You wait bloody ages for an ATL, and then two turn up at once….
No prizes for guessing which is the work of Craigsman, and which of Deebee7.
The Glorious Series Continues
Pre/Ramble
So it’s a bit weird that, with a Lionz series in south Africa being poised with one game each, rugby fans seems quite deflated about the last match in this series. No fans, empty stadiums, accusations of biting, of slowing down the game, of racism, of influencing the referee have all played a part. But really it’s the fact that the rugby hasn’t set the world alight that’s the problem (Springbok tries aside) in this Craigsman’s opinion. Both sides seem to be playing low risk stuff seeing who breaks first. Kick, kick, kick. The Kiwis would lap this up. Form-wise, apart from the last half of the second game (and a bit in the first half of the first game) the Lions forwards have been able to get the dominance needed to win but they have been blunt in attack. Here’s hoping that rugby* wins and we get a game on Saturday. Let’s have a look at the teams innit.
LionzTM
So this makes me wonder what the feck Gats is playing at with his selection for the third test. I am but a simple accountant, unused to the complexities of rugby coaching, but I’m trying to work out some of the choices made at 9 and 10 and 21 and 22. Starting with a live wire scrum half and a … solid fly half and then ending with a … solid scrum half and a live wire fly half seems to be negating the strengths of each player. Either start with the live wire options and when the Springbok defence proves too miserly to score tries against or a nice healthy lead has been built, end with the … wise old heads who like to kick and do the game management stuff. Or, do the opposite to chase the game. What do I know? Everything else in the team seems reasonable. Courtney Lawes has done well to ignore the instructions from Dan Biggar and the rest of the pack looks solid. I would probably have Tadhg MK II in the finishers but hey ho. The back 3 look like they could negate a dastardly kicking game and we have two lumps in the centre to negate the Boks and the “amazing” Elliot Daly to come in against the tired legs at the end. So, I’m sanguine there.
Springboks
The Springboks look rubbish and will get hammered whatever happens look like a settled unit right now with the only changes have come from injury and OH MY GOD IT’S MORNE FECKING STEYNE!!!!!!!!!! Maybe it’s just more trolling from Rassie and we’ll see a last minute ‘injury’ and a proper player like Wynand Olivier will replace him. Just ignorant speculation on my part. Other than that, I can’t see anything to pick at. It’s a formidable side and Lionz supporters everywhere will have breathed a sigh of relief that Duane Vermeulen hasn’t yet come back from injury. I think they will rinse and repeat what worked in the second game. And why not? I hope that their fantastic wingers see some more ball in this game though. If only for them to be bundled into touch at the last second.
Prediction
Whoever gets the forward grunt and manages the ref will win. I really hope it doesn’t come down to the ref or some bs unseen citing or time wasting or whatever. Hopefully the ref will keep the game flowing and we’ll have a classic* on our hands. So who do I think will win?
Erm… hopefully Gats will put me in my place and Finn will catch a perfect box kick to sling an amazing pass to Sam Simmonds for his record breaking hat trick and the Lions win by a point or more.
Or… the Springboks grind the plucky tourists into the dirt and they will win by 18 points. Morne Steyne kicking the final penalty from the Springboks 22.
Or… the test never bloody ends.
Ok, ok Lions 24** – 21 Springboks. There, come at me you bastards.
Final ‘thoughts’
The real question on everyone’s lips is ‘what will this mean for England’? I’ll be btl to give my thoughts on this shortly.
* Which means the Lions win. Anything else is one for the purists.
** Have I mentioned that Siya Kolisi has a special place in my heart? I’ll have another poster to put on my bedroom wall after this series so all is not lost if the Lionz lose.
My Way, Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb Squad
Gats and Rassie loom into view through the smoke-filled karaoke bar, each picking up a mike and ignoring the other, before launching into their tuneless non mea culpa est:
And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain
My friends, we’ll kick it clear, we’ll force the pace of which we’re certain
We’ve kicked a ball out full, we’ve launched the oval skyway
But more, much more than this, we did it our way
Attacks, we’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention
We kicked what we had to kick, and soar it through without invention
I planned each scrumming force, each sideways step and passes astray
But more, much more than this, the blame is his way
The lights dim, the mikes clatter emptily to the floor, clunking soullessly as they slink to the exits, grim, with regret etched on their faces. But enough of my whisky and chocolate addled dreams last night.
