Ian McGeechan plotting a Lions comeback

Right then. Crunch time. Do or Die. Must Win. Whatever you want to call it.

This is the situation that the Lions face now. Having lost the first test (I’ll come to that in a minute) the Lions know that a loss in the second test will mean that everything they have worked towards for the last few months will be for nothing. All the promise shown and the undefeated mid-week record will count for nothing. It’s all about this game. And I genuinely believe we have a real chance to snatch this. And indeed the series. First, lets begin with last week.

It’s really disappointing that we lost. And we lost it in 2 key areas. Firstly, the forwards. In the build up to this series, it was always believed that the South African threat would be at it’s greatest in the front line. It is for this exact reason that certain selections were made. It’s part of the reason why O’Connell was selected as captain. Yet, in the first test, our forwards were utterly dominated by the SA pack, and that ultimately laid the foundation for the SA win. We can argue until we’re blue in the face about the referring in the scrum, and I don’t know enough about scrummaging to tell you what is right or wrong. But I do know that we were ‘owned’ in that area. In my view, Vickery was pulled off a little late. By the time Adam Jones appeared, the damage had been done. It’s a shame Sheridan wasn’t available. I think the changes that have been made for the second test are right on the money. The inclusion of Shaw, will add some of the weight and grunt to the pack that was missing last week. And hopefully, Jones will fair better against The Beast. As the Saffers have the best line out in the world, you know that they will always steal a couple of line outs from you anyway, so at hooker, Rees’ scrummaging ability was a better bet then Mears’ line out accuracy.
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The Windies beat England via the D/L Method

First off a few apologies for my tardiness, I haven’t managed to write in a week or so, and as a result, I seem to have missed out on a few developments in the sporting world. So I thought I’d take the opportunity to give my thoughts on a few of them.

Cricket: T20 World Cup

The world’s fascination with cricket’s most explosive format has been underway in England for about a week now and has certainly thrown up some surprises. I was less than amused to be awoken last Saturday morning by a friend of mine (who is really Australian, but likes to be Dutch when it suits) who tried to goad me about the fact that England lost a World Cup game to Holland. Naturally, I assumed he was talking about football, and found myself correcting him, England didn’t play till Saturday night, and we were playing Kazakhstan.

Oh but yeah….the cricket. That embarrassing result aside, I thought England did well to go on and beat Pakistan and qualify for the Super-8′s. A fact that seemed to escape a few of my other Australian colleagues who tried to remind me that England lost to Holland.

Hang on! Did Australia qualify for the Super 8?

Shut up then.
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Gareth Barry has completed his £12 million move to Man City

So we come to the end of another football season (thats soccer to any Aussies reading this), and with no World Cup or European Championship, we must occupy ourselves with the merry-go-round that are transfer rumours. Being a Man City fan means that this short period (before the season starts up again in August) is now a little bit more interesting then it used to be. I still remember the days of rumours circulating around City of the arrival of Darius Vassell for a mere £1.2 million. The sad thing now, is that as City have more money then C. Montgomery Burns, rumours linking us with literally any player in the world is just not that exciting anymore.

£140 million for Messi? Sure, why not.

What interests me more, is speculating on which players City will actually manage to sign. Sure, we can afford to spend any amount on any player, but the fact of the matter is, none of them will want to come while City are not yet in Europe. Instead, we must concentrate on getting the players that can get us there, and the signing of Gareth Barry this week is an indication that that is exactly what Mark Hughes and the City board are planning. Barry is just the sort of experienced Premiership player we need, and will be a great addition to the City midfield. Barry also possesses a large amount of versatility (having played left back and centre back before), which is always a bonus when you have to change tactic mid game.
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