The Official British and Irish Lions Tour of New Zealand Thread

Remove this Banner Ad

robbieando

robbieando

Moderator
Veteran
Oct 9, 2001
18,087
15,931
2, 4, 6, 8
AFL Club
Sydney
BRITISH AND IRISH LION 2005 TOUR OF NEW ZEALAND

TOUR SCHEDULE

23 May TEST vs ARGENTINA (4.45am AEST)
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
4 June vs Bay of Plenty (5.10pm AEST)
Rotorua International Stadium, Rotorua
8 June vs Taranaki (5.10pm AEST)
Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth
11 June vs NZ Maori (5.10pm AEST)
Waikato Stadium, Hamilton
15 June vs Wellington (5.10pm AEST)
Westpac Stadium, Wellington
18 June vs Otago (5.10pm AEST)
Carisbrook, Dunedin
21 June vs Southland (5.10pm AEST)
Rugby Park Stadium, Invercargill
25 June 1st Test vs NEW ZEALAND (5.10pm AEST)
Jade Stadium, Christchurch
28 June vs Manawatu (5.10pm AEST)
Arena Manawatu,Palmerston North
2 July 2nd Test vs NEW ZEALAND (5.10pm AEST)
Westpac Stadium, Wellington
5 July vs Auckland (5.10pm AEST)
Eden Park , Auckland
9 July 3rd Test vs NEW ZEALAND (5.10pm AEST)
Eden Park , Auckland

BRITISH AND IRISH LIONS PLAYING SQUAD
Brian O'Driscoll (Ireland) Captain
Neil Back (England)
Gordon Bulloch (Scotland)
Shane Byrne (Ireland)
Gareth Cooper (Wales)
Martin Corry (England)
Mark Cueto (England)
Chris Cusiter (Scotland)
Gordon D'Arcy (Ireland)
Lawrence Dallaglio (England)
Matt Dawson (England)
Will Greenwood (England)
Danny Grewcock (England)
John Hayes (Ireland)
Gavin Henson (Wales)
Denis Hickie (Ireland)
Richard Hill (England)
Charlie Hodgson (England)
Shane Horgan (Ireland)
Gethin Jenkins (Wales)
Stephen Jones (Wales)
Ben Kay (England)
Josh Lewsey (England)
Lewis Moody (England)
Geordan Murphy (Ireland)
Donncha O'Callaghan (Ireland)
Paul O'Connell (Ireland)
Ronan O'Gara (Ireland)
Malcolm O'Kelly (Ireland)
Michael Owen (Wales)
Dwayne Peel (Wales)
Jason Robinson (England)
Graham Rowntree (England)
Tom Shanklin (Wales)
Andy Sheridan (England)
Ollie Smith (England)
Matt Stevens (England)
Simon Taylor (Scotland)
Gareth Thomas (Wales)
Steve Thompson (England)
Andy Titterrell (England)
Julian White (England)
Jonny Wilkinson (England)
Martyn Williams (Wales)
Shane Williams (Wales)

BRITISH AND IRISH LION COACHING STAFF
Sir Clive Woodward OBE: Head coach
Bill Beaumont OBE: Tour manager
Louise Ramsay MBE: Team manager
John Feehan: Chief Executive
Andy Robinson: Coach
Eddie O'Sullivan: Coach
Ian McGeechan: Coach
Gareth Jenkins: Coach
Phil Larder: Coach
Mike Ford: Coach
Dave Alred: Coach
David McHugh: Specialist Advisor
Tony Biscombe: Video Analyst
Gavin Scott: Video Analyst
Dave Reddin: Fitness Coach
Craig White: Fitness Coach
Dr James Robson: Head Doctor
Dr Gary O'Driscoll: Doctor
Phil Pask: Physiotherapist
Stuart Barton: Physio / Masseur
Bob Stewart: Physio / Masseur
Richard Wegrzyk: Masseur
Richard Smith: Legal Support
Louisa Cheetham: Media Officer
Dave Campbell: Chef
Dave Tennison: Kit Technician
 
Looks as if they are ready for the team to get smashed, then they can put the coaching staff on the feild instead, what a joke and what a waste of money.

How the hell can they justify all those people tagging along?
Must be good to be amongst the Rugga army, nice trips all over the place, i might join a Rugga team myself, never know, i could end up getting to that SL game ive always wanted to see.

Are we going to be bombarded with this crap on FOXSPORTS?
 
Love the Lions tours...

Was living in London when the tour was in Aus last time and was great to watch the Poms get behind the other players from the other nations.

It was even greater to win!
 

Log in to remove this ad.

Lions humbled by the Pumas
Monday May 23 2005
Pumas leave tourists with plenty to think about

The British and Irish Lions were fortunate to draw 25-25 at the hands of Argentina's second team in Cardiff on Monday night, a result which cranks up the pressure immensely on Sir Clive Woodward and his increasingly eccentric coaching habits.

