Western Force v British & Irish Lions

[dirty harry]

Main negative from yesterday was the scrum which absolutely crumbled at times. Need to settle on a front 5 very quickly.

Only first half, Schoeman got found out, and Furlong looks tired. The demolishing in the 2nd half after 49 mins was unreal.

People forget sometimes that the scrum is a lot like the lineout, it will take time. 8 Eddie halls couldn't scrimmage the Worcester warriors off the ball, its far more technical than people think.

 

[dirty harry]

Interesting point,

Curry and Morgans chances of test 1 were pretty harmed after yesterday's game.

Ben O Keefe didnt seem to allow much from the defence at the breakdown, was there even a holding call? He allowed attack a bit of leniency, meaning Farrell should be more tempted to play a destructive back row, instead of a fetcher / all rounder

 

[McTallshort]

Only first half, Schoeman got found out, and Furlong looks tired. The demolishing in the 2nd half after 49 mins was unreal.

People forget sometimes that the scrum is a lot like the lineout, it will take time. 8 Eddie halls couldn't scrimmage the Worcester warriors off the ball, its far more technical than people think.

Yeah and it's as much to do with the 2nd rows as the front but on another day there were at least 3 scrum penalties conceded in the first 50

 

[dirty harry]

Yeah and it's as much to do with the 2nd rows as the front but on another day there were at least 3 scrum penalties conceded in the first 50

On another day in any game you could make the same remark, on another day SA doesn't beat France or England in the RWC...

My point is, the 3 large unit technical aspects are all a mess right now, scrum lineout and restart, individuals won't fix it, and individuals aren't the problem. This is a very usual for a scratch team, and the scrum will improve, as it did in the 2nd half.

The reason Gatland was so successful in 2013 was that he focused on simple messaging, and the team became cohesive quicker because of it.

That's my concern, Lions are playing intricately from the off, and I worry if they will be able to get all aspects of performance in place by the tests.