Awesome! The Blues beat the Lions with a converted try in referee's time! Geez, how much did the Blues improve after the subs came on!

Final score: Lions 35 - 38 Blues

Sack the coach!

Brilliant win against a very good lions,there were times I wanted to turn off and go to bed,delighted I stayed up..!,some great impact from the bench..,

@stargazer your not wrong about the names

@steven-harris said in Lions v Blues:

Brilliant win against a very good lions,there were times I wanted to turn off and go to bed,delighted I stayed up..!,some great impact from the bench..,

I was worried Ruru had been given the TSF curse when his first three touches were ankles/above the head/intercept but he added impetus after that.

@steven-harris said in Lions v Blues:

@stargazer your not wrong about the names

Tamma-rye

@crucial
What about his charge down, it was always going to be a charge down. He and Nanai are the most frustrating, always do something crap mixed with the good they do

@rebound said in Lions v Blues:

@crucial
What about his charge down, it was always going to be a charge down. He and Nanai are the most frustrating, always do something crap mixed with the good they do

With Ruru he may have just edged on the right side of the ledger, but only just.

Do you mean Nye-nye?

@crucial Ruru must have been the most relieved man on the field when that touch down was not given,but great to see the Blues come up on the right side of the ledger,probably the Blues best win against an away team of real quality in a very long time.

@rebound I agree with you on Nainai, he has all this talent mixed with a brain explosion or two.

I have never understood why Gatland was so highly rated. The times I've watched him he was distinctly underwhelming.

I know several people who reckon he wasn't even the best at HBHS. But his name was excellent PR for them.

Hopefully that's the win the Blues need to get confidence and stop trying too hard.

They were lucky their persistence paid off in the end as they were really searching for things that weren't there.

@rebound said in Lions v Blues:

@crucial
What about his charge down, it was always going to be a charge down. He and Nanai are the most frustrating, always do something crap mixed with the good they do

Can't believe you're including Ruru in a sentence that contains the word 'always'. He's just arrived on the scene. Rookies make mistakes.

Gonna throw this out there,Jerome Kaino has been a great player no question,but I suspect he’s a bit off the pace and looking a shadow of himself given he’s heading off shore,do you invest more in a younger more dynamic loose forward mix..?

SA Rugby In Shock After TMO Correctly Rules In Favour Of The Away Team

Shockwaves went through SA rugby today, when a TMO (television muppet official) correctly ruled against the home SA team for the first time ever in a televised game. Late on in the match, with the Lions looking to close out the match it looked for all money that the Lions had scored with time almost up to put the game beyond reach. Despite the ball clearly having not been grounded, expected transmission began with the assistant referee running in to let the referee know that the ball had indeed been grounded correctly, and he'd had a clear view.

However things began to unravel shortly after, when the referee decided that it was worth another look, leaving all viewers confused. After looking at 3 angles, of which the clearest had correctly been blocked by a spectators head, the TMO then sent seismic waves through the community by correctly saying the ball hadn't been grounded. The Blues then went on to score a last minute winner, although replays clearly showed there were at least 5 potential reasons for the referee to completely fuck up and call it back.

Lions coach Johan Ackermann when asked about the incident was inconsolable and somewhat confused. "I didn't really see it and haven't had time to review it, as like all good coaches I wasn't looking at the 42 live screens in front of me all showing the replays. This is however a huge shift change for SA refereeing, and I'm wondering if there is any point in even having home advantage anymore. Fans don't turn up, and if the referees are going to police things correctly and without bias, then we may as well just play away".

Team captain Warren Whitely concurred, simply saying "it's not my job to comment on referees decisions, but if the home teaming isn't getting all the 90/10's, let alone the 50/50's, it's going to be tough from here on in"

Blues coach Tana Umaga was delighted with the result, the first time in his tenure that his team actually did anything decent. "It's great to get a win against a well coached and strong Lions team, although I don't have time to talk right now, as I've got to help Sonny Bill get a flight to Port Elizabeth - he's got an old pal or something there he wants to catch up with".

