Last minute penalty wins epic contest, and series, for the Springboks at Loftus

Kearney for President!! You heard it here first

ok so burger should get 8 weeks..i DONT Think he will tho.its just that they spoke so much about POC before the tour..


"Alain, 2 things, stop having a go at Paulie, he didn't play well by his own magnificent standards, and he definately didn't boss Matfield, but Matfield didn't boss him either, and all in all it could have been worse for POC, he leaves with his reputation as intact as it can be after captaining a losing Lions tour."

ok i agree.as for peter de villiers comments .they are a joke..he is a twat.ull notice he always says stupid things.
tanora your comments are way off mate. as for sheriden and bakkies.i love it :)..makes me smile.push each other with a smile and wink

That's pretty much settled the NH v SH debate, when a full strength side that's been together for 6 years can only just about beat a rag tag team thrown together in a few weeks, NH wins.

Just imaginge if we didn't give the world a chance by splitting our country into 4 for you, we have to keep it entertaining and let the SH think they're good at something.

Just wanna make 3 points

1) Agree with all the negativity for Ronan O'Gara. The dude has made maybe 3 tackles in 5 years, and is easily the most often handed off player in the world. He gets bumped off 3,4,5 times a game.

2)Rob Kearney best player in the world. Er.. ok.. absolutely ridiculous. Fans rave about his performance today, er compare that with Carter vs Lions 4 years ago that was a world's best player performance. Kearney is nowhere near the top tier of players.

3) The only reason why the north fails so hard is that they refuse to realise their rugby distinctly 2nd rate. Please find more excuses, reasons and theorycraft more. The "pride" of the home nations has lost 7 straight games, and have lost to NZ maori and fail to beat a South African B side and an Argentinian side missing most of its stars 4 years ago. And as usual another barren weekend for the north, which has been the same story since England's supremacy in 2003.

Any Rugby fan, any Bok fan knows, the real challenge is in a few weeks at tri nations. If they play the way they played the Lions they will get slaughtered. The only reason this lions tour is a big deal is that it comes once every 12 yrs.

lol @ richard

The Tri nations is a joke, for years SANZAR has dreamed of a competition like the 6N, I've lost count how many times they have to play each other in the 3N now just to turn it into a bit of a competition.

And if you watched both of the Lions games, neither were a drubbing. This from a team that's only spent a few weeks together against a settled side that have played alongside each other for years.

You've been spending too much time inside your mud hut, get some fresh air.

I got to say to everyone giving O'Gara stick....:

My initial reaction was "ok which tool gave the game away" then reading it was ROG i thought "wow, out of character" then watching i really think it is harsh to say he gave the game away, at the end of the day i suppose he did as it was his fault the penalty came about, but really, if you watch he wasnt looking where he was going he was watching the ball and Du Preez effectively jumped over ROG shoulder........

hate to sound like a sore loser but really that was a harsh penalty (i dont know what the rules are regarding this) i dont know whether its a penalty regardless of the intent but from what i see there is no intent....


BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT all that said and done, it always looked uphill against the boks, and i thought that was a monster kick at the end, with distance to spare!!!

anyways! well done to the boks!!

I think you underestimate the huge task it is to put together a team form four countries and play the best team int ehworld.

how many times has a world 15 taken the field and won - not many.

Just enjoy your win and stop acting like little children with "XXXX is the best" etc...

SA are the best side in the world for a good reason and they showed it today.

It's not about S14 or Euro Cup being better etc... this is test rugby, it's a different animal all together.

And that's why the lions were able to be competitive, because it was about taking test players and doing something special. Regardless of the series this tour is a far greater success then the 2005 NZ tour, and possibly even 2001.

Yeah they lost, but it's the most unique thing in world rugby have some respect for it and our sports traditions, and how special this type of thing is in this day and age.

playing for and against the lions makes you legends, it's something that will live forever with these players, results don't diminish that in anyway.

Sorry just to add after my little gripe again, that i thought throughout the test the SA looked stronger and more convincing! so in no way am i feeling like a sore loser, had the springboks put on 500 points on the lions id have still picked out the penalty against ROG and questioned it.....personally if anyone could clarify the taken out in the air with no intent bit id be greatful!

Thats whats really annoying me at the moment, the catch in the air, as soon as one of them gets touch its an instant penalty. Shouldnt have been given, he didnt have to jump to take it. so it shouldnt have been a penalty, its exactly the same as the Cueto incident VS Samoa.

To Richard, if Kearney is not in the top tier of players, can you tell me the names of the many fullbacks that are better than him? I'm not saying he's the best rugby player in the world, but he's the best fullback. They were saying the same thing after last year's summer tour, so it's by no means a once off performance.

"Hey, lets play a game..how many NH teams won this weekend....hmmmmm...thought so!!! Well done BOKS"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA........twat.

cos lets play a game, lets see how well NZ fair in the finals in the last few world cups or shit like that, at the end of the day you think some other SH team is gonna kiss your ass because you're a SH team, at the end of the day a win is a win or a lose is a lose, it matters not who its against, and especially when there is a huge difference between each country in the SH.......

XD I can't believe all these people; thinking that they SH is so dominant after this.

The Boks won because of ONE individuals poor performance. The Boks won after the Lions had to completely reshuffle their backline and their pack.

The way the Lions played was outstanding. Even when they were completely screwed over by the poor choice of subs, the only reason they lost was because of O'Gara's performance.

For the second test in a row, they Boks won by the skin of their teeth, and it is ridiculous to think that the Boks are almighty and that SH rugby is all that far ahead.

The Lions would of had even the Aussies or the Kiwis on their knees with the way they played.

