Lions vs South Africa

[Moscow Mule]

Ronan O'Gara is a dickhead.

[Alf W]

Unfortunately it was on the cards from about the 55th minute. Once the Lions lost the four people who were the core of the team and the South Africans bought on the people who should have been on from the start.

I thought the ref was a bit weak as well. Not biased, just weak on the intimidation front which is why so many players one each side ended up injured.

[Mich the Tester]

Ronan O'Gara is a dickhead.

Correction; Ronan O'Gara is one of the best fly halves in the world, who found himself in a position to either put the ball in touch or attack and try to win the game. Being a courageous and confident player he chose the second option. He kicked, got under his own kick and was then extremely hard done by as the South African player jumped into him and was awarded a somewhat dubious penalty. ROG is not to blame.

[Mich the Tester]

I thought the ref was a bit weak as well. Not biased, just weak on the intimidation front which is why so many players one each side ended up injured.

Handing out a yellow card after being informed by the linesman that a player had been gouging someone's eyes out is not the most glorious moment of refereeing I've seen.

[Evil Hangover]

Ronan O'Gara lost the lions the game yesterday. Being a courageous and confident player

Irresponsible and ill judged. Come on how naiive are you

[Mich the Tester]

Come on how naiive are you

Naive enough to have played a pretty high standard of rugby and know what I'm talking about.

[Alf W]

He kicked, got under his own kick and was then extremely hard done by as the South African player jumped into him and was awarded a somewhat dubious penalty. ROG is not to blame.

That's exactly what I thought at the time. I didn't see any intent to go for the man in the air. He was under the kick and had his eyes on the ball and du Preez jumped over the top of him. That said, ROG should have been a bit smarter and either jumped himself or arrived half a second later.

[Mich the Tester]

That's exactly what I thought at the time. I didn't see any intent to go for the man in the air. He was under the kick and had his eyes on the ball and du Preez jumped over the top of him. That said, ROG should have been a bit smarter and either jumped himself or arrived half a second later.

Should have, would have etc. He probably practised the kick and chase a thousand times until he could get it right 99 times out of 100. That's why ROG plays for the Lions and has won a Grand Slam with Ireland. Unfortunately the 1 out of 100 times that it went wrong (again, doubtful as to whether it was his fault), was on saturday. It really pisses me off to hear people calling a world class player names like 'dickhead' for one mistake in the toughest match of them all, especially when most of the people criticising him have only ever played for Old Piddletonians Extra 5th XV and have no idea whatsoever of how much work and commitment goes into reaching the higher levels of the game, let alone achieving what ROG has done.

Last week it was Phil Vickery who took the stick from 'fans' after he had an off day in the 1st test. Adam Rhys Jones, who replaced him, spoke with great respect for Vickery afterwards; that's because he knows just how much work the top players put into it, and it also shows how rugby players should treat each other. I'm sure ROG will be treated respectfully by his team mates and they won't be going around blaming him; he will blame himself, and he'll spend extra hours every day out on the training field trying to perfect anything that went wrong; that's why he's a world class player.

As for the Schalk Burger incident, and the words of the South African coach; "This is sport, this is what it's about", and "I don't believe it was a card at all", well I think it's time for the Lions to get some advice from Willie John McBride and bring on the 99 call. If the refs aren't going to take gouging seriously and allow barging on uninvolved players, and if the SA staff think eye gouging is part of the game, then the Lions will have to defend their own; get the retaliation in first, and do it with 15 men all together. It's a shame to say it, but I suspect that the 3rd test might be the most violent game we've seen in a long time.

[Moscow Mule]

Correction; Ronan O'Gara is one of the best fly halves in the world, who found himself in a position to either put the ball in touch or attack and try to win the game. Being a courageous and confident player he chose the second option. He kicked, got under his own kick and was then extremely hard done by as the South African player jumped into him and was awarded a somewhat dubious penalty. ROG is not to blame.

That is a very generous interpretation. From the two or three replays I saw it didn't look like his eyes were on the ball at all.

It was hot headed to say the least. You have thought somebody as world class as that would be able to control himself in the heat of battle. He couldn't.

[oracleslave]

As for the lions.... I hope we win, OS will be insufferable if we lose

and they return with nothing other than a free suntan. 3-0....