SA referees were approached for comment, but politely declined as they, quite rightly commented that like all controversial decisions their view is firmly to have their heads up their arse.

Blues did their best to give that game to the Lions. So many soft tries conceded and so many forced passes which went down made it such a frustrating watch. Lucky to win it considering how unbelievably dumb we are.

Perofeta looks all class though and must start next week ahead of Gatland.

@akan004 The Lions also showed how not to close a game out. It's as if they can only play at a high tempo pace. Great heart shown from the boys despite our obvious flaws.

@african-monkey Agree, they were equally as dumb, but the Blues had so many chances in the Lions' 22 and turned the ball over with unnecessary offloads. The Lions should have won it at the end but I feel the Blues were only trailing due to their own ineptitude. The Lions were nowhere near their best and the Blues almost stuffed it up imo.

The Lions really need to find a balance between their all out attacking game plan and a more pragmatic one when closing out games. They never should have lost that in the last few minutes.

@african-monkey said in Lions v Blues:

@akan004 The Lions also showed how not to close a game out. It's as if they can only play at a high tempo pace. Great heart shown from the boys despite our obvious flaws.

Then the French outdid both and gave the ultimate 'not closing' lesson

These Blues threads are a lot less interesting when the team wins.

@Crucial not many on here are able to watch the games played in the middle of the night.

That's a good effort from the Blues, winning in SA is still pretty tough despite the lack of quality in the SA conference. I took them by 1-8 in the tipping, as I think they are a better side than most give them credit for. The NZ conference is once again brutal as fuck, with most of the NZ derbies evenly matched.

@no-quarter I had them 1-8 and by 4 in another tipping comp.

I think if it was played in NZ time zone would make it busier.

Wey hey. Well done the Bluesers!

Just finished watching the recording.

Felt sorry for the Blues as most of the Lions' tries came from errors.

A win in Africa, at altitude, after travel delays, v Lions.

Maybe T is doing a good job...

@stargazer said in Lions v Blues:

Finally, the Blues get over the line; excellent try from Akira Aioneee. (What's up with these commentators not being able to pronounce his name correctly?)

Pronunciation seems to be optional and quite random for the Saffer comms. (And I'll throw the Aussie comms under the bus with them.)

Annoys me as NZ at least make the effort:

• The Lions' halfback is Cron-yay not Cron-gee.
• Du Plessis is Du Pless-see not Du Pless-siss.
• Mapoe is Ma-pooh not Ma-po-eh etc.

FYI driving yesterday arvo heard ABC loigue commentators saying they will be trying to pronounce some PI players' names properly as a result of learnings from the RLWC. This is good. However they sounded almost apologetic though, explaining that's how the players want it pronounced, kind of as if they shouldn't...

@stargazer said in Lions v Blues:

Geez, and now a pass from Ruru is intercepted and the Lions are over again. 28 - 10.

They showed a stat earlier that the Blues had 62% possession and the Lions a lot of missed tackles, but that's clearly not reflected in the score.

Yeah. Felt the Lions were flattered by that lead.

@stargazer said in Lions v Blues:

SBW is pretty disappointing though.

I'll white knight him.

Thought he was good apart from that horrendous early dropped ball.

@crucial said in Lions v Blues:

Sack the coach!

de Bruin?

@crucial said in Lions v Blues:

@steven-harris said in Lions v Blues:

@stargazer your not wrong about the names

Tamma-rye

Kiwikiwi was who he subbed ...

@crucial said in Lions v Blues:

@rebound said in Lions v Blues:

@crucial
What about his charge down, it was always going to be a charge down. He and Nanai are the most frustrating, always do something crap mixed with the good they do

With Ruru he may have just edged on the right side of the ledger, but only just.

Do you mean Nye-nye?

Nan-eye

Loosehead prop Alex Hodgman suffered a suspected broken arm.

Brilliant result.