Regardless, the Boks did win. But I doubt we will hear the cheers from the Bok fans come the Tri-Nations.

those south african tries were beauties but the lions should have put them to the sword earlier on, i am guessing a comprehensive victory for the lions next week

I just wanted to note Jacque Fourie's bounce of world player of the year Shane Williams as he went in for his try.

I think that highlights his defensive frailties quite nicely.

oh, and does anybody have a link to footage of the Bakkies Botha / Adam Jones incident?

Just imaginge if we didn't give the world a chance by splitting our country into 4 for you, we have to keep it entertaining and let the SH think they're good at something.
SA, NZ and Australia will always be bitter towards GB, no matter what we did for them and helped them out, even when we split our country into 4 to give them a chance at sport. They'll always hate us, it's the price we pay for being richer than them.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What the fuck lads? That's not on and it makes no sense.!

Kearney for tests, without question Hernandez,when playing there, and Mils Muliaina are better than Kearney. And I could guess you could make decent arguements for Delon Armitage and maybe Maxime Medard. I'm Irish by the way, trying to be objective. So maybe not Armitage. Rob Kearney is definately in the top 5 :)

Amazingly, Kearney has to fight to get to play at Full Back for Leinster: he's usually shifted over to the wing!

He was outstanding in NZ and AUS on tour with Ireland in 08. Then - guess what - put out onto the wing again! For his _club_.

Remember he had the mumps near the end of the H Cup, and was sick at the start of the Lions campaign - so he's only back in full flight now - and flight it is.

While I don't usually get into the NH SH ting I think the last few matches have shown that if there is a gap, and there probably is, its small.

NZ vs FR? 1-1 and v tight games.

Everyone in the NH beats Italy anyway. All the time.

Emerging Bok vs 2nd Lions: Draw

Lions vs Bok - BOK won the series, yep no question. However, obviously v tight, and ref decided 2nd match sadly. (Yes, he did - no red card at the start to make a match of it like an old romantic, then harsh call at the end to destroy the series like the cold hearted killer. Not even consistent in his erroring!)

Overall, Don't think the NH SH gap is _significant_ anymore: France, Wales and Ireland are prob at or close to level of the SH at this stage:
e.g. Ireland have ferris, heaslip, jennings, Leamy, Quinlan, Wallace, Best to choose from in the Backrow.

(and are the coaches a bit naff int he SH, or is it just PDV?)

Clubs are at same level essentially.

They needed more Scots!!

BoomShaka....yeah apart from Fourie bounced ROG....not Williams.

Haven't seen a replay of BOD's tackle from the opposite side, if he didn't use his left arm then he should've been penalised/ carded or even cited. I mean the guy was only on and had to be taken off. Still though, incredible stuff, great win Boks, well done, but it would've been nice to go into next week with it tied.

All O'Gara has achieved in the game (GS, 2HCs, ML, top 5 alltime points) and this moment will always stick out, hard luck. I thought moving Philips to centre and bringing on Ellis was better option just like v Golden Lions.

Fourie's try was perfectly legit. If there was no reason(ie, evidence) not to award the try then it stands. A previous forum tried to claim BOD was a class apart from Fourie and that try proved how great he is. He had no right to keep his feet in field. Its a joke that Jacobs (an alright player) starts ahead of him, I suppose he has had 18 months of on/off injuries.

RE: Kearney, last year v AB in Wellington, AB coaches told Carter and AB backs to stop kicking it towards him because he was destroying them with his return kicks. He has scored a couple of long range DGs but his attempt today was pretty poor.

SA look very good for 3N, but McCaw will be back and NZ will be different class with him leading.

PS loved Habana's hit on Bowe, the timing was pitch perfect and both He and Bowe just carried on even though there was a hint of a head clash. Memorable game.

TOP 5 CURRENT FULL BACKS

1 Muliaina no question
2 Kearney - best defensive FB
3 Mitchell/ Ashley Cooper - Mitchell ends up on the wing for Auz but is a class act
4 Byrne - not had a great year
5 Hernandez/ Medard/ That SA guy who broke his leg (Janties I think)

Honourable mention, James O Connor, that kid is going to be bigger that Giteau.

Lads face it we lost in the end.
Yes we out played them but only for 60 minutes . The Lions just started to run out of steam . I think one of the reasons for this was the altitude. People have seem to forgotten about it. They busted there guts and just simply had no oxygen.

Injuries didn't help either. When the scrums went uncontested the Lions lost a weapon but you can't say they would have scored from it.Maybe Habana wouldn't have scored if they were contested but we can't say that.

O Driscoll and Roberts didn't fire aswel as they did last week IMO but they were still vital and they didn't have the right replacements in O Gara and Bowe.

Yes Burger should have got a red card but he didn't so we just had to deal with it. Im happy he is cited though. I didn't see what Botha did to Jones but glad he is cited for it.

I feel bad for O Gara he had to play in the centre which is suicidal for him.As soon as he came on he was hit hard and he seemed groggy and had to run across half concious to try and cover Fourie. I have no idea why he put uin the up and under but for the penalty conceeded well it was a penalty but he didn't go for the man but he couldn't stop with his momentum.

Fair dues to South Africa coming back i didn't think they could come back but they proved me wrong. IMO it all came from injuries and altitude.

And i just need to say well done to Shaw . I was shocked when he was picked for the tour but he showed me why today when he was in Bothas and Matfields faces.

It will be hard for the lions to win the last test especially with the injuries. LIONS LIONS LIONS. But if they play for pride and with heart they can do it.

SA are the best side in the world for a good reason and they showed it today.
Goodnumber10, your a goodsportsman!!
BOKKE!!!

all credit to all the players for a great match. even though we lost it was still enjoyable and you have to congratulate the boks. a pity the game was spoilt somewhat by the injuries at the end. and a pity o'gara happened to be in the squad at all hes useless. missed a tackle for the Safa's try near the end, then lost us the match with a split second of stupidity. but im not gonna be a sore loser all through this comment :P
Kearney had a stormer, Francois Steyn was class for both matches a pleasure to watch, good to see habana get up and running he is amazing and as per usual Jamie Roberts a player i cant take my eyes off!

