Jump to:
- Search box
- Navigation
- Main Content
TUTORIAL 4: THE MAUL
Former British & Irish Lions flank Richard Hill explains 'truck & trailer.'
Latest Lions news
All of the latest news surrounding the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia.
Super Rugby news
All the latest Super Rugby news, views, previews and match reports right here!
Wallaby woes
A look at the injuries and other issues that have left the Wallabies struggling.
Expert Witness
Martin Corry, Geordan Murphy, Mark Regan and Martyn Williams' thoughts!
The British & Irish Lions
Sorry, this story is unavailable
| Fixture | Details |
|---|---|
| Saturday , June 1 | |
| Barbarians vs British & Irish Lions | 12:30 |
| Wednesday, June 5 | |
| Western Force vs British & Irish Lions | 11:00 |
| Saturday , June 8 | |
| Reds vs British & Irish Lions | 10:30 |
| Tuesday , June 11 | |
| NSW-Queensland Country vs British & Irish Lions | 10:30 |
| Saturday , June 15 | |
| Waratahs vs British & Irish Lions | 10:30 |
| Tuesday , June 18 | |
| Brumbies vs British & Irish Lions | 10:30 |
| Saturday , June 22 | |
| Australia vs British & Irish Lions | 11:00 |
| Tuesday , June 25 | |
| Melbourne Rebels vs British & Irish Lions | 10:30 |
| Saturday , June 29 | |
| Australia vs British & Irish Lions | 11:00 |
| Saturday , July 6 | |
| Australia vs British & Irish Lions | 11:00 |
Around Planet Rugby
-
Competitions
Win games consoles, holidays, tickets to sporting events and much more with Planet Rugby
-
Facebook
Sign up to the Planet Rugby Facebook fan page
-
Twitter
Follow Planet Rugby updates on Twitter
Comments
melkdave says...
Also wasnt it Australia and O;Neil who argued for the new format and season length ect .Now its inconvient for Australia they want a change ,whitch will harm the national competions in both NZ and SA .It was O'Neil who scrapped Australias own legue or national competion,and closed the door on many players who would have liked to play the game and develop into S15 and international players .Now the talant just isnt being produced in Australia and their teams are having to look to NZ and afar for players..O;Neil imho has been a disaster for the ARFU,and his now trying despratly to gain any advantage he can from and over the other SANZAR nations.As Australia will over time become like Romainia .This is his legacy to Australian rugby long term as players of the required standard just arnt being produced ,as theres no national competion and only S15 ,which the Australian teams are falling further behind in every year
Posted 18:45 09th August 2012
melkdave says...
I can understand RDs position really ,but as has been said isnt facing a scratch team with only 4 weeks together a big enough advantage,to start with??Let alone them having to learn a different playing style and new calls ect.Managing the Lions is most probaly the hardest job in the game,as your trying to gel players who spend most of their time beating the hell out of eachother.
Posted 12:23 09th August 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
good grief isn't the fact that a scratch lions team with 4 week experience will face an experienced test team a big enough advantage? Ah wait a sec, we're talking about 15 aussie centres on the pitch, aren't we. Okay, the more time Deans has to try and teach 8 of them the basics of forward play the better I guess!
Posted 09:47 07th August 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
@GoWalesGo - its the rest of the world's solemn responsibility to have a go at Australians at every opportunity. Otherwise their heads would swell to the size of beachballs and explode messily and then there'd be no australians left on planet earth and that would be a shame. So there ya go, we're being cruel to the big fairies to be kind. ;)
Posted 15:19 01st August 2012
tha_mai says...
ArmchairGeneral says..."the Ozzie teams play with each other".
you're right; should be 'play a round with each other'; but not 'play around with each other'.
Starting a week early is ok, with a 5 week gap and things the way they are, there may be some players heading to Japan for a 4 week contract!
Posted 00:38 30th July 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
TrippleNuts: "boxes way above its weight"?? Oz cant even box below its weight... Samoa, Scotland...
Posted 15:57 29th July 2012
ArmchairGeneral says...
Tha-Mai
You said "the Ozzie teams play with each other".
I guess that's one way of building for a Lions tour. Wouldnt work up north.
Or do you mean "... play each other"?
Posted 15:47 29th July 2012
Wallaroo says...
@Ramage - fair enough. I have to agree that O'Neill is a self indulgent fool who is largely and sadly responsible for the demise of Australian Rugby; he is not an honourable man so completely understand why you say the NZ and RSA do not trust him. Truth is I wouldn't either.
