The Lions do not deserve to be favourites against Australia - WalesOnline

[Troy]

Great article by Peter Law on WalesOnline

The Lions do not deserve to be favourites against Australia

25 May 2013 00:01

Our Australian reporter Peter Law tells us why he believes his beloved Wallabies should be favourites going into the summer series

I may regret this statement in six weeks’ time, but the Lions’ don’t deserve to be favourites.
I base this not on the form of the Wallabies players in Super rugby, but on style of play from northern hemisphere Test teams – in particular Wales.
It might be hard to remember in the after-glow of the Six Nations triumph, but Australia defeated Wales six times in the 14 months prior.
I often pull-out this fact when justifying my prediction of a 3-0 Wallabies whitewash of the Lions, only to be told ‘yes, but Wales should have won’.
Just 17 points in total separated the sides during last summer’s tour Down Under and then just two points back at the Millennium Stadium in December.
Based purely on these figures it might look like Wales are close to matching the Wallabies, but as an Aussie rugby fan it seem to me that the gulf is as wide as ever.

Read more... WalesOnline

 

[humanbeast]

Great read

 

[KevinO]

Good read but a bit miss guiding. Yes, a large part of the Lions squad are Walsh. But Wales have come so close on that many occasions, now you can go through and strengthen every line of the forward pack with a world class player. Add a stronger outside center and they are now at another level.

Not only are they stronger than the Wales team, they will pretty much be playing at home as the travelling fans will take over the stadiums for the tests. Let's be honest fans don't even need to travel and the stadiums would all be Red with the amount of ex pats living in Australia to avoid the recession.

My prediction Lions 3-0 as Robbie Deans is looking to match them at their own game instead of play the creative attacking Rugby that won the Wallabies the Tri Nations in 2011. Just remember the Wallabies may have a good record over Wales in recent years, but they have lost the last 2 against Scotland and Ireland beat them at the World Cup when every Wallabies fan was expecting a comfortable win.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

The series will be 2-1. Enough to change an avatar over.

There is enough resilience and skills in the Men in Gold to deliver the goods despite whatever shortfalls are perceived in Dingo, his assistants, and his game plan and campaign strategy.

If Squeaky Moore or Sanchez gets injured or has an off day, we will be in a bit of strife.

 

[ChargerWA]

Full-backs like Kurtley Beale and Israel Dagg are among their side’s most potent attacking weapons, bursting into the backline from set pieces and launching length-of-the-field counter-attacks.

Ummm, supposedly we aren't going to have Beale or Dagg playing 15 for us. My tip is Barnes (though in all honesty it probably will be Beale, I hear stand up paddle boarding is a cure-all for whatever ails you).
If it is Beale we will have a guy who has played 20 minutes in the last 10 weeks and hasn't played at 15 in over a year.

Likewise, wingers can no longer rely on being quick and, if possible, big. They’ve got to have other dimensions to their game and be equally comfortable when kicking under pressure.

Aaaaand for us that is who? Our first choice winger doesn't kick. The only person that could remotely describe would be Folau, who will be a debutant, possibly not on the wing.

Either way, I like the article despite it being wrong in pretty much every regard and completely ignoring the fact that the Lions aren't Wales. They have considerably better players at their selection.

 

[Gagger]

Troy - please don't copy and paste full articles - we wouldn't like it done to us.

Stick in an except with a link

 

[I like to watch]

Why is that?
Assuming that the due credit is given.

 

[Gagger]

Why is that?
Assuming that the due credit is given.

Many/most sites live off traffic and people visiting them. Having verbatim articles on other sites takes away almost all reason for people to do it. It's bad form and I believe copyright infringement even with credit

 

[Hugh Jarse]

There is probably a legal type who knows a bit about Intellectual Property and copyright within the kingdom of Gaggerland that may be able to prepare a very short do's and don'ts FAQ for us mere mortals.

 

[Gagger]

There's a very simple don't, which is don't put 100% of someone else's work on your site unless you have their permission. Otherwise it's copyright infringement

 

[GunsGermsRugbyandSteel]

2-1 to the Lions.

The difficulty with the Lions is always trying to put together a very strong team from 4 nations with very little time.

However, bizarrely the Lions could have a more settled side than their test opposition for once. The last Lions tour was an epic battle which and very settled and experienced SA side marginally won.

This time round many of Australia's regular/experienced players such as Ioane, Smith and Pocock are injured and some have been dropped such as Beale and Cooper while a lot of the form players are uncapped and inexperienced like Folau, Lelifano and Mogg. Potentially we could see a fairly fragmented inexperienced side.

Even relatively experienced guys like JOC (James O'Connor) may be playing out of position. It would be foolish to consider to Aussies to be in dissaray but surely preparation hasnt been ideal.