I stand corrected. Fourie bounced O'Gara. Thanks Anon.

Ok for my comment forget who won or lost ok.....or infact embrace it, i dont really care! can we all focus on what a tool Peter De Villiers is?!? (see below)

"I don't believe it was a card at all," De Villiers said after the game, a comment greeted with bewilderment by the media.


"In the first minute already there had been a lot of needle and if you watch the whole game you will see how many yellow cards they (the Lions) were let off.


"This is sport, this is what it's about," De Villiers added.


i mean WTF (see above) this guy is such a prat, i mean we all have to defend our guys, but really? is he serious?!?

i mean lets say im English, vickery tripped up whats he called in one world cup game.....no coach is going to stand up and say "yeaah well, things happen, this is what its about"

NO ITS FUCKING NOT thats what rules are there for!!! and then lets see the cards the lions deserved and lets see them cited, lets string them up too, at least there is consistency!



PDV=PRICK


ok seriously any saffa supporters actually agree with him? or think schalk was not guilty? reallly?!?

If the Lion's hadn't lost 4/6 of the players who were playing the best, the result would have been different, simple.
But seriously, what in the hell was O'gara thinking?!?!?

Very good game this was the B&L game to be fair ( From a Saffer ) and i agree burger should get a long Ban but i think Botha's wasnt or shouldnt be. And no their where only 1 saffer that played dirty and you know who it is not all saffers are dirty so please dont say all was only 1.

GG!

And btw we dont really like DIV and we dont want him as our coach! he is a moron.

Mike Phillips blamed dodgy refereeing and the lack of stronger action against Schalk Burger for their defeat at Loftus.
When asked about the incident where Burger had clearly eye gouged Luke Fitzgerald, earning him a yellow card, the scrumhalf was in no mood to be diplomatic.

It was a clear red card. It was simple, he told keo.co.za. They should have played with 14 men for 79 minutes, and that would have given us a massive advantage.

I couldnt believe it. There was some dodgy refereeing throughout the Test, but that was the worst of it. You cant do things like that, and it [Burger not being red carded] cost us the game.

Watching from the stands it appeared that the Springboks were typically physical. However, Phillips said in the dark recesses of the scrums and rucks they overstepped the mark, and employed overly aggressive, illegal tactics.

It was horrible, disgusting really, he said. There were a number of punches thrown off the ball and other things that went on that were illegal.

I understand that Test rugby is a tough environment, but you have to stay within the rules. You work your socks off as a professional to win Test matches like these, and when things like what they did today go unpunished it just pisses you off.

The refs are paid to do a job, and you leave it in their hands. But what happened today was not sport. We were by far the better team, but we were robbed of victory.

Lions eighthman Jamie Heaslip was equally frank when asked about his thoughts on the Burger incident.

Im sure hell be banned, but I really dont give a shit about that now. Im just gutted to have lost a Test series with the Lions, he said. Theyve got their gameplan and weve got ours, and if they want to do dirty shit thats their prerogative.

Heaslip was slumped against the wall for the duration of the interview, clearly disengaged from the discussion and wanting to do nothing more than wallow in self pity.

Im sure well get over it eventually, but right now Im gutted. I cant put into words what this feels like, he said.

I didnt ever have any doubt in my mind that we would win.

btw how the f@#k r the lions going to get themselves up for the third test!

I'm a Lions supporter and Irish at that! But all this talk about Burger and the eye gauging...

Brian O driscoll's ILLEGAL tackle was a yellow, Whoever PUNCHED Habana in the face after his try should have got a yellow as well as whatever Lions player threw another Bokka try scorer against the stands after he scored.

The sickness was on both sides.

ok there is no need to state the obvious anymore folsk... I am a saffer and I am EMBARRASSED to have peter de villiers as head coach, he cant string an english sentance together and is quite honestly a terrible coach.

And to the B&I fans.. stop being so bitter... the boks showed enough charcter today to come back from 19-5 down and wrap the game up.. unlike you who failed to do so last week. and to be fair, Pienaar managed to miss 8 points at goal so really, the boks deserved the win.

well done to the lions though for pulling off such an exciting tour.

Unfortunately I missed the game today... A mother's day promise, forgive me rugby brethren and come to my aid if you will...

Does anyone know where I can download the game?

It will not come on in Canada until Monday

canadian content - fair play to you!
Now that's a calming influence.

phew! Hot stuff here right now.

that next test could be a 99 call type of match, judging by how the comments here and it seems, far more impoertantly, by the players are going.

What would happen if the Lions win the next match by a cricket score in a bloodbath?

Re Habana: Players _always_ go in on the try scorer and give him a bit of a going over. Its been like that for years. Knee in the kidneys seems to be the most common. Ref never seems to pull it up. I think that Heaslip pulled back from the punch in reality - it wasn't a south sea island straight arm anyway.
That's how it looked to me.

Can someone answer these:

1: was that foot in touch for the try? I mean, it was, so how was the call not given?

2: What about the SA constantly popped up back row for the uncontested scrums? Is that legal? Lions all stayed down, thereby loosing any advantage vision would give.

and finally, am I insane to ask for a few of the hits here on RD? The BOD hit on the SA #19 would be 'nice'.

Dirty game from both sides, and to be honest- the BL countries together with the Springboks on 1 pitch and you have most of the rugby world's bad tempers in 1 place.

Before the tests everyone was saying "the springboks aren't match fit blah blah", "John Smit is no real prop blah blah" etc. Now it's all about the excuses and reasons why you lost? When you had so much going for you?

