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Originally posted by caladanbrood:
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Originally posted by The Nameless Ascendent:
Saw the game this morning: 21 - 3 to the ABs!
Dominant display and result by NZ. Shame O'Driscoll got injured though. However I doubt it would have changed the end result.
Now, that clean sweep looks promising.......
Sure. But if you win it be such disgustingly dangerous tackles in every match, I hope you lot are ashamed of yourselves. O'Driscoll could well have had worse than a dislocated shoulder.
I've seen glimpses of the tackle incident on tv. But from what I know of the players involved, neither have a history of "dirty play", especially Umaga. I recall he once even stoped to check on Collin Charvis after he was seriously injured during a game.
From what I could see and determine, I think it was intended to be a hard tackle as Umaga had grabbed Brian's legs, and Mealamu joined in to lift him. Then Brian is lofted into the air and he falls awkwardly. But not "driven" like a spear as alleged.
I serioulsy doubt either player had the intention of injuring Brian, but rather I think it was a tackle that went wrong and was very unfortunate.
Woodward has already submitted all his analysis, replays etc to the independant citing commissioner for the match (from South Africa) and this has been found to be inconclusive. And unfortunately this decision won't clear the players in the eyes of some people.
That's my take on what I have seen (which is admittedly not much) as most of us don't have the luxury of watching the replay or freeze frame analysis of the incident.
As for Umaga, why he hasn't stopped by to check up on Brian after his shoulder was reset, I don't know. Brian is hugely respected in NZ as a world class player and as a captain, he would have deserved a visit from his counter-part (one would think!). He has every right to be pi$$ed off with the way things have turned out.
But I hope this doesn't sour relations between the teams, and the largely positive spirit that the tour and british tourists have experienced in NZ.
And of course, I still firmly believe that the ABs were the superior team in virtually all facets of the game on Saturday. The Lions were simply not competitive enough, and hardly even threaten the try line letalone the 22.
So if every Lions player who was selected for the game been playing, the end result would not have been different. Possession, territory and linesout were in NZs favour, they created and took their opportunities too. The lions never looked like being in a position to win much less stay in contention during the match.
Of course, you may have a different point of view on all this.
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