The team-building exercises appear to have simply not worked. The Lions coughed up the ball in open play some fifteen times, an astonishing amount of turnover possession at any level. That they were not more severely punished was a miracle.

Even when they did break and the support was there, obvious passes were ignored - often through uncertainty - and those that were fired away all too frequently were mis-timed and went to ground. The pack that was supposed to tear their opponents apart was conspicuous only by its absence at a vast number of the breakdowns, especially at the restart. Three times they were shoved off their own scrum ball. They conceded five penalties for holding on on the ground, and usually the holder could be forgiven because his support was just not there. A look at the body language during the match revealed that the only player doing any meaningful talking was Wilkinson.

Despite not taking all the opportunities presented to them, Argentina were simply superb. Federico Todeschini's kicking form hand rendered Jonny Wilkinson distinctly ordinary. Veteran hooker Mario Ledesma ran around the pitch like a hippo back in the swamp after a two-year drought. Jose Nunez Piossek's running and countering was a constant niggle to Shane Williams.

Number eight Juan Leguizamon stole a phenomenal amount of ball - it is doubtful whether Richie McCaw would have surpassed him - and Pablo Bouza took ball after ball at the lineout from Ledesma's pinpoint throws. The others were, to a man, magnificent.

The tone was set for the evening in the first two minutes. At the kick-off, Lewis Moody chased and got his hand to the ball, but there was not another Lion for several metres to pick up the loose possession. Federico Genoud secured instead, and Todeschini cleared to touch at half-way.

The Lions took the lineout clearly enough, but both the subsequent phases went to ground in the centres - Gordon D'Arcy had a terrible game - and after the turnover, Piossek was unlucky not to latch on to the end of Felipe Contempomi's chip kick into the acre of open pasture on the left.

A minute later the Pumas were ahead. Again there were no supporters in the chase at a 22 drop out, and in the ensuing frustration Moody entered the maul on the side. Todeschini landed a simple first.

Four minutes later, it got worse. A high kick by Todeschini was caught by Geordan Murphy - a lone bright light in the Lions' backs - but at the ruck, Gareth Cooper was left horribly exposed. Genoud's tackle gave the Pumas the ball, it was switched right, and Piossek was given an easy run-in to the corner by Contempomi's draw and pop. Todeschini converted superbly from the touchline for a 10-0 Pumas lead after just 7 minutes.

The Pumas kept their head of steam up, and after 10 minutes they led 70-30 in possession. Except for Hickie's break, the Argentine team was the only one constantly crossing the gain line.

Todeschini extended the lead to thirteen with a majestic 40m effort after Ollie Smith held on to the ball on the ground, but then a moment of simplicity got the Lions back into the match.

From a lineout, Wilkinson's quick steps caused hesitation in the Puma centres, and Smith's pace and immaculate running line took him through the defence and between the cover to the line. Wilkinson converted, and the hitherto gobsmacked crowd relaxed visibly. Some of them even sat down.

They only had a brief respite from the tension. First the Argentina pack shoved the Lions off their own ball with extraordinary ease, forcing another penalty for Todeschini to stroke over, and then when D'Arcy dropped the ball and turned the ball over, the cover was again absent. It was only due to the lack of serious pace in the Puma backs that Piossek did not get a second. Smith, Muliaina and Howlett will not need a second chance.

That Piossek was the star on the wing was not entirely Shane Williams' fault. Williams was left to cover nearly half the pitch twice more in the half, and the second time yielded another penalty for Todeschini to cancel out Wilkinson's second shortly before.

Wilkinson landed two more to take the Lions in 16-19 down at the break as the Lions enjoyed their best spell and the Argentines began to tire, but Murphy's option of passing outside to Hickie when an inside pass to Smith would have been by far the better option epitomised the lack of communication prevalent.

Wilkinson pulled the Lions level five minutes after the restart with another penalty and the crowd started to dare to expect again, but it only preceded the best spell of Argentina pressure. Piossek again threatened, and then the Puma pack forced two penalties for their fly-half to kick. One was from another wonderful scrummaging effort, the second from a driving maul of which Leicester would be envious.

Argentina had a chance to put the game beyond reach when Williams and Hickie failed to execute a simple switch and Leonelli and Todeschini hacked down into the Lions 22. Wilkinson covered brilliantly, and his half-break five minutes later pressured the Pumas into conceding another kickable shot, which he converted for a 22-25 scoreline.

The Lions battered and battered for the final ten minutes, but the only real opportunity was dropped by D'Arcy - again - and the Argentines were still there in more numbers every single time.

In the end it was up to Wilkinson to save the Lions' manes with the final kick of the game.