PDV is a twat, the vast majority of Springbok supporters will be able to tell you that he is the greatest handicap in the team! Look at his disastrous replacements in the first test, and the lack of vision for playing in-form players just so that he can have his dream-team on. Politics is a cancer at the heart of SARugby at the moment, and if SARFU attempts to reprimand or "advise" PDV in his course of action, he will simply play the race-card.. A teams discipline is defined by it's coach, Jake White's Springbok's won the world cup through discipline and cooling of the self-destructive tempers- PDV is squeezing every bit of rage out of the boks, having them react to every niggle which comes their way- that isn't on ffs!

I think the Lions were a bit hard-done today, but they had a 3-score lead at half time and blew it. Both sides played dirty- Burger should probably have been given red, but when he received his yellow and the BIL went 10-0 up, the critics were silent? O'Driscool's "tackle" was a definite yellow (even if Burger's should have been red) and nothing happened to whoever punched Habana's nuts, or who shoved Peterson into the advertising boards after he scored.

RoG cannot be blamed alone- the coaches had the wrong replacements on the bench, and to be totally honest- after Pierre Spies had steamrolled O'Gara he only remained on the field cos there was nobody to replace him either!

The coaches of both sides screwed the teams today, thank God the players didn't disappoint on entertainment though.

In the words of George Gregan "4 more years boys, 4 more years"

Thanks B&I Lions for a memorable Test Series, and good luck for the 3rd test!

Wow, the whine has reached a particularly high decibel level this morning.
The Boks were more physical. They are very hard to beat at home, no matter how well you play, they always seem to pull something out of their arse.
They tend to opverstep the line between tough and cheating, they always have been that way.
Burger is a disgrace, he almost cost them the game, Brussow should have started anyway.
And of course PDV is an idiot, everyone knows that. The Saffers probably hate him more than anyone.
In the end,. OGara came on and gave away the game.
Deal with it. Lions loser, Saffers win, SH is clearly a cut above.

"1: was that foot in touch for the try? I mean, it was, so how was the call not given?

2: What about the SA constantly popped up back row for the uncontested scrums? Is that legal? Lions all stayed down, thereby loosing any advantage vision would give.

1: No it was not, it was Brussow's foot that went into touch, and he didn't have the ball. Fourie's legs were being held in the air by the covering defender, he did brilliantly to stay in play. Clearly a try, magnificent effort to not go out.

2 : pfffft, grasping at straws a little. It's uncontested, it doesn't really matter, it'd be an incredibly pedantic ref to pull that up.

Seriously the whining should stop now, you lot need to learn how to lose with dignity.
You've had enough practice at it, after all.

Botha's is perfectly legal, he was just cleearing the ruck, Jones'arm was in an unfortunate position. It's a shame, but nothing ilegal about it.
Burger is a disgrace, he should be banned for about three months. The irony is that it will actually improve the Boks team for the third test and the tri-nations, because Burger's keeping brussow out of the team, and brussow's in devestating form.
Anyway, now the preliminaries are out of the way, we can focus on the real stuff, the 3-nations. South Africa are gonna have to lift their game too, and I'd say they know it.
If they play like they did against the Lions they won't win the 3-nations.

All this talk about us whingeing over the loss, I'd just like to say, that if SA simply outplayed the Lions then I certainly wouldn't be whingeing. But the fact that Burger wasn't sent off and jailed was shocking, and I think we have every right to feel agrieved.

O GARA DRINKS FOR FREE IN SA FOR LIFE

June 27 is O Gara day in SA from now on. lol

look ronan ogara is a piece of crap it was his fault the lions lost the game first of all he let SA score in the corner and then he does that shit up and under and tackles the player in the air :( what was he thinking ........idiot
As for Burger he should havehad a red card. the only four players who perfformed for the liuons that game was rob kearney, mike philips, steven jones and jaime roberts(who has shined through out this tour) and paul o connel captain wrong desision in my opinion through out this tour all i have seen him do is waddle around the pitch not making yards or tackling. Some captain
But fair play to SA they did have a good come back . but mainly because some B&I let us down by mising a tackle when it neaded to be made and doing a stupid and pointless kick and then tackling him in the air giving SA the penalty that one the game:( thanks a lot ronan o gara
o well theres always next time .....

i h8 o'gara LEARN TO TACKLE

french view: maybe it was the most entertaining game i've seen since the NZ-France semi final in 1999?
The BIL is a good institution, please keep it. The Saff are tough men,.
And please no more SH is better than NH things, it is stinky, mentaly feeble, and absolutely a joke.

Keep clutching at those straws boys. It's not going to win you the series, but it will make you sound like sore losers.

All this talk of dirty play, but I think BOD was way out of line early on, and was lucky Victor didnt tear him a new one.

Schalk was totally out of line, but the Botha incident is nothing. Perfectly legal, yet unfortunate.

It is funny how all these Lions fans are totally condemning Burgers apparent eyegouge, calling SA dirty c*nts etc, when it was one of their own, Alan Quinlan, who couldnt even make it on the plane because he did the same thing, if not worse. Keep that in mind moaners.

I have a grudge personally, and that is that the stadium looked more like Cardiff than Pretoria. The administrators etc need to catch a wake up. Where's the advantage in playing at home when you make it impossible for locals to afford tickets, and have half of bloody Britain & Ireland there?? Sad, and a messup.

Well done B&I Lions for a great series though.. made it tighter than we had expected.

Its easy to blame o gara ...
and it should be, stupid vision and just him in general gave the boks a shot to win and for fouries try o gara got completly sat down.

Anonymous said.. The Boks are world champs and there is a reason why!

