Lions team v Cheetahs

[ronk]

That's about as powerful a pack (inc subs) as they could have fielded. Almost Woodwardesque.

Selection looks very mindful of continuing squad rotation to give people a go without anyone playing too many games. But in terms of test strategy this could be an important test. This one is about combinations.

Whatever about Fitz being 12 it helps his test chances (possibly only the bench though) as it reduces the need for cover elsewhere. It's also great to see that the Lions are able to play 2 separate all-Irish midfields. The 30(ish) year old experienced pair and the 21 year old new guys. It's an extraordinary achievement and shows the strength in depth we have.

I hope, for lots of reasons, that the Earls-Fitzgerald axis rips up trees. Playing outside someone dynamic like Hook and with an exciting back 3 outside them means this could be a team that will score a lot of points. It's a backline designed to score often with decent possession behind a pack designed to get go forward possession.

[Isaac4leinster]

With Hines, Shaw and Adam Jones it would come to astonishing 930kg pack! 116kg/18st 4Ilbs per man. That I think be a record I think.

[The Guru]

while i hope that the young 10/12/13 axis works well, it looks very green to me.

has the potential to be a huge hit but i could see it missing in a big way. if earls sorts his head out then it could be magic however.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I'm getting bad vibes from that team. The pack has an awful balance about it and i suspect will struggle to provide any decent ball and the sub forwards are not going to make any difference to that either. There's no big go to man in the backs so i suspect the combination of the two things will mean that we see a lot of kicking from Hook,Luuuuuuuuuke,Halfpenny and Byrne

[tackle-bag]

while i hope that the young 10/12/13 axis works well, it looks very green to me.

has the potential to be a huge hit but i could see it missing in a big way. if earls sorts his head out then it could be magic however.

I think it will work. Earls needs one of the performances of his career to date if he doesn't want to be resigned to wearing the 22 shirt for the midweek team from now on. I fancy him to pull it out of the bag.

[Xanthippe]

Not overly happy about The Luke not being on the wing and if he has to play centre would have preferred to see him at outside.

[suisse]

Is it just me, or have the first three games been backboned largely by Welsh players? I get the feeling the Welsh contingent will dominate the Test selections (Jenkins, Rees, AWJ, M. Williams, Phillips, Jones, Roberts, S. Williams, Byrne). They'll have a representative in every facet of the Lions team (prop, hooker, second row, back row, half backs, wing, centre, full back). The influence of Gatland and Edwards is huge here, as obviously these guys trust the Welsh players more from regular contact with them.

Interested to see how Halfpenny and Ellis get on. The marker was set by Bowe and Phillips, so up to these guys to prove they are worthy of a test slot.

[BlueArmyOriginal]

That's the centre partnership no Irish coach would've had the stones to pick so that'll be at least interesting despite it's limitations, expect the cheetahs to throw support-runners down their channels all night. In general I'm getting the same bad vibes about the balance of the squad as LeRouxIsPhat.
PS: That pack must be the biggest Lions pack ever fielded.

[hugonaut]

I'm getting bad vibes from that team. The pack has an awful balance about it and i suspect will struggle to provide any decent ball and the sub forwards are not going to make any difference to that either. There's no big go to man in the backs so i suspect the combination of the two things will mean that we see a lot of kicking from Hook,Luuuuuuuuuke,Halfpenny and Byrne

The pack has no balance! However, their first phase possession is written in stone - two big scrummaging props and a monster hooker, a second row combination that has played together internationally more than forty times and four players strong enough for one-man lifting in the line-out [Sheridan, Murray, Ferris and Powell]. Granted that Ross Ford isn't exactly Phil Taylor from the oche, but with O'Callaghan at 2, O'Connell at 4 and any one of the backrow at 6 it'll be the death knell to his test chances if we don't secure at least 90% of our own lineout ball.

Second phase will be a worry alright, because the threequarters are all light and won't be able to stand-up to any serious counter-rucking, and Worsley isn't quick at getting to the breakdown. Ferris may end up playing more of an openside role [he played openside for Ulster for a full season two years ago], but that may impinge on his chances for getting in at 6 for the test.

Looking into my crystal ball, I see a lot of mauling, a lot of close-in big runners and the regular launching of Ferris, Powell and O'Connell-class intercontinental missiles into the heartland of the Cheetah's defence. NH vs SH Cold War, first one to blink unleashes the nukes ...

[The Doc]

There is more than one way to look at this - the fact that Williams is playing again tells me he hasn't convinced anyone that he is right. I expect him to play a half and Fitz to move to wing. It's probably as much cause D'Arcy mightn't have been ready for a full game.