The third Test. The series is alive, if not exactly kicking, if you ask many followers. The changes have been wrung, the die is cast and now we’re 80 minutes (or up to 120 depending on how things pan out) from anointing the victors with bragging rights for the next 12 years. Enough has been written about the quality (or absence thereof) of the first two Tests and the series in general, much of it accurate, much of it bilge, so let’s focus on the match to come, shall we?
Six changes in the Lions camp and 3 (one positional) in the Boks. The Lions have been roaring all week about speeding up the game, gaining tempo, running the Boks ragged and raiding the trophy cabinet in the process. In come Price at 9 to speed up delivery from the base – but to Biggar at 10 who hasn’t set the world light in ether teste thus far. Outside him, Bundee Aki, a poor man’s Damian de Allende, comes in to allow Henshaw to move to 13 in an attempt to create more space in midfield, whilst at the back, the Welsh duo of Williams for Hogg and Adams for Watson on the right wing aims to get more incisiveness in attack. On the bench, Connor Murray and Finn Russell are paired, a conservative slower 9 with a heads-up 10, seems strange, to say the least and suggests that Gatland remains conservative and not trusting of an all-out assault on the Bok defence.
Up front the Welsh duo of Jones and Owens are slotted into a front row that struggled last week, despite the Lions leading at oranges, the second and back row is unchanged, slightly surprising given the backseat they took and enormous energy expended seven days ago. AWJ, warrior that he is, must be feeling the effects, whilst Lawes was fairly anonymous last week.
The bench looks strong, but not overly stellar and there must be some concerns in the Lions camp that six new players who’ve spend much of the last month carrying tackle bags will be disruptive – if it is early one, the Lions will be playing catch up.
The Boks have two enforced injury changes, with talismanic 9 Faf de Klerk and indispensable blindside PS du Toit both out. These are huge blows, however much Bok fans will try to sugar-coat things. De Klerk is without peer at the box kicking game and all-round nuisance value, whilst du Toit is an 80 minute machine across the park. It’s resulted in considerable rejigging in the Bok side, with Lood de Jager back in the second row to partner Eben Etzebeth and Franco Mostert moving to blindside in du Toit’s place. Big moves. De Jager back is great news, adding considerably to the scrumming department and lineout, as well as carrying in heavy traffic, but is more limited out wide. Mostert has played flank, but with limited success. That said, du Toit only played 20 minutes last week, half of them knackered, and the Boks coped just fine without him. The rest of the pack is as is for the starters, and that’s good news.
The bench forwards are the same front row, which is formidable and duffed their opponents last week, whilst Mostert will slot back into the second row later on, with Kwagga – far better on the flank replacing du Toit than playing at 8 as in the first Test – and Marco van Staden coming on later to pinch ball, slow things down and add some vim to the forwards.
The backs have Cobus Reinach at 9, a different player to Faf, without the pinpoint kick accuracy, but absolutely electric around the fringes and in open play. If he brings his ‘A’ game (assuming he’s given licence) he presents an entirely different headache for the Lions – and possibly his own side. The rest of the backs are the same as the first two Tests and pick themselves. Perhaps Reinach can offer some space for Kolbe and Mapimpi to snipe down the blindside every now and then? However, an inaccurate display by Reinach could set the tone for the Lions to dictate the pace and shape of the match. It’s a critical piece of the jigsaw.
Key areas to watch, then, are:
- Whether the Lions can maintain parity up front for the full 80 (or near enough) to dictate what happens behind the scrum;
- Will six new players be too disruptive to the Lions, despite much of it revolving around national combinations – some of the guys are pretty rusty;
- How Gats introduces his bench – do Murray and Russell join the fray together, and if so, what’s the point?
- Will the Boks be able put down a marker from the get-go and dominate the Lions up front to dictate the pace (and crucially the scoreboard) to negate the threats out wide;
- Will Faf’s absence prove too disruptive to a Bok plan that has been well honed for a couple of years now and will allow the Lions to move the ball wide to their very good back three;
- Will the Boks surprise and give it a bit of width themselves earlier in the piece; they’re certainly more than capable of scoring tries whilst maintaining a mean defence;
- Will the refereeing quartet come out unscathed? In many respects, I think the last point is maybe the most important.