Yes, they beat Fiji, Argentina and England, soon after that they came last in a 3 team comp. Good win in the first Lions test but lucky to take out the second, credit for their tenacity though. But despite the ABs poor form the TriNations will test the Boks again and I'm picking Aust to test everyone. I'm not Aust.

So...who hates O'Gara?

what he did was totally pointless, all he had to do was hoof it down field in the first place!
Bet Geech wishes he put Hook on the bench instead of him, would of been alot more useful.
Credit where its due the boks came back very well, the loss of both props and centres really hurt us though, and we lost some intensity in the second half, probably because of that.
i thought JP Pietersen played brilliantly, second only to Simon Shaw.

God i hate O'Gara...

P.S i loved that you actually hear Bread of Heaven from the Welsh boys, and at loftus as well, cracking support. =)

"So, he who jumps for a high ball will guarantee either possession or a penalty? Eh?"

What are you even asking?
Yes, if a player goes up in the air, catches the ball cleanly and lands with it, he is in possesion.
No it does not garuntee posession, because if another player comes along and legally competes for the ball in the air with the guy trying to catch it and is good enough to take the ball, than he gets posession. Also if a guy takes the catch, but is then tackled when he lands and loses the ball in the ruck, then again, it's all legal but he's lost posession.
So of course it doesn't garuntee posession.
The rule is there so that players don't get taken out in the air, because they might land on their heads or necks. You, know, they might get maimed or die. That's why it's there, same reason spear tackles and head highs are ilegal.
I mean seriously, do you know anything about rugby? Jesus christ.

Lions plus ferris and flannery would have won one test at least burger is filthy and shouldnt have been starting anyway broussouw is better Kearney is infinitly better than byrne he cried off wen wales needed him(vs ireland) and when lions needed him.

to David!

O'Gara is a donkey !! shouldnt of got played at all...shouldnt even of been picked for the tour!!

all he did in the last 6N was kick the drop goal against Wales!!!

if he is not dropped for the Autumn internationals then were fucked!!!

put Johnny sexton in there!!

young but offers way more than O'Gara

'It is funny how all these Lions fans are totally condemning Burgers apparent eyegouge, calling SA dirty c*nts etc, when it was one of their own, Alan Quinlan, who couldnt even make it on the plane because he did the same thing, if not worse. Keep that in mind moaners.'

quinlans wasnt seen by match officials. was on cameras though and he got a couple months. if he wasnt banned youd have a point. but burgers was seen and he got 10 mins, not consistent really is it.

also will the saffers stop saying you know PDV is a dick due to his subs decisions last week. his subs decisions make him a fool. his comments this week about burger make him a dick

Truth said

"Are the Boks ever going to win a game without a bias Video-ref?"

i would answer: are Sky and british people ever going to always to hide themselves behind bias comments?"

i watch this game and i can understand lions sadness, but the best team won... That's it.
It didn't mean lions were trash, far from that. But they lack a bit of cohesion. The concept of dream team is limited.

Very bad decision from ROG to "air" tackle de preez is

from a neutral: great match. unhappy with the result though :( lions really unlucky to be 2 tests down. would have loved next sat to be the decider. feel sorry for o'gara. he was out on his feet when he got steamrolled for the try (was a try- bowe should have done better) and didn't know what hit him when following that up and under. UK press always need a villain though.

The best game I've ever seen in my whole life.

Credit where it's due the three bok tries were world class! Well done WORLD CHAMPS! (and no i'm not a bok fan myself!)

Well done SA, to come back like that in test rugby shows your class, bring on the 3N!!

What a damn good game of pure hard fought test rugby, just like the good old days!!! Pure old school, brilliant rugby!! Well done to both teams from a neutral fan, best game ive seen in a long time!

Where was the beast yesterday? Nowhere to be seen....lions were dominant throughout but the injuries hurt us to badly. The boks are the best in the world and you can't give players like habana and fourie space to run...

"quinlans wasnt seen by match officials. was on cameras though and he got a couple months. if he wasnt banned youd have a point. but burgers was seen and he got 10 mins, not consistent really is it."

Burger WILL get banned though.. so its the same thing. Both stupid acts, that deserve to be punished. I wont be calling Quinlan a dirty irish c*nt though..

The lions did well in the first half, but got well beaten in the second, so how were they dominant throughout?
Considering they scored their only try when SA was a man down, I'd say they were far from dominant throughout.
SA scored three, and won the game. Sounds like they might have been the dominant team over all.
I mean seriously, are you guys that used to losing that you think you are the better team even when you lose? That's loser talk.

First off all... ARRGGHHHH We lost!!!!!
Second of all... what a game...
Third - On yesterdays display why would you ever choose cock burger over Broussow. That boy is immense.
Fourth - For PDV to make that comment of his only spoils the SA victory, and is detremental to rugby as a whole.
Fifth - would people put there names on posts and stop hiding behind Anon.
PEACE

"quinlans wasnt seen by match officials. was on cameras though and he got a couple months. if he wasnt banned youd have a point. but burgers was seen and he got 10 mins, not consistent really is it."

It's rugby, grow up.
The touchie clearly said that he didn't really see it well, and used the words yellow card.
To be fair, I think Burger and Quinlan are dirt cheating bastards.
Brussow's more valuable to SA anyway.

you guys all sound like footballers! you blame one person for a lost game, well in all honesty its the lions fault for not putting early points on SA, and for losing the first test, i think you should take a step back and just accept it.

on the other hand all this talk of:

"I'm a Lions supporter and Irish at that! But all this talk about Burger and the eye gauging...
Brian O driscoll's ILLEGAL tackle was a yellow, Whoever PUNCHED Habana in the face after his try should have got a yellow as well as whatever Lions player threw another Bokka try scorer against the stands after he scored."

you really should look at who has been cited, i mean i am aware things get missed but in this day and age with camera's pointing everywhere very little gets missed, i mean what else did burger think he was grabbing, its a pretty distinctive feature (someone elses face/eyes) and as for the dodgy tackle on jones, maybe it didnt warrant sanction but someone thinks it does.........personally as a lions supporter i think burger has to be banned, Botha....maybe should get something seeing as he ended up dislocated jones shoulder with an illegal tackle.....and as for the lions foul play, well if someone wants to cite them then fair enough, they knew the rules and chose to break them, they should suffer the consequences.........even if that means losing BOD :( (although i might cease to watch it if BOD isnt in it!)

two things, and i am not going to get into this tribal immature horse-shit.

