The highs and lows of scratch rugby teams

The Lions, after a couple of weeks together, played an invitational Royal XV. The top players from Britain and Ireland played a side in which only two of them had any Super-14 experience, and that for "bad" Super-14 sides like the Cheetahs who are always in the bottom two or three places.

The Lions, eventually, won. They didn't really deserve to though. There were a lot of new combinations on the pitch, and you would have to say that they didn't work. None of them. The front row creaked, the second row folded, the back row struggled on the back of that. 9, 10, 12 didn't work too well - I know I'm down on ROG, but I'm blaming him again. Both scrum halves expected him to be further forwards than he was. This left him reaching for the ball and kicking and passing off-balance. You can argue that a 9 should be passing to the 10, but in the heat of the moment they pass to where they expect him to be (The Baa-baas v England had a couple of great shots of this, and Marshall to Jackson it worked like a dream) and my gut feeling is the passes were OK, but O'Gara runs slightly slower in a match situation than training, hence the passes looking bad.

Because ROG was scrappy, Roberts got a lot of dump-off ball. He coped admirably, and had a pretty good game, but because it was dump-ball he struggled to be really creative with it.

Earls had a shocker. I feel sorry for him, the youngest player, started nervously and got worse, not better. Some of the blame for that must go to POC too, who ignored him early and let it get worse.

The back three had a pretty good game. There were odd mistakes in there, including a howler from Shane Williams, but everyone makes mistakes every now and again, and that's probably it for a big one from Shane for the tour. They were really the only players that shone, plus Roberts. I'm not sure what the coaches learnt, but what I learnt is that the Lions have to really pull their socks up quickly, or they're stuffed come Test time.

In contrast two not-scratch sides faced in the Super-14 final. The Bulls crushed the Chiefs. Some of that was the exhaustion factor; the Chiefs played two tough matches, then flew from New Zealand to Pretoria, and played the Bulls. The Lions won't have that. But the Bulls, before the last 20 minutes and racking up the score, were still clearly in the lead. They stopped, almost completely, the most efficient attacking unit in Super 14 rugby. They scored comfortably, and were dominant all round the pitch. The Bulls, with a leavening of Sharks, Stormers, and maybe the odd Lion and Cheetah, will make up the Boks, and they will play a LOT better than the Royal XV.

And then the Baa-baas v England. A really scratch team - they only met last week - ran England ragged for 60 minutes. Their lines were sublime, their experience showed, and it didn't show that they were a scratch team. England, who admittedly were also somewhat fresh-faced in many positions, didn't have a clue, until changes to players and fatigue meant that the lack of established partnerships and patterns meant the defence of the Baa-baas creaked, groaned and cracked and England clawed their way back to make it close. Justice was, however, served as the Baa-baa loose forwards pulled off another big tackle, another turn over, and ran the ball into touch to end the game.

The Baa-baas were a more experienced group than the Lions, but there were fewer experienced partnerships on the pitch, which ought to make a difference. But they played sublime attacking rugby, and good defensive patterns and really deserved to win by more. This match, and hopefully next week's against Australia, are wonderful examples of why the Baa-baa matches remain popular. Attractive running rugby, high skills, good spirit and the names of last year, or the year before, showing the young pups they've still got it. Glorious - and beating England even better of course!