Prediction? I’ve gone Boks by 2 on Superbru, which portends, unfortunately, a Lions win based on the last two matches…
South Africa
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Franco Mostert, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Substitutes: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Marco van Staden, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Herschel Jantjies, 22 Morne Steyn, 23 Damian Willemse
British & Irish Lions
15 Liam Williams (Wales), 14 Josh Adams (Wales), 13 Robbie Henshaw (Ireland), 12 Bundee Aki (Ireland), 11 Duhan van der Merwe (Scotland), 10 Dan Biggar (Wales), 9 Ali Price (Scotland), 8 Jack Conan (Ireland), 7 Tom Curry (England), 6 Courtney Lawes (England), 5 Alun Wyn Jones (captain, Wales), 4 Maro Itoje (England), 3 Tadhg Furlong (Ireland), 2 Ken Owens (Wales), 1 Wyn Jones (Wales) Substitutes: 16. Luke Cowan-Dickie (England), 17 Mako Vunipola (Saracens, England), 18 Kyle Sinckler (England), 19 Adam Beard (Wales), 20 Sam Simmonds (England), 21 Conor Murray (Ireland), 22 Finn Russell (Scotland), 23 Elliot Daly (England)
Ovally Balls 
This is a bit disco, I think.
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Good stuff. Lemmy loved ABBA too. I remember an interview where he said Motorhead were going to play an ABBA cover but they couldn’t get the chords right or something.
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Right, time to exit light, enter night and off to never never land.
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As the new rugby season is fast approaching (thank dog), I was wondering if that nice Mr Claw had an Ovallyballs Bru for the best rugby union conference league thingy in the world (and the English Premiership) that we could partake of?
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@BB – URC: https://www.superbru.com/urc_predictor/pool.php?p=12391705
Prem: https://www.superbru.com/gallagherpremiership/pool.php?p=12391703
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Thanks Refit (and Claw).
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I think Motorhead would do a good “Supertrooper”
or maybe Voulez-vous
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Came across this version of ‘Eagle’ Ticht. Almost makes it bluesy! Original was more mid-70s Eagles-y.
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I can’t say that floated my boat too much, BB.
I’ve become a bit of a fan of Jake Smith, aka The White Buffalo, did I post this already? I hope I’m not repeating myself
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I won’t overdo it, just the one more
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Nice stuff Ticht. I’m sure I’ve listened to a White Buffalo album, but wasn’t too keen on it. Those two songs were good though. May have to reinvestigate him.
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The Bulls pasted Province (Stormers) in the 1st Currie Cup SF last night and look to be building a pretty mean side under Jake White. Not too many in the Bok squad either, so shouldn’t be overly disrupted when the ProWhateva kicks off.
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I’m enjoying Stade v Racing, Fickou just gets better and better
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Finn still on his Post-Lionz hols?
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Aye, he’s still on the cocktails in Marbella, BB, but Racing have been terrific without himthe final try they’ve just scored is a peach, or peche
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I say final, there’s 4 mins to go
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Stade get a consolation interception try
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Racing win 21-36 away to their local rivals Stade.
Their scrum looks gettable, otherwise with Finn and Teddy to come in, they look really good
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Great pass from Volavola, he needs to kick better and tackle better.
As a team tonight Racing looked very near complete, aside from the scrum, the front row struggled and they can be targetted there.
Chat is terrific in the loose, his darts are dodgy.
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Jordie Barrett scores a try and then is redded for kicking Korobeite in the head.
New Zealand kicking a lot. Aussie are not very good.
13-0
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Wondered when the leading leg would get someone binned or worse. Aussies trying to outplay the Kiwis by wanging it wide at every opportunity, problem is they’re not very good at it and the Kiwis flying up in defence is rushing them into 50-50 hail Mary passes.
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Has the Aussie driving maul got them on the board? No. Got it down but penalised for something I didn’t pick up. Can’t even score from a lineout maul. Worse than the Lions! And a couple of penalties later the Kiwis have a lineout maul of their own and get it done properly. 0-18 at the break.
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Bugger, forgot the match was on. Turned it on, just as Havili goes over at the back of a maul.
