Lions v Sharks

What to say?

The Sharks were gutted, half their team was missing, and it was pretty much have one, skip one, have one, skip one through the side so their combinations were off. Despite that, for the first half, the Sharks tackled their guts out and whilst they never looked good for the win, they looked promising to keep the scores down.

However, the tackling started slip with fatigue, the Lions managed to get some fast ball from the breakdown, and started to score. The 39-3 final result might be thought to be flattering, but given the amount of pressure the Lions exerted it was probably a reasonably fair reflection of the game.

Also of interest was the refereeing of the scrum. It was noticeable in the first half that Kaplan pinged Jenkins every time. In the second half, once he moved around and looked at what was going on, he pinged the Sharks every time instead. I think there was a perception amongst referees that the Lions were cheating, and Kaplan's actions have, hopefully, changed that - he came to realise that the Lions weren't cheating and that will spread through the other officials I think.

Of concern - the breakdown still. The Lions should be praying that Martyn Williams is fit and can get a run on Saturday and see if he can do a better job. I'm not sure if he will, but it will be hard for him to do a worse job.

See next post for a Lions starting group.