Lions thread

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Itoje was imperious.

I used that adjective earlier today in a completely different context and I thought I'd better check that it meant what I thought it meant and I'm not sure it means what you think it means:

​expecting people to obey you and treating them as if they are not as important as you

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/imperious

But I think we all know what you intended to mean, and yes he was

[backdoc]

Itoje was very effective.
Most were not in the first half but recovered.
I cashed in my bet for the Lions to win after 30 mins and lost £7.

Daly was pants.

[hookender]

Conor McNamara is commentating like he's doing football commentary on the radio. There are several other rugby commentators who could do a much better job.

That's because he is a Radio Football commentator... I always think he sounds like he's auditioning for the voice over roll on X Factor by doing something painful to increase the pitch of his voice.

Sadly Mullins, Eykin and Cotter will all be involved with the Olympics coverage and Miles Harrison is having treatment for cancer. Therefore it's fairly slim pickings for Sky, unfortunatley.

Seems like I did the right thing in taking in game at pub where couldn’t hear commentary! Thought Daly and Cowan Dickie had good games, and Alun Wyn Jones was commanding. Changes? Warren  to make appearance on field carrying on tee for penalties and conversions.

[Nigel Med]

Itoje was very effective.
Most were not in the first half but recovered.
I cashed in my bet for the Lions to win after 30 mins and lost £7.

Daly was pants.

Have to agree. In spite of impressing playing back in his best position when selected for the warm up matches, he was dreadful yesterday and I suspect played himself out of a start next Saturday. He gave away two pens that cost the Lions 6 points, missed every high ball that came his way (nothing new there, precisely why he should never play at 15), and the one skill that is what usually secures his selection- the long range kicks- deserted him as he missed the one penalty he took.

Just to prove that this is not anti-Sarries bias, I thought Itoje was immense and his MotM award was justified, I think he just shaded Lawes. Even Farrell played well, his composure taking that final penalty was impressive.

[westwaleswasp]

The game flew by for me. Partly because I had company- we still have social distancing regs here so we made a night in the garden. The other reason it flew was a box of real cider for which I am paying dearly today. Watched the match twice and was still drinking into the small hours discussing the game.

The game was one of those ones where I felt we were lucky to be in it at HT. The style of rugby was awful compared to the wonderful Aus-Fra series recently- although to be fair I don't think many series will live up to that. On sheer intensity in the SH I felt we deserved a win, but we could not have complained if it had gone the other way.

Daly was indeed straight from the underwear section at M and S. He was not the only one in that first half, but there were enough standout performances in the pack to be confident that we have a good shot next week. Not sure why we asked a 9 with an attacking, sniping game to try and play like Ben Youngs, that did mystify my guests, who favoured Davies as the player best suited to that type of controlled, conservative game. Whether that was the plan or not is open to question. I think the plan was to see us challenge more with ball in hand. It is similar I guess to Dan Robson's issue with England- he might be the best all round 9 in the league in terms of sniping, service, support lines and taking the correct options,  but England just look at the box kicking as the default option and that is not him.