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July 2, 2009 Posted 17 hours, 48 minutes ago Stephen Jones, writing in The Times, commends the efforts of the Springboks in defeating the Lions "The latest topic of conversation in and around the South African camp and in the rugby parts of the nation at large is that the South African team have not been given proper credit for their victory in the Test series and that we have all been far too busy mulling over matters such as injury, bad luck, refereeing, television replays and other allied matters.
July 1, 2009 Posted 1 day, 14 hours ago Keith Wood looks past his love of the Lions concept to criticise the current format of their tour in The Daily Telegraph. "Last Saturday was as good a game as I have seen in a long time. It had courage, passion and some unbelievable skill. It also had violence, unacceptable and stupid, and had pressure, tension and the symptoms thereof.
June 30, 2009 Lawrence has cost the Lions dear Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago Brian Moore believes New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence is not fit to officiate due to his influence on the destiny of the current British & Irish Lions tour. Read his thoughts in the Daily Telegraph. "The man that has cost the Lions dear, in not one, but both Test games, is Bryce Lawrence, of New Zealand. We are not here talking about whether a pass was forward. His serious errors are incapable of rationalisation, save by the misapplication of the tenet that a referee is the sole arbiter of fact and law. That stipulation is intended to allow referees to be wrong, not stupid. If Lawrence, as touch judge, is incapable of linking the vileness of an act occurring two feet away and the proper sanction of a red card, he is not fit to officiate.
This era of eye-gouging must come to an end Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago For the sake of the game, officials need to clamp down on eye-gouging - the most heinous of rugby sins, according to Chris Hewett in The Independent. "As in life, there are seven deadly sins in rugby: gouging, biting, head-kicking, bag-snatching (an Australian euphemism for an assault on a player's unmentionables), spear-tackling, shaving on match day and running off with the beer kitty. Of these, the last two are marginally the least heinous, while the first is very definitely furthest beyond the pale. Unfortunately for the image of the union game, this is fast becoming the age of the gouger."
Authorities must blow away stench of Burger Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago Writing in The Independent, James Lawton urges the authorities to act in the wake of the latest eye-gouging incident to blight the game. "There were reasons to believe the Lions tour would end in tears, but it was hard to imagine that they would be quite so filled by such a toxic combination of rage and disgust. This is only an overwrought sentiment if you believe that it is acceptable anywhere in international sport, even among its very dregs, its sleaziest corners, to allow a player to remain on the field after a psychopathic act that caused him to defile everything and everyone he subsequently touched.
Piecemeal tourists are no match in the professional era Posted 2 days, 18 hours ago It is clear from Lions tours that the difference between a well-drilled international XV and a squad thrown together with little preparation is too great to bridge according to Richard Williams in the Guardian. "If you lose seven matches in a row in three different countries over a span of eight years, someone is going to start suggesting that there is something inherently unbalanced about the make-up of the contest in which you are engaged. Pretty soon, perhaps, the question will be asked of the British and Irish Lions' tours to the southern hemisphere that was posed in similar circumstances of the Ryder Cup and the Wightman Cup when it became obvious that the odds were hugely and – in the absence of corrective action – probably permanently weighted in favour of one side.
June 29, 2009 Posted 3 days, 14 hours ago Brian Moore has a serious bone to pick with New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence following the Lions' second Test defeat to South Africa in The Daily Telegraph. "Sometimes this approach is laudable, but on this occasion it was not and rugby is done no favours by cowing any criticism of matters that are of the gravest concern. “It’s a man’s game”; “If you can’t stand the heat”; blah, blah, blah; bring down as many of these pathetic validations as you like, but sensible people need not resort to cliché when faced with irrefutable evidence of nefariousness. To the victor go the spoils, but not the right to rewrite matters as wanted. In Test rugby, the least wanted aspects of professionalism are appearing – spin, refusal to answer or pose direct questions and sophistry. Rugby needs none of these but is slowly being enveloped.
Posted 3 days, 18 hours ago David Hands engages that frustrating sporting cliche by asking, "what if?" following the Lions' second Test loss in The Times. "Rob Kearney slumped against a goalpost. Luke Fitzgerald lay prone on his back, looking up at the blue, highveld sky. The thoughts of Ronan O’Gara, never mind the lacerated left eye that left him unable to see from it later, do not bear imagination.
June 28, 2009 Posted 4 days, 18 hours ago Peter Bills vents his frustration at the Lions' defeat in Pretoria in The Independent. "For most of the game, the Springboks were second best. One of the shoddiest first-half performances by any world champion side handed the Lions a life raft. For almost an hour, they seemed good enough to use it. From the first minute, when the South Africa flanker Schalk Burger attacked the eyes of the Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald, the skids were under the Springboks. Their rugby during the first 40 minutes was a joke.
Posted 4 days, 18 hours ago Eddie Butler laments the two moments of madness that decided the second Test between the Lions and South Africa in his blog forThe Guardian. "It could hardly have been a better game of rugby. It could scarcely have been worse. A match of the highest intensity and tightest drama was turned by injury and decided by a split-second of recklessness by Ronan O'Gara.
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