Grand, by my reckoning he has another 5/8 to go, Hendo has done enough on tour to show he should be our senior lock now.

About half way through the Ireland match now.
Leavy is superb.

Zebo seems lazy out there.

I hope Hendo has given Gatland some food for thought. 5 carries for 20m Is the impact we need in tight exchanges. I suspect he will still go with AWJ but as long as Kruis and Itoje start. Who partners Hendo on Tuesday will be interesting

Would love to see Hendo on the test bench, he is a huge impact at this level

Is it ok to say that I luv Keet?

We know what you're doing. We have spies everywhere

Chiefs team is out. He starts. Dirt tracker, unfortunately

Seems that way,probably AWJ on the bench for the tests, which is the wrong call as I think he starts or doesn't make the squad, personally I'd have Kruis and Itoje starting with Hendo getting 20 mins to empty himself.

You're forgetting that AWJ is Welsh. He is most likely starting.

He's also a top class second row.

Secondrow stocks are ludicrous really. I still think Hendy could feature in the tests if he performs Tuesday, admittedly not the first.

Likewise I wouldn't rule Best out featuring in the 2nd or 3rd tests either.

When the Lions get pumped in the first test they'll make changes for the second.

Yeah.

They'll fly in the Valley Boys In Christchurch Stag Group en masse and cap anyone with a BMI less than 30.

I can see the Lions being very competitive on Saturday.

Doomed so.

I'd say they'd be lucky to finish within two scores, reasonably competitive in the first test, them absolutely smashed in the second.

We'll be fine as long as we get a ref who rains a lot. Otherwise...

I don't see Gatland giving either the nod over incumbent Welsh lads. He's got a habit of favouring his lads in an even call.

Funnily enough, I sort of can too. The Saturday team has been very good the last two weeks, and if they could finish even one or two of the half breaks we'd be saying they've been genuinely excellent. The pack will go toe to toe with NZ. It's about whether they can cut out the mistakes that NZ tend to score from and can defend against their backs.

Only if an actual game of tuddly wunks breaks out

That'll they'll be, really need a blood and guts type performance and drag the Kiwis into a slog, still won't be enough unless we get every bounce of the ball and the Kiwis are a bit off.

Ah yeah, my tongue was in my cheek writing that. He's far from a bad call

Just watched Conway's yellow card. Perfectly legal tackle, ridiculous call. Contrast with the whining after TKB was lucky to only get yellow for the MABs.

I duno. This all blacks side will never have faced a pack anywhere near as good as this lions pack. The lions backs need to finish off their chances.

It was a team yellow following a series of penalties in our own 22. I've no issues with it at all

It wasn't even a penalty.

Right . Well unfortunately the ref and TMO agreed that it was so I can understand why they gave a yellow given the previous penalties we'd conceded . It really isn't that controversial

It's not a controversial yellow if it was an offence. I believe the officials were dying to give us a yellow by that stage and stretched the interpretation of the new laws to their limit to create an offence so that a yellow could be issued.

Watching it now. Looked very harsh indeed. Turncoat JP Doyle basically made the decision for the ref.

That actually sounds a little paranoid tbf. If it was a legal tackle it wasn't by much and the way we were defending we probably deserved a yellow . As I said , it's not controversial so move on . No wonder everyone thinks we're a bunch of moaners

And everyone thinks you're a contrarian prick.

Not being paranoid. We were presenting a poor picture at the time to the ref, we were always going to get the wrong side of a marginal call.

Yeah , agreed on that .

Classy as your 20 year old trenchcoat Hellraiser, keep it up 👍

Erasmus gone (according to the Indo)

Nienabar to take over? Pretty bad news for munster

Nothing at all about it on their website.

Mako laying into Furlong.

https://twitter.com/hairyrucker1/status ... 1176666113

That's pretty bad form if true given his statement at the end of the season.

This might help.

Majestic