Can’t really argue with the red, it’s an extremely dangerous way to play.
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Why are Sky Sports Aus showing the replay by zooming between SBW and the presenter, to a segmented screen with reflected lights?
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Because their ambition versus ability is similar to the Wallabies?
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That was quite the chase and tackle by Ioane.
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Oof, that seemed rather easy. T’other Ioane breaking tackles, then handing to Jordan to score. 7-23
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Finally Aus get a try! Started deep in their own half with a good rip and turnover, through the hands and deep into AB territory. Ran out of options, but made the territorial pressure tell in the end. 7-18. Kiwis back to 15 with the newish 20 minute red card rule.
And after all that good work, some woeful tackling allows Ioane to blitz through and offload to Will Jordan for the score in the corner. 7-23.
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Did we see the controversial Graun interview with David Crosby where he asserts that Neil Young is an arsehole?
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https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/02/david-crosby-on-love-music-and-rancour-neil-young-is-probably-the-most-selfish-person-i-know
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I saw CSN (not, I think, Y, although I could be wrong) sometime in the 90s, and they were pretty awful. The harmonies did not happen in tune.
I also saw David Crosby a few years later on his own – in his sober years – and he was unexpectedly very good.
My favourite of the lot is Stephen Stills, who – according to the interview – is also Dave’s fave. Brilliant songwriter, lovely voice.
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So that’s Neil Young added to the ever expanding list of musicians who are actually arseholes? Maybe there should be a list of musicians that AREN’T? Would probably be a lot smaller.
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– loved CSNY in their day -and some lovely backing harmonies for Dave Gilmour but Crosby, despite his talents would probably be pretty near the top of the arsehole list- in my humble.
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@thaum
Completely agree that the best member of t hat group is Stills. Crosby gets on my nerves, probably because I see him as just a spoiled self centred little rich boy. And I find Nash really irritating as well, probably because he can’t finish a sentence without saying “and we went to all these great parties with all the best girrrls and the best drugzzzz” in the annoying mid-Atlantic drawl he seemed to acquire within about 5 minutes of moving to California.
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……..you not familiar with our Manchester accent?
p.s. -you are right
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cracking 5th day of the test today:
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Slade, it’s looking like a tight finish – other than the footmarks to the lefties, the pitch is fairly benign, so assuming no more silly run outs, England could push on in the afternoon after a good platform up to lunch. That said, someone will need to up the tempo quite a bit for England to put the pressure back on India.
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Michael Atherton is a lurker! He’s making the same point that England need to push for the singles, rotate the strike and keep up the possibility of chasing the runs, rather than being too defensive. Didn’t CMW used to live and lurk in Lancashire?
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Bumrah castles Pope! England 4 down and wobbling a bit, but Cap’n Root is still there, serene as ever. Bumrah’ll be singing this in the dressing room if he carries on bowling like that:
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Jasprit Bumrah is quite a good bowler.
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Jasprit now yorks Bairstow! That was nigh unplayable for a new batsman, YJB looks distraught, Bumrah is bouncing and India are rocking! They smell blood and now it really is about England trying to stave off defeat.
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And Jadeja gets another! 149/6 and an England collapse is well and truly underway. Woakes knocks his 4th delivery for a couple though – his 5th delivery will be one more than either Bairstow or Ali managed to face.
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Bumrah bowling inswinging yorkers at 88-90mph is quite a sight. Love seeing that skill, which sadly isn’t used often enough these days. No idea why. OT? CMW?
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@deebee
I personally think inswinging yorkers are brilliant. I think the reason we don’t seem them very often is that you have to be very skillful to do it properly – you’re only a few inches away from a full toss or a half volley. Bumrah is very rare in that he can combine that pace with pinpoint accuracy. Younis, Garner, Malinga are just a small number I can think of who could also do it – there’s not many more.
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True that. Waqar and Wasim in tandem in their pomp was one of the great sights of cricket.
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Thakur gets in on the action now, getting the prized wicket of Joe Root! Not a great shot, little foot movement, hanging the bat out to try and guide it down to third man and succeeds only in getting an inside edge back onto his stumps. 182/7 and you feel India will now wrap this up quite routinely.
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I remember (?) Gough and Snow were good for a lethal yorker…………..
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a name from the past passes into the past:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/58466989
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