Burger has to be gone for at least the year. that gouge on fitz was horrendous, i know it happens, it's happened to me, and if a lions player did it i'd fell the same way, there is no place in our game for that sort of thuggery.

Secondly, i honestly do not believe that the last SA try was a try. From sky's coverage the right foot was in touch, it's not really good enough to have all this tech and it not covering the angles you actually need.

Still the refs got the whistle i suppose. fair play to the boks, played very well, Brussow (?) esp and well as the back three and Morne.

Oh and Rob Kearney, JPR Williams all over again with that try. Class.

The refereeing in dat match was an absaloute joke, to allow someone who has been clearly sighted for gouging to remain on the pitch is a disgrace, clearly a ref who didnt want to upset the home crowd....Disgraceful!

just watching everything again.

BOD's challenge is not dirty, he's offside at best, it's just a clumsy challenge going for the big hit and the impact makes his arms flail. Seriously he was chest on shoulders and his arms don't wrap because the impact of heads bounces him off.

Burger, stupid stupid thing to do - 3 months minimum.

Botha - it will be nothing.

Watching it again it is a great match, but to be fair the lions don't threaten the line that much once the Boks are back to full strength, it's ferocious stuff and the lions are defendiong a lead for about 50 minutes.

O'gara, isn't the one to blame for fouries try - lets end this discussion now.

watch the footage yes he gets bumped, but Philips and Fitzgerald both fail to stop him as well, so how can it be O'Gara fault. Fitzgerald is the worst offender he waits for the man to come to line instead of going to meet him and possibly figthing him into touch earlier. Terrible bit of defending - but then he probably couldn't see the man having no eyes and all ;)

Am i the only person who thinks Dick Muir is possibly the most important man in South African rugby? I'm pretty sure he runs the show beind the scens, he should be your national coach not PDV.

Well done again, great game, lets hope next week isn't ruined with these injuries to the Lions squad.

Jenkins -Broken cheek
Jone - Dislocated shoulder
BOD- Concussion
Roberts - Wrist
Bowe - Elbow.

btesco, Skys coverage is Supersports coverage. we all saw the same thing mate - Brussouws foot in touch, not fouries. Stuart Barnes just needs glasses (and a muzzle).

Quite simply Shalk burger shouldn't have been on the pitch, that man/thug/twat should be banned for a full season what he did was disgusting and has no place on a rugby pitch.

But....fair play Morne Steyn you won it, and I've like your play all season in the super 14!

Hopefully, Burger is being banned for quite a while. Such a jerk.
Brussow is by now better anyway.
And Jaque Fourie is class. Shame is injured so much. Great kicks by steyn in the end. All in all good game. Very unlucky for the Lions.

the biggest winner today was the game of rugby and what a game it was brilliant

ps i think burger better learn to flip burgers because thats all he will be doing during the tri nations

how balls is it for their record the lions always meet the current best team in the world. not being sarcastic, i support them but fuck SA were good. 12 and 13 are their weak link though.

also, i finally get the kearney hype. Like is a pure footballer. he has the skills you can't teach and will just get better.

i'm afraid SAmay white wash us. but i still hope the lions live on.

I do think that it is possible to comment on the various aspects of a game without being _automatically_ a sore looser.

comments are what this comment section is about, after all!

Presuming that the Lions would have won only for x y and Z could be construed as sore loosing, but not all comments re bad refs, dirty play etc presume that.

Objectively speaking some decisions might of course have changed the game - esp a red card in minute one - but the BOKs were v physically dominant towards the end - O Gard and Williams were tiny compared to the massive animals the BOKs kept bringing out!

Sometimes teams with 14 win through being extra motivated by the sense of injustice at the red anyway.

Overall thou - comments are not automoans. Chill out!

Quick one:
Cheers for the clarification re the foot in touch

Permanently popped up scrum - disagree it gave the boks an incredible advantage -fair play to them for getting away with it.

The Lions didn't deserve to win, but at the end of the day I still reckon that both Ireland and Wales would beat the Lions as well...

Don't worry folks, John Hayes will score a hat-trick next week and all will be right again in the world.

Also Monye is better than Shane Williams

Looking forward to the next test, anybody else agree that the Lions should give some other players a go? (they're probably going to have to anyway with all these injuries).
I'd like to see Hook feeding a backline including Flutey, Earls and S Williams.
The series is lost so why not throw in some players who are going to play some exciting, running rugby?

What a fucking stupid way to lose the game. Goddamnit!!!

Congratulations to the Boks for winning the match and series, congratulations to them for being a bunch of eye gougers, bullies and thugs led a a cretin of a coach with the IQ of a turd. This is a coach who cant see that idiot burger should have been sent off for gouging. Be it the Boks in 74, 97 or 09 its still the same brutal and thuggish mentality only in 2009 its a rainbow nation thuggish mentality. Well done South Africa.

Wow, bitter anyone?
The Saffers do cheat a bit, especially at home, and Burger is a disgrace, I hope he gets banned for ages. He's an idiot for letting down his team too, he almost cost them the test. Brussow will do a much better job. South Africa finally have the ball fetcher that NZ and Australia have.
Obviously PDV is an idiot, an absolute joke, but the saffers could (and did) tell you that before the test series even started.
So hows that, your guys lost to a team with an idiot for a coach? That must sting.