[Comer Toes]

Yeah tough ask for Fitzy but I’m sure he’ll relish the challenge as well as the additional ball-in-hand opportunities that he will get in that channel. While there is a sniff of B team off much of the backline, it’s probably one of the most dangerous and unpredictable back-lines you could put together, potentially lethal if the pack give them decent go-forward ball. Earls and Fitz together will be great to watch but Cheetahs coach will be drawing a big red circle on this areas as a potential defensive soft point.

Huge game for POC – he won’t want to be associated with another limp performance. Ford and Hook are key to maintaining momentum.

[mhow]

Lions trio get first SA outings
FREE STATE CHEETAHS V LIONS
Venue: Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein Kick-off: 1400 BST (1500 local time)
Coverage: Live commentary on Radio 5 Live and live text commentary on BBC Sport website & mobiles. Live on Sky Sports 2

Leigh Halfpenny, Luke Fitzgerald and Donncha O'Callaghan will all play their first Lions match of the South Africa tour against the Cheetahs on Saturday.
Fitzgerald, with Riki Flutey sidelined by a knee injury, starts alongside a fit-again Keith Earls at centre.
Half-backs Harry Ellis and James Hook, hooker Ross Ford, prop Euan Murray, flanker Stephen Ferris and number eight Andy Powell also get first tour starts.
Martyn Williams has a shoulder injury so Joe Worsley starts at open-side.
Ireland centre Gordon D'Arcy, who arrived on Thursday to provide cover at centre, is among the replacements.
Halfpenny, who arrived on Tuesday after recovering from a thigh injury, and Fitzgerald, who has shaken off a chest infection and a knee problem, will both be making their Lions debuts.

After a lacklustre opening win over a Royal XV, the tourists are in good heart after running in 10 tries in a 74-10 victory over the Golden Lions in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
"It has been really tough to watch the guys training and playing the first two matches so I am really buzzing now about getting on the pitch," Fitzgerald told BBC 5 Live.
"Obviously there is a little bit of pressure on the boys after the fantastic performance the lads put in on Wednesday. The important thing for us is we don't over-do things and try to force the game.
"We are playing a hardened Super 14 team so realistically it is not going to be that sort of scoreline again but hopefully we can put in another big performance."

Wales fly-half Hook, a late call-up to the party, also gets an opportunity as head coach Ian McGeechan sticks to his plan of giving all members of the squad a start in the first three games.
O'Callaghan, who started two Tests in New Zealand in 2005 but has not featured in South Africa to date, starts alongside captain Paul O'Connell, his regular Munster and Ireland partner, at lock.

"I spoke to Donncha last week to tell him he would be the last one [of the five locks] on show," McGeechan told BBC 5 Live.
"He has trained outstandingly well and has been very good in his preparation leading up to this game, if a little impatient!
"The second row is a very strong area of the team and is going to be a huge challenge for us as coaches because they have all put themselves in the picture for a Test spot."

There are also national combinations elsewhere, with Halfpenny and Shane Williams joining Byrne in the back three, and Scotland team-mates Ford and Murray packing down together alongside Andrew Sheridan in a front row with a combined weight of 55 stone.

Williams, who has aggravated a shoulder injury, hopes to return to training on Monday or Tuesday ahead of the fourth tour game against the Sharks in Durban on Wednesday, 10 June.

With the only other specialist open-side David Wallace having started the first two games, Worsley - who played there for England during the Six Nations - switches to the number seven jersey.

He joins Ireland flanker Ferris - who scored a try from halfway after coming on against the Golden Lions - and Wales number eight Andy Powell in a powerful back row.

"They have been training well together and now we want to see them operate under match conditions," McGeechan added. "There is a good balance between the three of them."
The Cheetahs finished bottom of the Super 14 this season and are missing their usual captain, South Africa flanker Juan Smith.
But they still include four Springboks who missed out on the squad for the Lions series - centre Meyer Bosman, flanker Heinrich Brussow, hooker Adriaan Strauss and prop Wian du Preez.

Lions team v Cheetahs:

Lee Byrne (Ospreys & Wales); Leigh Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues & Wales), Keith Earls (Munster & Ireland), Luke Fitzgerald (Leinster & Ireland), Shane Williams (Ospreys & Wales); James Hook (Ospreys & Wales), Harry Ellis (Leicester & England); Andrew Sheridan (Sale & England), Ross Ford (Edinburgh & Scotland), Euan Murray (Northampton & Scotland), Donncha O'Callaghan (Munster & Ireland), Paul O'Connell (Munster & Ireland - capt), Stephen Ferris (Ulster & Ireland), Joe Worsley (Wasps & England), Andy Powell (Cardiff Blues & Wales).
Replacements: Matthew Rees (Scarlets & Wales), Adam Jones (Ospreys & Wales), Simon Shaw (Wasps & England), Nathan Hines (Perpignan & Scotland), Mike Blair (Edinburgh & Scotland), Ronan O'Gara (Munster & Ireland), Gordon D'Arcy (Leinster & Ireland).