Perofeta won that game. The game changed when he came on at 10. He attacked the line but he also has great passing skills. He is some talent.

After Perofeta came on the 10-12-13 channel started to really flourish.

Credit to the bench forwards too - the decision to pick 6 forwards on the bench paid off. Ross Wright was a huge improvement over Apasai.

Akira Ioane wow. There he was at the end to drive Taramai over for the winning try.

Im not sure what this means for the season but a great win - credit where it is due - well done Tana and the coaching team.

Very good finish by us, not sure how we won that one. Good to get the win though, especially against a decent team away at altitude.

Perofeta looked silky out there, almost Cruden-like in that 2nd half. Is he the one we've been waiting for? I hope so. He should definitely start next week.

The bench actually added something to the game, which is a rare thing for us.

Akira is on fire at the moment. The Lions were struggling to contain him all game.

I like that we added more wrinkles to our attack for this game. It still looks like a work in progress though, but it's promising to see some creativity for once.

Although we got the win, we still looked very Blues-like for a lot of the game. If this were a derby game, we'd probably lose. You can't go down in the 22 so many times and come away with nothing. Hopefully the win gives us confidence, but we can't be totally satisfied with that performance.

@stargazer said in Lions v Blues:

SBW is pretty disappointing though.

I've just watched the replay and SBW was poor in the 1st half especially, and only marginally better in the 2nd half. Rieko looked a bit lost at centre in the 1st half too.

Akira I-O-Nee was a beast and deserved MOTM.

The Blues decision to go with a 6-2 bench ended up being the right call as the forward subs all made an impact.

@dice said in Lions v Blues:

Although we got the win, we still looked very Blues-like for a lot of the game. If this were a derby game, we'd probably lose. You can't go down in the 22 so many times and come away with nothing. Hopefully the win gives us confidence, but we can't be totally satisfied with that performance.

Yes, the first 60 mins was the same old shit, a poorly organised team of individuals. Akira and a handful of others were keeping us in touch and nothing more.

Ruru had 2 or 3 big errors early on but still showed enough to be given an extended run in the starting XV alongside Perofeta.
Parsons demands selection and led the side well. A big test fo Umaga will be what he does when Pulu returns. In 2016 & 2017 he stuck by his favourites for way too long.

Perofeta living up to the hype so far. Now hopefully he can back it up.

What that last 20 mins showed is that this squad has more than enough talent to finish in the top 8 of a 15 team competition

@bovidae said in Lions v Blues:

I've just watched the replay and SBW was poor in the 1st half especially, and only marginally better in the 2nd half. Rieko looked a bit lost at centre in the 1st half too.

Yeah, not for the first time in a Blues jersey SBW looked a bit shit. Also, I'm not convinced by Rieko's defence in the midfield.
I suspect they'll stick with this pair because of the result though. Maybe things click for SBW if Perofeta starts the match.

@steven-harris said in Lions v Blues:

Gonna throw this out there,Jerome Kaino has been a great player no question,but I suspect he’s a bit off the pace and looking a shadow of himself given he’s heading off shore,do you invest more in a younger more dynamic loose forward mix..?

I'm hoping its the usual Kaino taking a while to build into form and not old age..

A younger more dynamic option? Do you have anyone in mind? Papali'i when he gets back, but he's probably needed at 7 initially. Not sure Tupou adds anything that Kaino doesn't even on current form.

@duluth

My comment was related to Rieko rushing out of the defensive line a few times and missing his man. On the wing he has a roving role which makes him more dangerous, particularly from broken play. His 2nd try was a good example of how dangerous he is.

@tim said in Lions v Blues:

Loosehead prop Alex Hodgman suffered a suspected broken arm.

Isaac Salmon onto the bench I guess? He isn't listed as injured

Hopefully Ofa doesn't have to cover LH

@duluth Ross Wright is a looshead too...which is what he was signed as I believe, not as a hooker?

@taniwharugby

Cool, then we can have Apisai on the bench again!

Good option, but I really hope he stays where he is too