FYI I have given thought to both NZ and RSA in all my responses and considerations, notwithstanding I am just not as familiar with the internal systems within each as you would be but nonetheless appreciate their value to each country.
I trust this now makes lore sense.
Posted 14:39 29th July 2012
Ramage says...
@wallaroo unfortunately we in NZ have no faith in asking a guy like O'Neill for anything. He's shafted us before and will do it again before he thankfully leaves rugby administration. Whilst I often appreciate your posts as you are level headed and sincere, on this point, I must strongly disagree with you. As an Australian I can undersrand you have given no thought to the impact this move will have on the NZ ans SA National competitions. We are sick of O'Neill trying every scheme under the sun to push the Australian situation. We accept he is a good advocate. but not at the expense of our National leagues. It was O'Neill who on his return to rugby who scrapped the Australian fledgling league because of cost. So I'm sure you can understand that all he is interested in is Australia not Sanzar. We are sick of this pompous little man pushing only one barrow and believe that it is time our weak administrators stood up to the little Napoleon.
Jay Starr and Stellenbosched make good points about the Currie Cup and I make on the ITM as these are the lifeblood of our game in RSA and NZ and it ill behoves this agent provocateur who wants all the breaks for Australia to suggest this without any thought of our National Competitions which we believe is being pushed futher and further into the background. Perhaps this is what O'Neill wants and the sooner he is off the scene of world rugby the better.
@ leinster_ goy Omg you say I don't know you and I would agree. By calling me sweetheart in your reply can I say I hope it stays that way lol.
Posted 13:53 29th July 2012
munster30 says...
@ Leinster Goy
It isnt often i agree with you but I loved your response to Ramage! Brilliant. And I totally agree with all your reasons for why I think the Lions will beat Australia.
To be perfectly honest though I wish the entire Lions were scrapped. Its a needless summer spent playing when players are nearing burn out. Take the last 3 seasons. All test nations play a full season, train for the world cup then play it. They then return for the second season with no proper break. At the end of this season they will enter training camps for the Lions and go to Oz and play there for the summer. Again after no long break they return for season 3!!!
This is madness. Some players will have played 3 full hard physical seasons with no real break to speak off? in the modern games where hits are getting bigger and bigger the demands on players is becoming unrealistic!
The money men in charge need to stop focusing on profits and look after their players a bit more. This season alone many Irish players played full Hcup and Magners league seasons and then 17 international tests!!! 17!!!! including a meaningless butchering in NZ!!!
Its no coincidence that France have won he 5/6 nations every year following a lions tour! The Irish/Welsh/English/Scots are spent!
The Lions harks back to a bygone era when players were rewarded for great performances when perks were thin on the ground. In the modern age with huge wages (and huge tackles and injuries) is it really necessary?
And before anyone goes off and does one, launching ridiculous insults based on national stereotypes, can we think about it logically and enter a rational discussion?
Posted 12:53 29th July 2012
Trinats2 says...
GoWalesGo:
We actually take it as a complement, Aussie bashing. A nation that punches way above it's weight and by dog grit and self belief gets over the line. No matter who we play in any sport, we expect to win, not arrogant just self belief.
As for the Lions, Aus will find it difficult win if Deans is charge, he doesn't take risks, plays too safe. but this Aussie team is very young and still improving.
Don't worry about JayStarr, he is just pi$$ed saffas haven't won anything in years and keep finishing bottom of the ladder to a nation that doesn't take rugby seriously. He has a short memory (if any) SA have only neen playing with the rest of the world since early 90s
Posted 12:20 29th July 2012
leinster_goy says...
@Ramage
you clearly don't know me that well sweetheart if you think dangling a few troll lines on the irish national team are going to work. but even still, i really should point out that ireland beat the wallabies comfortably at the world cup, and have, to my recollection, always run australia close in past summer tours
they are certainly more competent than the welsh in this regard, those glorious 6N champs and world-beaters who were embarrassingly whitewashed 3-0 this june by an injury-ravaged wallabies. in fact, they haven't beaten australia under gatland for many years, bar a solitary win in 2008.
it's my view that that the B&I Lions will beat australia because they will have better players man for man (perhaps except for the 7 position). the main worry for me is that "gatty" will select his welsh funboys instead of selecting on merit. for example, i would have O'Brien or rennie at 7 and not warburton. Sexton is streets ahead of priestland. halfpenny doesnt come close to Kearney. and so on
anyhow, happy trolling, and keep on sharpening that chip on your shoulder
Posted 00:01 29th July 2012
kiwilad says...