Cheetahs: H Daniller; D Demas, C Uys, M Bosman, J W Jonker; J-L Potgieter, T de Bruyn; W Du Preez, A Strauss, K Calldo, N Breedt, D de Villiers, H Brussow, F Uys, H Scholtz (capt).
Replacements: R Strauss, W P Nel, F Viljoen, K Floors, G Odendaal, L Strydom, F Juries.

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).

[downsouthdukin]

wayne barnes... very interesting!! he'll probably ping the cheetahs and poc, doc all day long

[hugonaut]

Well spotted on the ref downsouthdurkin – it'll be interesting to see the contrast between Barnes' reffing style and Marius Jonker's. It'll also be very interesting to hear the SA media reaction to it.

I thought that Jonker's referring of the scrum in the first game was laughable. The Lions literally destroyed the Royal XV's scrum [1974 style!] and the latter's props ran the gamut of offences: standing up, slipping the bind outside [on the loosehead-side], boring in on the hooker on the tighthead side and simply collapsing under pressure. All these actions were forced by the Lions' superior strength and technique, it must be said – the Saffas weren't doing it out of sheer badness. However, Jonker rarely penalised them, which totally negated all the good work that the Lions pack were putting in at the set-piece.

Not to sound like a complete child, but that's simply unfair. The laws are the laws, and the referee is there to enforce them. It's like saying that you're going to allow head-high tackles and stiff-arms because one team wasn't having much luck with legal tackles.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

As disjointed a performance as you'd expect from a team without a 7 and no big ball carrier in the backs. I can't believe Williams stayed on for the whole game and that D'arcy wasn't brought on far sooner.No disrespect to Williams but the coaches are clearly playing favourites which is really unfair considering the lack of gametime that others now get because of that.

[thecoolfreak]

As disjointed a performance as you'd expect from a team without a 7 and no big ball carrier in the backs. I can't believe Williams stayed on for the whole game and that D'arcy wasn't brought on far sooner.No disrespect to Williams but the coaches are clearly playing favourites which is really unfair considering the lack of gametime that others now get because of that.

I think the fact that the game was so close and that D'Arcy has hardly trained with the Lions was a major contributor to him not getting on earlier. He'll start on Wednesday, maybe with BOD, depending on Flutey's injury

[LeRouxIsPHat]

As disjointed a performance as you'd expect from a team without a 7 and no big ball carrier in the backs. I can't believe Williams stayed on for the whole game and that D'arcy wasn't brought on far sooner.No disrespect to Williams but the coaches are clearly playing favourites which is really unfair considering the lack of gametime that others now get because of that.

I think the fact that the game was so close and that D'Arcy has hardly trained with the Lions was a major contributor to him not getting on earlier. He'll start on Wednesday, maybe with BOD, depending on Flutey's injury

If that's the case then i would have liked the coaches to bring on ROG, move Hook to 12 and Luke to the wing but it's obvious that they're doing everything they can to help Williams which would be fine if it wasn't to the detriment of others. I realise Luke has been sick/injured but we're now 3 games in and he hasn't played one second of rugby on the wing where his best chance of a test spot is while Williams has played 180 mins there if iirc.

[thecoolfreak]

As disjointed a performance as you'd expect from a team without a 7 and no big ball carrier in the backs. I can't believe Williams stayed on for the whole game and that D'arcy wasn't brought on far sooner.No disrespect to Williams but the coaches are clearly playing favourites which is really unfair considering the lack of gametime that others now get because of that.

I think the fact that the game was so close and that D'Arcy has hardly trained with the Lions was a major contributor to him not getting on earlier. He'll start on Wednesday, maybe with BOD, depending on Flutey's injury

If that's the case then i would have liked the coaches to bring on ROG, move Hook to 12 and Luke to the wing but it's obvious that they're doing everything they can to help Williams which would be fine if it wasn't to the detriment of others. I realise Luke has been sick/injured but we're now 3 games in and he hasn't played one second of rugby on the wing where his best chance of a test spot is while Williams has played 180 mins there if iirc.

Wait and see what the team for Wednesday is. I suspect Fitzgerald will get a run on the wing