"So hows that, your guys lost to a team with an idiot for a coach? That must sting."

not really, we took a scratch side and lost to a team that Jake White built and Dick Muir has maintained behind the scenes for the last 2 years.

We all know PDV is just a token, he's even said as much in rugby World, but the comments he's said? well he should be disciplined for bringing the game into disrepute to be frank.

Shows how poor SA were when they get overexcited about beating a team thrown together in a few weeks.

Botha has been cited for injuring Adam Jones, after Adam Jones destroyed the beast.

So last week they won with the Beast cheating in the scrum, this week they had to act like pussies and cheat again.

Sad times when the World Champions of a sport have to cheat to beat a rag tag team with little preperation.

dont be too hard on them acting like retards, theyre a third world country they dont know any better

game changed after they cheated the superior props out of the match.

Stuart Barnes has no idea what the hell he is talking about. He just says things, just random stuff that pops into his head and then stands by it like his is the gospel truth.
He'll make a snap judgment call based on nothing and despite all evidence to the contrary, will stand by it.
Brussow's foot was clearly the foot in touch, it's not even difficult to see that, it's clear, a child could see it. The ref spent ages agonising over every angle looking for any evidence that fourie's foot had hit the line. He couldn't. You could clearly see the line and corner post, and neither was touched by Fourie before the ball went down.
Brussow clearly touched the chalk, as the ref said, but not Fourie.
And yet Barnes, despite repeated replays couldn't see it. Is he clinically demented?

Wow, all of a sudden the Lions are a scratch team of ner'do'wells, a rag tag bunch of journeymen, gathered from pubs and houses of ill-repute, cobbled together in fifteen minutes and sent to the slaughter at the hands of the cheating, conniving, ref-influencing, third-world South Africans, some of whom probably have horns and tails.
You lot are ridiculous.
At the start of the tour it was all about the mighty Lions, led by the invincible O'Connell, a team of hulking forwards and lightening backs, ready to show the South Africans what the defensive masterminds of the NH could do to soft tackling S14 nancy boys.
It's hilarious how the tune changes.
You lost, deal with it, stop moaning.

The Lions havn't won a series for 12 years, havn't won a Test match in 8 consecutive games, soon to be 9 I fear, probably facing two whitewashes in a row. Should we scrap the Lions? Or change the format? Cos while all the hype is good fun, bottom line is they can't stop losing.

dont be too hard on them acting like retards, theyre a third world country they dont know any better
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Good one, that's constructive? Fucking arse!

And stop calling them ragtag and all this 'thrown together' shit, they're supposedly the best players from 4 countries with a population of around 70million altogether I'd say. They should be able to handle it.

First you all talk the lions team up as if they're rugby gods now all of a sudden they're just a 'rag tag' team.

Another series down the drain for the british and irish losers!

South Africa head coach Peter De Villiers however insisted Burger, who was playing his 50th Test for the Springboks, did not even deserve a yellow card.

"I don't think it should have been a card at all," he said.

"For me and for everybody, this is sport. This is what it is all about. This is great if everything is clear cut in this environment we are in we shouldn't try to prepare even.

"What people think and what people say to us is their opinion and we honour their opinion but it doesn't mean we all agree with it."

Sky Sports News

LOL, ok, as far as you guys are aware im a lions supporter....and i am.... but seriously i have to agree with the bok supporters about you guys ranting about a ragtag team......really guys dont be prats! yes it was not the best team we would like to field, especially by the end of the match, but it was far from a rag tag team. i mean the players were good enough to be selected for the lions for goodness sake...

i think we can all agree it might have turned out different if burger was red carded etc, and if the rules state red card for an eye gouge then it should have been red (and bok fans if those are the rules then you can deny it) but hey, it didnt happen, and after taking the foot off the gas the boks overtook......and im sorry to say you cant blame ROG, his mistakes may have been converted into points, but its a 15 man game and perhaps the ball should have been stopped before fourie got hands on it.....etc

at the end of the day, the lions lost.....burger will be screwed over, and personally had it been anyone else, perhaps on the lions team id like to see the same punishment!! there is no room for it!!

so yes! Springboks dont get too big headed, but ofcourse enjoy your win. It was not the lions best team but it was far from a rag tag team, and anyway which country ever gets to field their best team, someone is always injured!!! so congrats boks!


P.s. the sooner you get rid of PDV the better....or maybe keep him, he might be a good coach, just tape his mouth up!

God! I hate Fitzgerald even more now

'Burger WILL get banned though.. so its the same thing.'

Its not the same thing though is it. Quinlans wasnt seen by the match officials, Burger was.

4 people need to be brought before the IRB for this one:
Burger - Banned for a long time
PDV - for claiming its sport, the coaches mentality runs through the team and if thats his then its pathetic and he needs to be made accountable.
Ref and Touch judge - For why they thought that an offence which carries one of the longest punishments in rugby only warrented a yellow.

And could someone please explain to me how the build up to habanas try was different to the crossing for the lions at the end of the first half which was a penalty and 3 points to boks? With 2 decisions there thats 10 points to SA. I know ill get 'sour grapes' and all that thrown at me and the refs work being final but consistancy is what is needed and the ability to make big calls and this ref had neither.

i know the injuries were accidental but its a real kick in the balls that the 4 who went off were the 2 who were the rock of the scrum and the 2 who were the rock of the backs. that is what won it for the boks.

And theres alot of talk about kearney but where did that performance from shaw come from? If he played like that more often hed go down as one of the greats

Fairplay to morne steyn , he was awesome and as a lions fan i was gutted to see him coming on haha! south africa won, end of. Just try not to be so cocky, i know ur the world champions and winner of the series but do you have to be so arragont, i know its not all of you, but somee spoil it! well done to both teams for a fantastic test match!