This was a second-string Lions team, but they were against a second-choice Argentina team so that is hardly an excuse. The squad has clearly not gelled yet and there is still a latent uncertainty between the players of different nations, as well as a great deal of confusion over the roles within the plays of the team.

Woodward has a lot of work to do, and it needs to be done on the training field.

Man of the match: All Argentinian candidates. Todeschini was exceptional under pressure, Piossek was a constant threat, and Arbizu and Contempomi excellent in defence, but Mario Ledesma gets the award for a wonderful cameo performance, answering the call to come out of retirement and spearhead a magnificent pack effort.

Villain of the match: A couple of nasty high tackles on Shane Williams aside there was no villainy to speak of on the pitch, but whichever one of Woodward's myriad managers substituted O'Callaghan instead of Grewcock with ten minutes to go should be given a disciplinary.

Moment of the match: When Shane Williams broke through in the final minute, it looked as though Argentina were about to crack, but when Williams was brought down, the proportion of Pumas to Lions was pretty much two to one. The Lions were rarely there in a pack throughout the game, but never at a moment more poignant than that.

The scorers:

For the Lions:
Try: Smith
Con: Wilkinson
Pens: Wilkinson 6

For Argentina:
Try: Piossek
Con: Todeschini
Pens: Todeschini 6

British and Irish Lions: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Denis Hickie, 13 Ollie Smith, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Shane Williams, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Gareth Cooper, 8 Michael Owen (captain), 7 Lewis Moody, 6 Martin Corry, 5 Danny Grewcock, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Shane Byrne, 1 Graham Rowntree.
Replacements: 16 Steve Thompson, 17 Julian White, 18 Ben Kay, 19 Lawrence Dallaglio, 20 Chris Cusiter, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Shane Horgan.

Argentina: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Jose Nunez Piossek, 13 Lisandro Arbizu, 12 Felipe Contepomi (captain), 11 Francisco Leonelli, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Nicolas Fernandez Miranda, 8 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 7 Martin Schusterman, 6 Federico Genoud, 5 Mariano Sambucetti, 4 Pablo Bouza, 3 Mauricio Reggiardo, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Federico Mendez.
Replacements: 16 Eusebio Guiñazu, 17 Leopoldo de Chazal, 18 Manuel Carizza, 19 Santiago Sanz, 20 Lucio Lopez Fleming, 21 Francisco Bosch, 22 Federico Serra.

Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
Touch judges: Joël Jutge (France), Christophe Berdos (France)
Television match official: Eric Darrière (France)

--------------------------------------

Hahahaha welcome back to international rugby, Wilko. :rolleyes:
 
MACDAICOS said:
Don't worry mate, the grand slam champions will bring the trophy back to Britain. ;)
Click to expand...

He won't pick any of them, he'll pick a load of English (& Irish) crash ball merchants & the tactics will be just to blast up the fringes of the rucks with the big men for 80 minutes.

Little Shane Williams will probably freeze his testicles off waiting for a pass.
 
DIPPER said:
He won't pick any of them, he'll pick a load of English (& Irish) crash ball merchants & the tactics will be just to blast up the fringes of the rucks with the big men for 80 minutes.

Little Shane Williams will probably freeze his testicles off waiting for a pass.
Click to expand...

Bullocks :mad:
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Saturday 4th June

Full-time: Bay of Plenty RFC 20-34 British & Irish Lions

Bay of Plenty
TRY 15 Min (Bourke)
CONV 15 Min (Williams)
PENK 30 Min (Williams)
TRY 34 Min (Williams)
CONV 34 Min (Williams)
PENK 57 Min (Williams)

Lions
TRY 2 Min (Lewsey)
TRY 5 Min (Lewsey)
TRY 11 Min (Cueto)
CONV 11 Min (O'Gara)
TRY 51 Min (Shanklin)
TRY 70 Min (Peel)
TRY 76 Min (D'Arcy)
CONV 76 Min (O'Gara)

Referee: Paul Honiss (NZ)
Rotorua International Stadium, NZ
 
Lions wear down 'Naki battlers

The British and Irish Lions eventually wore down a battling Taranaki side to win their second match of the tour 36-14 at Yarrows Stadium on Wednesday night.

Taranaki led 7-6 at halftime and were a constant annoyance for the Lions in the scrums and rucks.

It was not until Taranaki hooker Andrew Hore was sinbinned halfway through the second half that the Lions were finally able to assert dominance and run away with the match.

The Lions struggled to match the intensity and passion of the Taranaki pack for most of the match but had enough extra quality and fitness in the end to blow the score out late in the game.

A good early passage from Taranaki, with over 10 phases, pushed them into the Lions 22 before the visitors were finally able to turn over the ball.

The Lions looked to have scored the first try after a cross field kick to winger Shane Horgan but his pass to fullback Geordan Murphy was deemed to be forward.

