The Lions have tonight beaten Taranaki 36-14 in a sometimes spiteful encounter. The Lions trailed 6-7 at halftime but put the pressure on in the final thirty minutes to scoot away to a convincing win.
Taranaki battled well but their fitness appeared to fade towards the end of the match. They were also guilty of too many indiscretions, one of which earned hooker Andrew Hore a ten minute spell in the sin bin. Without Hore Taranaki struggled at set piece time.
The Lions will take much heart from their final 30 mins where they stamped their authority on the match, but questions need to be asked about why it took them so long to subdue a relatively underpowered Taranaki.
Certainly they will be lucky to win if they produce a repeat performance agains the NZ Maori in Hamilton on Saturday. That game will see some of the Lions’ big guns in action and will provide the first serious indications of whether this team will be able to foot it with the All Blacks later in the month.
Woodward made no secret of the fact that a win was a win no matter how ugly, and you have to think that the slow starts to games is the wrinkles being ironed out. Hodgson was great apparently, as was Owen at number 8.
But at the end of the day Taranaki should have been a 30pt win, at least- it will be interesting to see who Woodwar opts for at number8 and lock now?
Yep, you are right. I’m certainly not one to quibble at them winning. It is true to say that they will take a while to iron out the kinks, and if you can do that while racking up 20point wins then that is fantastic.
No 8 will be interesting…in fact, so many things to look at over the next few weeks.
Taranaki are not one of the strongholds but consistently punch above their weight in our national championship.
They are known for playing a pretty basic, slightly thuggish brand of rugby. They didn’t deviate from this pattern last night. The Lions handled them pretty well, actually.
We will know a lot more about this Lions team once they have played the Maori, on Saturday. That match will be played at a feverish intensity in the cauldron of Rugby park, Hamilton. If the Lions handle that assignment with aplomb then things get really interesting from there…
I’m off to the Maori game: it should be very telling. So far the tour has gone as you would expect: a lot of committment and fire from the local sides, with a patient approach from a side of experienced internationals that sees them come through in the end. They have a very controlled, low risk approach, and capitalise on opposition mistakes. Their forwars ae not fearsome, but sure are controlled. Its been good rugby so far, but BOP and Taranaki are nowhere near the top sides . If the All Blacks (or Maori) keep their heads and don’t take too many risks I think the Lions will be overwhelmed.
Exactly. Now why didn’t I say that in the first place? Notice in my long non-insightful ramble I said nothing about excitement, but I’m the sort of person who doesn’t get bored watching paint dry.
Oh, Please, that is just ignorant. The Lions have payed expansive 15 man rugby- something you have to do in NZ, or you will lose test matches.
I still have the Maori beating the Lions in a bruising ecnounter, but the Lions winning the series… if you want to see explosive rugby watch the test match centres going at each other- pure power and speed
Now I’m with MattinSF here. It is boring, but effective, percentage rugby we are seeing. The Lions/England in drag do not know what 15 man rugby is. So there. And I have the ABs winning the series, unless they do something stupid, which is quite likely. I am not so sure the Maori will win, but if they do, it will be all over in the tests. I wouldn’t call seeing the centres going into each explosive rugby. There will simply be a big thump and another ruck. The best centres find some way of going around their opposites with speed, timing and finesse, not power.
For those spouting shite about boring percentage rugby, I can only suggest that you watch the games and look where on the field and by whom the tries are being scored.
As for the Lions expecting to do better against a realtively ‘underpowered’ Taranaki side; Wednesday’s result was the largest winning margin over Taranaki in the last 5 series…
Bring on the Maori and our 54 stone front row will show them a thing or two…
Yep, I am with our Scottish friend on this one. After 1959 in Dunedin when the All Blacks beat the Lions by 6 penalties to two tries, no All Black fan can accuse the Lions of playing percentage rugby.
At the international level (hell, any level) winning is its own justification. You win, you grin. How you do it is immaterial (within the laws of the game, of course).
What NZ teams have lacked since '87 (IMHO), is a fine enough understanding of the percantages required to win the big games. I don’t give a stuff how NZ wins, so long as we do.
The way that the Lions tight five go on Saturday is going to be very interesting.
Potentially the front row is awesome but it had better fire otherwise there is not much of a plan B, certainly none of the front row distinguished themselves on Wednesday…