Should the Lions play the Anzacs?

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Just thinking that with the strength of rugby in Australia and the four Home Unions could a final tour match between the touring Lions and a combined Australia and New Zealand team now be feasible?

After their recent tour I heard a throwaway line that they wished Australia would play the lions more often.

If the Anzac's had a fairly even selection split, and the game was played in the country not actually hosting the Lions, then even more excitement could be generated by each Lions tour.

This could be a chance to simulate the magic from yesteryear after those long northern hemisphere tours generated with the game against the Barbarians and as it would only be played twice every twelve years there would be no scheduling problems like as with the proposed annual northern v southern hemisphere game.

If the game could capture some of the barbarian's magic, and have the intensity of what would undeniably be the two greatest teams in the world, it could be quite the game to watch.
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
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Yeah I reckon it's a good idea it would be a great game.
The only problems Ican see are that if the Lions get beaten all they usually want to do is bugger off home & you wonder wheher they would be motivated for this one off game.Would you envisage it being a hard win at all costs game or a Babas style extravanza of running rugby?

Might as well just make it England/Ireland v Australia/New Zealand as the Taffies & Jocks don't make a meaningful contribution going by the last tour-as long as we don't have that twat Graham Henry in charge again it should be ok.

It's interesting because Fiji, Samoa & Tonga are going to play as a combined team in the same style as the Lions & they're looking to play england first.That should really be something as these countries often produce some really exciting teams but lack the depth to be regularly compoetitive against the big boys.This game wouldn't be a walk over for anyone & if they played the All Blacks all 30 players would probably be eligible for both sides;)

Out of interest Player if you were the sole selector for the Anzacs side for a game tommorow what would you're team be including replacements?I'd be interested to know.
I could give it a stab but I'm not really up on who's in form for the All Blacks these days especially in the front 5.
 

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You're probably right in that it would be impossible for the players to mentality prepare themselves as if it was a "true test" but to me international rugby these days is usually played as the same expansive and attacking rugby that was reserved for these exhibition matches.

As for the great redeemer, well what do you expect when you employ a school teacher. Still revenge is only 12 years away.


The official New Zealand and West Island Player's 15

1. Karl Hoeft (NZ)
2. Micheal Foley (AUS)
3. Greg Sommerville (NZ)
4. John Eales (AUS)
5. Norm Maxwell (NZ)
6. Paul Tito (Uncapped NZ)
7. George Smith (AUS)
8. T. Kefu (AUS)

9. George Greegan (AUS)
10. Andrew Mehrtens (NZ)
11. J. Lomu (NZ)
12. Pita Alatini (NZ)
13. Tana Umaga (NZ)
14. ????
15. Matt Burke (AUS)

16. Byron Kellaher (NZ) Half Back/Scrum Half
17. Stephen Larkham (AUS) 1st 5/8 - Fly Half
18. Leon MacDonald (NZ) Utility Back
19. Owen Finegan (AUS) Blind Side Flanker
20. Tony Randall (NZ) Flanker/ No. 8
21. Carl Hayman (NZ) Prop
22. Nick Stiles (AUS) Prop
23. Anton Oliver (NZ) Hooker

No Justin Marshall, Justin(?) Wilson or Christian Cullen and both Larkham and Finegan deserve to start but I can not have a starting 17.

By traditional All Black standards it's an ordinary almost invisible front row but the rest of the team is o.k.

At a quick glance there appears more AB's than Australians, so I have at least kept up my impeccable high standards. All it would need is match officials that realise everybody hasn't shown up to watch them and we would be away.
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
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Nice one Player, no way you could put more Aussies than ABs:D

What hapened to the right winger?I would have thought Joe Roff personally bu I wouldn't want to put words in your mouth as you've made a few choices that I wouldn't altogether agree with.

I think I'd rather go for Larkham over Mehrtens as he's always likely to create something out of nothing, plus wasn't Mehrtens dropped for a few games recently?I've always liked Wilson but he seems to have lost his hunger recently,I read that he was thinking of giving cricket another go but I don't know if that's true.

I see the Big Fella's in there it's funny whenever I see him play against England he looks like the best player in the world & then against other teams he just looks like a reasonably good player.

So anyway here's the opposition:

1.Peter Clohessy(I)
2.Keith Wood (I)
3.Phil Vickery (E)
4.Martin Johnson (E)
5.Danny Grewcock (E)
6.Richard Hill (E)
7.Richard Wallace (I)
8.Joe Worsley (E)

9.Austin Healy (E)
10.Jonny Wilkinson (E)

11.Dan Luger (E)
12.Mike Catt (E)
13.Brian O'Driscoll (I)
14.Jason Robinson (E)
15.Dennis Hickie (I)

16.Matt Dawson scrum half (E)
17.David Humphries (I) Fly Half
18.Ian Balshaw (E) Full back/Wing
19.Dorian West (E) Hooker
20. Jonny Hayes (I) Tight head prop
21. Graham Rowntree (E) loose head prop
22.Lewis Moody (E)Open side Flanker
23.Eric Miller (I) No.8/Blindside Flanker

True to my word I refused to entertain the idea of picking any Jocks or Taffies (not that too many would have got in anyway) & there's a heavy English bias but what do you expect I'm English & I'm biased.

