bok locks, very questionable in that regards, lol  

 Have just watched the first half but see Lions won. Constable Ackermann schools Sir John and Sir Graham. Bwahahahhahaha
Liosn must have taken foot off the gas in second half.De Klerk and Boschoff certainly looking good. Whitely also very effective along with the other very mobile loosies. Watermeyer is also very useful as is that winger Jonker was itFancy the Lions scumming the hapless blues who are much heavier.
Hats off to the Lions coaches.  Dom Alistair must take note.

 My oh my how soft is the wee blues scrum including two ab front rowers! hahahahahahaha
Jw I am sure y ou and the kiwis are severely embarrassed!

Beeno: you are being a little ungrateful, you do know that the Blues just decided to give the wee lions cubs a training run don't you? 
In the second half the Blues decided to stretch their legs a little.

 JW just wait till the mighty Stormers hit their straps. Dont expect either the Cheetahs or Stormers to prop up the table. We want 5 teams in the top ten. 

 Blues played dumb rugby, especially Donnelly for that shoulder charge into the ruck; cost the Blues big time. That's the same tactic that Burger and Bakkies used all the time and dangerous to say the least.Did anyone see the deliberate headbutt by the Lions 4 (Mostert?) in the 47th minute on James Parsons in a ruck? Parsons complained to the ref to no avail, so hope that is picked up later. It should be as SA TV showed a replay and even Joel Stransky uttered an "Oooh!" at seeing it but the gutless twat made no further comment!I wish they'd sort out this knocking the ball out of an opponents hand situation. 90% of the time it's ruled a knock-on and the other 10% a knock back by the defender. In my opinion it should always be treated as lost forward by the carrier; that way there is no room for argument.

 moolaa 
I was bemused by that decision as well.  However, I do not think it would have made much of a difference.   The Blues scrumming was so poor that the real result would have been a penalty stemming from the scrum or worse.
All New Zealand teams suffer from a deficiency as to tight 5 forwards and it was shown again today.  That was the Blues main problem.   The other problem was at flyhalf = Kinsey would have been much better than the clueless Noakes.   Thank Kirwen or that stupid move.  
  

 Just downloaded the game & hope to watch it w/o a fire evacuation this time, lol
I have a theory, i.e. Kirwan & other coaches target game he thinks they can win or at least get a point, for these teams he puts in his stronger players. 
He takes into account if it is an away game, i.e. if it is an away game you will see a weaker or more experimental side selected. So for these games he rests many of his stronger players. In other words, I am saying this is a major factor in his team selection & resting of his top players.
This would explain some crazy selections Hammett makes.

"H-factor" is needed for the blues, i.e. Hall & Hickey.
When they were on the field the feed was faster & the backs were released to score the tries.

 Just Win
I was before the match screaming murder because Kirwen went for Noakes and not Hickey.   That was what I would call a crazy  selection and was most likely what cost them the game.
I was no t so much worried about Hall - Hickey's ommision and the poor performance of the tight 5 as a unit were the main problems. 

Clevermike: yes many of us knew leaving Hickey out was crazy, e.g. Sasuke San posted that comment at the beginning of this thread.
Weepu is a class act for sure but when I saw how fast the ball went out to the backs & how quick he is on his feet I knew Hall makes a big difference when he comes on. At minimum the Blues have their impact player at the 9 position. I think the coach should develop Hall & gradually give him more game time.

 No excuses please kiwis the better side on the day won.We cant keep getting kiwi sides winning games they shouldnt.

Beeno: yes the "no excuses policy" is the one most kiwis follow. We are always trying to set an example for fans from  other nations

 Hmmmm nice try JW but unfortuntaely the evidence suggest otherwise Bwahhahahahaha - poor moola cant get over it. Time to move on kiwis no use crying over spilt milk.

 Errr, Beeno, how are the stormers doing? 
I seem to recall there were & still are tears & spilt milk aplenty

lions was the deserved winners, the played the better rugby for longer periods of the game.

but blues fans shouldnt feel to disheartened, for they only lost by 3pts. this is significant cos the ref incorrectly awarded a try to the lions on the 60th minute mark when van wyk scored the lions 3rd try.

1), the ball was a clearly knocked on by van rensberg, saffa commentators all agreed with this too, but simple logic should have been applied.

2) the last pass which van rensberg got before knocking it on was from whitley, who passed 5 meters before the blues 10meter line and van rensberg catches the ball on the 10 meter line.

not sure how the ref could have screwed up the knock on thats a bit of a head scratcher, but the forward pass i can understand, as that happens more often then not.

considering the blues only lost by 3pts, and 7 of the lions points was incorrectly awarded, blues should be happy with the outcome.
in saying that, the better team did win,even though the results should have been another one of those the better team lost scenarios, like the crusaders /stormers and stormers/hurricanes.

 Whoops Beeno, you just woke up Sasuke San. Now you are in trouble.

Act 1: the awakening

Act 2: The hammering