Paul Tito copped a couple of punches from Danny Grewcock before replying with a couple of his own and after the referees finally got the right players and had a word play continued.

The first points eventually came through a penalty to Charlie Hodgson after 20 minutes.

Taranaki maintained a consistent period of pressure in the Lions 22 and were rewarded when flanker Chris Masoe reacted first to a shambles at the back of a ruck on the Lions line and dived over under the posts. Sam Young converted to give the home side the lead.

The Lions came straight back and were only stopped from scoring a try by a couple of Taranaki infringements, so Hodgson added another three points.

The Lions won a five metre scrum on the Taranaki line right on halftime but the scrum was again under pressure and once the ball was freed it was knocked on to send the amber and blacks into the tunnel in the lead.

The 'Naki moved straight back onto attack in the second half before another mistake from no.8 Tomasi Soqeta at the back of the scrum gave the Lions a chance to clear.

The Taranaki scrum finally confirmed their dominance as they screwed the Lions scrum.

The Lions came back with a try to captain Martin Corry in the right-hand corner after a mistake by the Taranaki backs from a kick return. Hodgson missed the conversion but the Lions were back in the lead.

Taranaki's Young missed a chance to cut the lead to one point with a 35 metre penalty attempt.

Taranaki hooker Andrew Hore was sinbinned after 54 minutes as Kelvin Deaker ran out of patience with Hore killing the ball in the ruck.

Hodgson extended the lead with two penalty kicks.

Hore returned but the Lions made their pressure tell with a well worked try to Horgan to kill off Taranaki's chances.

Fullback Murphy scored the visitors' third try after the ball was freed from a lineout drive that was fought back.

Murphy grabbed a second, with the same move that could have been the first try of the match, with the crossfield kick to Horgan and the pass this time went backwards to Murphy.

Taranaki finished the game with pride and a converted try to Brendon Watt.

Taranaki: Tries: Chris Masoe, Brendon Watt. Cons: Sam Young (2).

Lions: Tries: Martin Corry, Shane Horgan, Geordan Murphy (2). Cons: Charlie Hodgson. Pens: Charlie Hodgson (4).

----------------------------

I think that that the Lions front row that played last night won't be the same front row that takes on the Blacks. In fact Taranaki were very good scrum wise all match and it wasn't until the sin-binning in the second half that the Lions were able to get on top.

I'm tipping they'll get stronger as they go along on this tour.
 
Pantsless said:
I think that that the Lions front row that played last night won't be the same front row that takes on the Blacks. In fact Taranaki were very good scrum wise all match and it wasn't until the sin-binning in the second half that the Lions were able to get on top.
Click to expand...

Reckon you're right, I'm tipping a Sheridan, Thompson, White front 3.

Whcih I think is the set for the Maori game.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #21
DIPPER said:
Reckon you're right, I'm tipping a Sheridan, Thompson, White front 3.

Whcih I think is the set for the Maori game.
Click to expand...

Which is correct. Here is the team for the game against the Maori.

15. J Lewsey (England)
14. T Shanklin (Wales)
13. B O'Driscoll (Ireland, capt)
12. G D'Arcy (Ireland)
11. S Williams (Wales)

10. S Jones (Wales)
9. M Dawson (England)

1. A Sheridan (England)
2. S Thompson (England)
3. J White (England)
4. S Shaw (England)
5. P O'Connell (Ireland)
6. R Hill (England)
7. M Williams (Wales)
8. S Taylor (Scotland)

Replacements: S Byrne (Ireland), G Jenkins (Wales), B Kay (England), M Owen (Wales), D Peel (Wales), R O'Gara (Ireland), S Horgan (Ireland).

New Zealand Maori team: L MacDonald; R Gear, R Tipoki, L McAlister, C Ralph; D Hill, P Weepu; D Manu, C Flynn, C Hayman, R Filipo, S Hohneck, J Gibbes (capt), M Holah, A MacDonald.

Replacements: S Linklater, G Feek, D Braid, W Ormond, C McGrath, C Spencer, N Brew.
 
Scrumhalf said:
Yep - Daniel Carter looks certain to don the All-Black #10. The King himself will be playing club rugby next season for Northampton RFC.
Click to expand...

I knew Carter would at 10 but I assumed Spencer was already in England because he played in the Johnson XV v Lomu XV...and why would he come back for this...if the NZRFU wanted him for the Blacks they wouldn't have let him sign for Northampton...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Test Rugby New Wallabies Coach - Joe Schmidt
Replies
0
Views
400
joey_jo_jo
J
Santana
Australia confirmed as hosts of Rugby World Cup 2027
Replies
1
Views
1K
Allezjuel
Allezjuel

Remove this Banner Ad

Back
Top