I reckon we'd hold our own in the scrums & tight play, might get over run by bigger backs but offensively our backs aren't picked with the idea of running at defenders but with trying to create space.Jason Robinson might struggle to stop Jonah but I'll bet that he's give him the run around when he's got the ball even from a standing start.
 

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14. Matt Rogers (Uncapped Aus). He is a gifted footballer and will excel in rugby.

I think your tight five is a class above, especially the Foley v Woods matchup. Foley is ordinary but at least can throw the ball in. The injoke this year was that Oliver has announced his retirement from rugby, as Eales was the only man he could ever throw the ball to.

Still this year the Australian's showed defence on the fringes of the ruck and the ability to recycle the ball by being first to the breakdown is more important than the traditional rolling maul play.

Lomu is a lazy player that is often exposed on defence, his positional play is naive and his workload is minimal but hell rugby is a team game, and the whole team should pass the ball to Jonah.

It will be interesting to see how the ref handles George Smith in the test against England, as a pedantic ref could interpret that he is consistently infringing.

Larkham was my initial first choice and does has real class, but Mehrten's is a real general an gets the nod.
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
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Yeah what you said about George Smith is spot on, one of the features of the Lions tour & any northern hemisphere v southern hemisphere game for that matter is the interpretation of what's offside in the tackle breakdown & when the ruck is formed.

There's definitely a different outlook & until it is sorted out these games become a lottery, during the Lions tour in many of the games you could see British players giving away penalties regularly in the tackle area & looking really perplexed.Now I don't think that they're that stupid that they would intentionally keep doing this I just believe that players really aren't sure of what is deemed acceptable in the other hemisphere.If its a European ref in the England/Australia game then I reckon Smith could suffer, I'm not really bothered about who's right & wrong here I'd just like the rule played the same everywhere & then we all know where we stand.

Regarding the rolling maul, it was all but killed by the rule changes in the early 90's but they've semi relaxed the rule now to encourage it & it seems to be making a bit of a comeback.People talk now about how much more attractive the game is now with more running rugby as opposed to forward dominated games but for me the rolling maul is one of the great sights in rugby when it works, I remember the All Black's were one of the best at this skill & England used to use it well if perhaps a bit to frequently but I still think it has a place & can be a great way of moving the ball forwards quickly & sucking in the whole opposition pack to create a bit of space.

BTW Rogers is ex league isn't he?Is he in the current Wallabies squad?
 

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You miss the rolling maul, I grieve for good old fashion rucking to keep the overambitious onside and of our ball. Notice how the ABs never complained of being stomped?

Last week I watched the semi-final of the local provincial competition and saw how many Canterbury forwards (monopoly on the AB pack these days) bothered to hit the rucks. Frequently it was just only the first man and the rest would just fan out across the field.

This killed the oppositions attacking rugby, unless you count league type hitups. If rolling mauls would drag them back in then they get my vote.

Yeah Roger's is a league player and probably does not deserve his selection yet but on current form I think the other wingers are all overrated. Give me Stu Wilson and Bernie Fraser any day.

P.S. Remember when local referee intrepretations were never a problem when you toured South Africa, you were always wrong.

Just like a cricket tour to Pakistan :eek:
 

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Norm Smith Medallist
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Yeah South Africans definitely had a win at all cost mentality-the most famous Lions tour of all time was to South Africa in the mid 70s(74?) & basically we won every non Test game, there were about 18 & we won the first 3 Tests, as well as having the infamous '99' line out call which meant that you had to hit the nearest Sprinbok player to you(we gave their players a good going over:D) .In the last Test, which was obviously meaningless except for SA pride the president of their board went into their dressing room before the game & basically ordered the players not to lose, I'm sure the ref had been given the same instructions but even with blatant cheating he couldn't prevent the game ending up as a draw with the strange site of the SA team being heralded by the crowd as if they'd won-Geez i love to see those lot get beaten.

In regards to rucking I well remember the NZ sides of the late 80's & their ruthless treatment of anyone on the wrong side, & yeah I don't remember them complaining too much when they were on the receiving end.There's also some stories of a Lions tour to NZ in the 60's where the front row of the top side at the time(can't remember who) were pretty frightening & there's a few Lions players just happy to come out of it alive.
When they changed the laws in the 90s they may have created a more vibrant game but they also made it easier to keep possession with teams continually recycling the ball, possession didn't have to be earned anymore-the assumption became you had the put in at the scrum-it's your ball, same at the line out, uncontested rucks & no incentive to maul.Thankfully it seems to be moving back a bit now because the we already have the game that it was becoming & it's called Rugby League.
 
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