I'm sure the previous struggle Vickery had with­ Mtwatiwarwar was down to technique and the fact he had­ a height differential with the @#$%. I'm sure that­ will have been worked-on since the first test...

Well said wflorence14.
A tough tour which made some­ players and broke others.

eglish

There is too much Welsh influence in the selectors and­ how Shane w has been picked before Luke F amazes­ me.
antoineoc

Geez i hope the playing squad is alot more unified than­ you lot. Isnt the whole point of the tour to put the­ Lions jersey first and put aside national aliegences?­ Yet you guys squabble as you push the agenda for your­ own countries players. And i must say, some of it is­ BLIND patriotism, bordering on stupidity. Consider an­ overseas perspective if you will... as well as your­ injured centre pairing, other class acts in the backs­ have been Kearney and wait for it... SJones (great ball­ to set up 1st try last week, flawless kicking and done­ his job defensivley) cant ask for much more. As for­ OGara, well yeah he had a shocker but even still, he is­ well overrated. There is a big difference between­ 6nations and touring the SH. Id have Williams on the­ wing..big time player for big time matches. Your­ forwards have performed miracles at times, dominating­ SA at their own game. That Simon Shaw would be welcome­ in any team around the world. Ewww Flutey.. lol.. you­ guys dont want him and we dont want him back either,­ think hell get knocked out if he shows his face back­ here. Goodluck to the Lions this week, they've done­ their fans proud and won quite a few more here.

At leats Worsley has been visible on the tour unlike­ Heaslip.

I am going to get a hard time here but other­ than the almost God like Brian O'Driscoll and Rob­ Kearney the Irish have had a poor tour.

O'Connell­ has been below his best
Wallace failed to make an­ impact
Heaslip was apparantly in SA
O'Gara has been­ dreadful
Fitzgerald and Bowe looked like they were­ going to be a threat until the Tests.

I am English­ however, I think the Welsh have had an excellent­ tour.
Jones, Rees and Jenkins have been excellent and­ Roberts, Jones and Byrne have been good too. Phillips­ however has been superb and is surely in the top 2­ scrum halves in the world.

o'gara is @#$%, he can't tackle and as we saw­ on sat. he gives away stupid penlaties. He may be able­ to goal kick but a fly half has to do sooo... much more­ than that. shoul be JH starting over SJ as well

Kevin 47 - you haven't a clue, and I'm not just­ referring to your grammar. It was O'Gara who was­ run over in the 2nd Test for the try. Shane Williams is­ one of the few proven match winners in the squad.

If we get a decent referee in this game Vickery wil be­ OK, He is probably the best all round prop in the­ squad. Before you dive to tear me up as an Englishman I­ happen to be Scottish !

Shane Williams may well be remembered this tour for­ having a "shocker", but that doesn't tell­ the whole story.
Not once has he played on the­ outside of the Jones/Roberts/O'Driscoll (what I­ will refer to as the 'A' team) midfield.­ Playing on the most peripheral position on the field,­ the difference in playing in a successful line-up that­ creates space and holes in defences, and one that­ isn't, is marked.
Take a moment, as I have, to­ recall all of Fitzgeralds and Monye's tries and­ good performances, and you will find they are all­ playing on the outside of the 'A' team. There­ were just the two impressive Lions performances before­ the tests, and they both featured this 'A' team­ midfield, and if Shane had been fortunate enough to be­ selected in either of these, I am certain he would have­ benefitted and claimed, what was before the tour, going­ to be his certain starting place in the first test.
One­ of the failures on the miserable New Zealand Lions tour­ four years ago, was the squad morale that felt it was­ divided into two parts, the test-side and the mid-week­ side. Whilst Geech must be applauded for maintaining­ the squad's morale by avoiding this, in doing so,­ it left Williams sniffing for scraps outside weak­ midfield combinations, and thus cost the Lions their­ finest winger, the player who the Boks most genuinely­ feared.
Fingers crossed for Saturday, but now that­ injury has robbed us of BOD and Roberts, there may well­ only be scraps again

There's a lot of anti-Shane comments on here but I­ think we have to look at the bigger picture. Opposing­ sides take him far more seriously then we do.
They know­ only too well that if you give him a gap a little­ thicker than a cigrette paper, he will be out of sight­ in seconds.
So much so that they (like NZ) mark him­ with 2 defenders.
This of course means that he is­ closed down and has no room to dance.
But it also means­ that to do this, it opens up a gap further along the­ line.
Playing Shane is a real asset no matter how you­ look at it.

Sugrue, didnt you saa that Shaw shouldnt have played­ before last test and that I was a royalist for­ suggesting he should be playing ???
Didnt you also say­ that O'Gara should play, hours before Fourie ran­ over him to score the try and before he gave away the­ penalty. Hook shoukld have been on the bench all the­ way through as he covers so many positions.
Oh and has­ any one seen Jamie Heaslip in South Africa, I am­ worried for his family as he appeaers to have got lost.

Not a bad side that's been cobbled together.­ Can't understand why Vickery's been picked­ again when he was commensurately destroyed last time­ out - I would've started with John Hayes instead.­ Also think Bowe at centre might not be such a good­ idea, I'd have been tempted to give James Hook a­ start. Bowe looked one of the stand-outs early on but­ hasn't taken that into the test matches.

Yep, you're quite right eoin...Jones didn't do­ anything like as much as O'Gara did, such as giving­ away a STUPID last minute penalty that cost us the­ match and the series. Also, correct me if I'm­ wrong, but didn't Mr. Jones get 100% of his kicks­ over?

Clearly, we have different views on what­ constitutes "doing nothing"...And I­ wouldn't be too smug about Ireland's­ achievements this year if I were you. Roll on next­ season!

sutherland229 - disagree strongly - there is no way you­ can compare the games played in the north and south -­ two totally different games - if it wasn't for the­ amount of injuries in the 2nd test, I reckon the Lions­ would of won easily - if SA had been down to 14 for 79­ minutes of the game like they should of then who knows.­ The same in the first test - SA management made some­ basic errors in the 2nd half on subs and got shown up -­ IF there had been 5 minutes longer then the Lions would­ of won that as well.

For a scratch side/squad coming­ into matches agaisn't the World Champions and­ taking them so close in both games suggests to me that­ the NH are doing fine. Let's not forget where­ sides like Wales, England and France have been in the­ last two world cups - and then compare NZ, SA and the­ Aussies - big difference.