Lions vs. Taranaki

[chickenfeet]

My first thoughts on seeing the Lions starting line up was that this was very much the mid-week side, with the likely exception of at least one of Owen and Corry. Not much happened to change that view. Cusiter, Hodgson and Murphy had big games and will have materially advanced their respective causes but they have formidable opposition to overcome to make the test side. I guess the overall take there was that O'Gara is out of the frame completely. In the forwards, Corry and Owen did their test chances no harm at all. A back row of Corry, Owen, Hill is not impossible. It would be tremendously powerful but I'd worry about being able to match McCaw's quickness at the breakdown. Hayes, Titterell and Grewcock surely ruled themselves out of test contention. Grewcock just has too short a fuse, Titterell's throwing in was woeful and Hayes would have been out-scrummaged by my granny which, given she died twenty years ago, isn't saying much.

Let's see whether the Maori game on Saturday adds a few salient data points.

Comments

[tanuja.livejournal.com]

They've just announced the side for the Maori game and SCW appears to be planning for a big hitting game (but then it's the Maori's, what else should we expect). I'm wondering if the choice of Dawson is because SCW thinks that Dawson is a better player than Peel, or simply because he's throwing Jones and Dawson together so that should he have to do this for the tests they've already partnered one another.

Henson's omission has me scratching my head, but I'm not sure if it's because he's proved himself worthy of the 12 shirt or it's because SCW thinks that he's a hopeless partner for BOD and with BOD as the captain of the squad, he can't be left out of the test side.

Roll on Sat.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

There are some odd choices in the side to face the Maori. O'Gara, Oh please! d'Arcy? I can't see Taylor making the test side ahead of Corry or Owen. I'm not surprised by Dawson. I think Sir Clive wants to see how he goes with Jones. I'm surprised that Wilkinson isn't on the bench with a view to giving him and Peel 20 minutes together. No sign yet of Neil Back or Jason Robinson.