GoWhalesGo, people just want to have a go at Australia and it stinks???
Q What is the eighth wonder of the world??
A An Aussie with his mouth shut!
You try having them as neighbours before judging. lol
Posted 23:32 28th July 2012
Wallaroo says...
@JayStarr blah, blah, blah. It's a matter of preparation for a long standing tradition. TheTruthHurts is correct we'd extend the same courtesy if asked, the problem with NZ and RSA is they rarely ask.How do you expect to receive support if you don't ask for it and try to take it by pretending half the team are injured and the other half have to be forcibly rested due to fatigue.
GoWalesGo, no worries re: the Aussie bashing, mate that's what happens when you're the giant amongst minors lol.
Posted 20:37 28th July 2012
GoWalesGo says...
Bloody hell i don't see what the big deal is.
Just schedule the start of Super rugby a week earlier.
If NZ or SA were i the same boat i'm sure they would be calling for it, and when the lions tour NZ in 2017 i'm sure they will get it as well.
People just wanna have a go at Australia and it stinks.
Bloody whiners on planet rugby
Posted 10:33 28th July 2012
Stellenbosched2 says...
Hi JayStarr,
No offence intended, there is an SA blogger on another, third rate site who writes in a similar way to you. He also is a fan of Cruden (as I am).
Agree totally with what you have to say about the Aussies, so I do not have to add anything.
Posted 09:18 28th July 2012
JayStarr says...
@ Stellebosched: Not sure whether biltongbek is an insult or a compliment... but yes I am South African (and like biltong) :P. And yes, completely agree... We have already shortened the Currie Cup for THOSE BLOODY AUSSIES (@ TheTruthHurts)... and moved it to a point where no Springboks can take part... thus reducing a 123 year old cup to a level below somthing that looks like a space ship... a "conference cup" that nobody in South Africa cares about... but which is also there so that the Aussies can win something. And we've already said it's ok that they are guaranteed a play-off spot... AT HOME... even if they get to play their own diluted-selves twice... and still finish 6th on overall points. And if I can remember correctly, John O'Neil made a MASSIVE hoo-ha before the World Cup when he thought the Springboks were resting players (even though the All Blacks did exactly the same thing a few years before)... and wanted to put rules in place to control us Africans and tell us who we can and can't pick... before also not even being willing to negotiate a schedule change so that the Kings could enter Super Rugby next year.
Now what do they want? A schedule change. FIVE weeks off... What happened to "the broadcasters" now? They've suddenly become very leniant towards changes to the "agreed schedule" it would seem..!
@ Ramage: agreed.
@ TheTruthHurts: Why don't you get some of those convicts playing Aussie Rules over into your Super Rugby squads? Just offer them free beer and some Sheilas or something... Tell them they can travel to Cape Town and get into bar fights like all the other Aussie teams... Tell them they can be dressed properly with sleeves and everything... That ought to give your conference a lift and make it more exciting!
Posted 07:04 28th July 2012
tha_mai says...
Already with the excuses, what happened to home advantage, crowd support, Lions being a mix of players from 4 nations? Box seat indeed, that's not fighting talk!
Deans admitted it will be difficult beating the Lions, who will be involved in a long list of lead-up matches before the first Test. ''We won't have the luxury of a game to prepare but we have to ensure we have a preparation. There's no doubt they're in the box seat. They've got a great run-in. "
O'Neill also suggesting the Oz teams play with each other on Feb 16 (one gets a bye) while SA and NZ start their Super campaigns the week after.
Posted 03:39 28th July 2012
kiwilad says...
3Nuts, It is not a matter of if the Wobblies loose another game, it a matter of when.
When do they next play someone ranked 9 or 10 in the world???
Posted 02:29 28th July 2012
BillyMutt2 says...
Deans just channeling his boos I guess. Wonder when SANZAR is going to stand up to O'Neill and his self-serving scorched earth approach of torching anything that doesn't suit Australian rugby. Even with his delusional conference system for Super Rugby he couldn't help an Aus team get into the semi-finals - although I will admit that the conference thing worked out somewhat better than I had feared initially.
Ironic that his idea of an extended SuperRugby season now stands in the way of trying to prepare for the Lions - a huge mountain to climb for the Wobblies for sure.
This guy is starting to look and sound like SARU.
Posted 21:49 27th July 2012