Captain O'Connell

[Count of Devonshire]

>Irish bias chooses to ignore abject performances of our supposed 'leader'<

Hines and Wyn-Jones, Hines and the other Irish fellow, Wyn Jones and Shaw, Hines and Shaw...my point is, anyone but Captain O'Connell deserves to be in the test side, on the form the chaps have shown so far on the tour.

This lambasting of Croft will not do, either. He is a young man of fine pedigree, and his stats and performances across the last season tell their own tale, no matter what this ignorant Brendan believes.

Any thoughts, chaps?

 

[Bumbadum]

Borthwick was the clear choice for captain.

 

[Olyy]

I'm surprised they even bothered creating a lions side this year, surely you put wilko in a red jersey, give him a kicking tee, and jobs a good un? No need for all the welsh/irish/scots on the tour

 

[shazbooger]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Count of Devonshire @ Jun 15 2009, 08:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

the other Irish fellow[/b]

Eh?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Count of Devonshire @ Jun 15 2009, 08:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

He is a young man of fine pedigree[/b]

Possible, but in the test I'd prefer a dirty little mongrel playing 6. Same arguement as Spies, cant run like a gazelle if your face is in the mud, and if your face aint in the mud your probably not doing your job.

 

[Count of Devonshire]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Logorrhea @ Jun 15 2009, 09:16 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Eh?

Possible, but in the test I'd prefer a dirty little mongrel playing 6. Same arguement as Spies, cant run like a gazelle if your face is in the mud, and if your face aint in the mud your probably not doing your job.[/b]

O'Callaghan.

If we had a 'dirty little mongrel' with an ounce of quality knocking about then I'd probably agree with you. As it is, we had Alan Quinlan, a mentally unstable dirty little mongrel with no ability whatsoever. Given that many on here are so quite to right off the magnificent Phil Vickery on the basis that he might give away penalties, the wildman approach of Quinlan, so wild that it led to him being barred from touring, was practically ignored, presumably due to the fact that it is all he brings to the table. His Irishness probably helped his cause, too. 'Brendan' seems to ignore the horrific yet characteristic eye-gouge on this basis.

 

[shazbooger]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Count of Devonshire @ Jun 15 2009, 10:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

O'Callaghan[/b]

That wasnt so hard now was it?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Count of Devonshire @ Jun 15 2009, 10:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

If we had a 'dirty little mongrel' with an ounce of quality knocking about then I'd probably agree with you.[/b]

I kinda stopped listening once you started talking about Quinlan. He's not on tour and he is scum. What that has to do with Croft playing or not I dont know.

Steven Ferris would have been the test 6, as it is, it'll probably be Wallace. Personally I think Williams will be the weak link in the back row and would prefer to see a Heaslip, Wallace, Croft combination but it probably wont happen.

 

[dundeesmiffy]

Second row continues to be a pickle, I'd keep POC on the bench for the first test and give the captaincy to BOD but bring POC on at 60 minutes or so to have some oomph off the bench. The Lions will probably find themselves behind at 60 minutes at some point. It's happened with lesser teams so far so it's probably going to happen in Test matches, they are not unstoppable.

It'd be a good tactical choice.

My starting locks would probably be;

Nathan Hines; carried the ball like a trooper at times, shown himself to have that "big match mentality" everyones talks about.
A.W Jones - see above. and pace. and intelligent offloader.

 

[Ozzay]

If he don't start his 'tour' captain in all 3 tests, he'll look stupid, although i agree it would be a good idea.

 

[shazbooger]

No offense but its daft. Your saying Hines and AWJ have been better this tour than O'Connell?

 

[Bumbadum]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Logorrhea @ Jun 15 2009, 01:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

No offense but its daft. Your saying Hines and AWJ have been better this tour than O'Connell?[/b]

This.

Anyone who says O'Connel has played worse than the other locks either i) hasnt watched the games, or ii) has some other agenda. AWJ hasnt lived up to ANY of the hype about him on this tour.

I can only assume that the doubts about his captaincy are actually founded in the fact that BOD has so far been awesome, thus the question is raised whether he should have been chosen as captain. Certainly there is an argument for that but everyone knew, long before the tour started, that those two were the ONLY candidates for the captaincy, and that POC was chosen primarily because he is a forward.