The decoy runner didn't affect the play, he didn't take out the defender. Habana went through a gap that was always there and beat four covering defenders with pace.
Stop moaning, for god's sake.
The ref has gotta be banned now hey?
That's an interesting precedent. Why don't we lock him in chains and march him through the town square so people can throw stuff at him?
Learn how to lose with dignity.
Winning in South Africa is very, very hard. Australia does it only rarely, and every game we lose something controversial happens. The Saffers often overstep the boundaries. But it's all part and parcel of playing in South Africa. That's the challenge, to rise above all that stuff and win anyway. The Lions just weren't good enough to do it.

anonymous @3.52pm - your last sentence should have you banned from this site for life if such a thing were possible, what a jerk.

'The decoy runner didn't affect the play, he didn't take out the defender. Habana went through a gap that was always there and beat four covering defenders with pace.'

as is often said, if a player isnt affecting play what is he doing there? I wasnt asking for a description of it, I was asking where is the difference between that and the lions one which was a penalty? Not much.

'The ref has gotta be banned now hey?
That's an interesting precedent.'

Its not an interesting precedent actually as its already used in football. If a referee gets big decisions wrong then they are either demoted or dont officiate big matches. If you did your job wrong youd either get a warning or at worst fired. Why is it different for a referee??

I agree with Andy K, but to the guy after 3.52, why do you hate Fitzgerald? It's not as if he gave SA ten points like someone else did.

"And yet Barnes, despite repeated replays couldn't see it. Is he clinically demented?"

you do realise barnes actually said it's a try after watching the replay. He said it's brussows foot in touch.

Dosne't show it in the highlights there but in the full match they showed it agian and again for about 3-4 minutes and by the end he was, "i think it could be a try"

"And yet Barnes, despite repeated replays couldn't see it. Is he clinically demented?"

you do realise barnes actually said it's a try after watching the replay. He said it's brussows foot in touch.

Dosne't show it in the highlights there but in the full match they showed it agian and again for about 3-4 minutes and by the end he was, "i think it could be a try"

"OL, ok, as far as you guys are aware im a lions supporter....and i am.... but seriously i have to agree with the bok supporters about you guys ranting about a ragtag team......really guys dont be prats! yes it was not the best team we would like to field, especially by the end of the match, but it was far from a rag tag team. i mean the players were good enough to be selected for the lions for goodness sake..."

yes but being selected and becoming a cohesive unit is not the same thing.

6 weeks to play 3 tests against the best team in the world is a huge task, and to be frank the lions have come out of this series far better respected then the boks.

Better respected eh?
They lost both test matches, they even got a draw against the Emerging
Boks.
Heaps to respect.

Anonymous Guy at 3.52..
1. It's no wonder South Africa is in such a mess that they totally miss the point of the Lions, the people there are so backward.

How do you know that? What is the poi t of the Lions and how do they miss it?

2.South Africa should be grateful that they show up there every 12 years to boost the economy, because the bunch of inbreds that inhabit the country are doing nothing to make any money for themselves.

Yeh you're right on this one, besides having sex with their relatives the South Africans don't really get up to much. NOT. Twat again.

And 3.At least Karma is present there, Burgers sister deserved to be raped, payback for him being such a cheating pussy.

What. The. Fuck.

You are a retard, please go away.

As a Bok fan I am happy with the series win.

I have to say that Burger is a disgrace.

Also, BOD is a tough SOB and I would like to have him in my team. Whatever the legality of his tackle on Rousseau, he kncoked out a huge man who is about 40 pounds heavier than him!

Anyone with a brain who can is leaving SA in droves. The only ones staying are the backward inbred Afrikaaners.

boomshaka - i hope as you put it karma hunts you down for that comment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! just makes me hate b&i fans even more, now i don't want the lions to ever tour here again if they are followed by ****ers like you!!!!

Burger's wikipedia profile:
"Despite these strengths, Burger does have a problem on field with accruing yellow cards and penalties frequently and a tendency to gouge the eyes of other smaller players, as he is too much of a coward to pick on players his own size, a problem common to many - if not all - 'fetcher' flankers in world rugby.[citation needed]"

To goodnumber10, i am aware that they may no be cohesive but that still does not make them a rag tag thrown together team.....at the end of the day this is what the lions tour is, its "the best of Britain and Ireland" the chosen squad trying to play together, and because the chosen XV lost some key players and had to make up the team with (hey guess what) "the best of Britain and Ireland" doesnt mean that they are thrown together.........if they arent good players they shouldnt be on tour, and if the team is ready to replace some players due to injury they should be ready to lose!

its not like the entire team was struck down and they had to call over to Britain and Ireland and say "hey do you mind sending us a few players we seem to have run out"

"Better respected eh?
They lost both test matches, they even got a draw against the Emerging
Boks.
Heaps to respect."

yes, and New Zealand have only one one test series there.

You don't seem to understand the point of taking a team of players who had never played together and turning them into a test class side.

You do realise the point of this for the lions players is the challenge of doing something so difficult don't you?

Of course they want to win, but the odds are always stacked against any combined side, regard less of where they are from, you seem to be losing site of what this series is about in your rush to gloat - which says far more about the people gloating.

It's a shame as the lions, along with the Barbarians, is one of the most respected traditions in world sport.

There is pretty much no comparison and yet people like yourself don't seem to understand what a huge feat it is to even get to a stage that is competitive.

Yeah yeah SA won, but at what cost? The comments by your coach has completely demeaned an amazing achievement in beating the lions by saying stupid things, and the comments on this board reflect that somewhat, and you're likely to lose - if not two - of your first choice players for a long time.

SA ruby's names been dragged through the mud by PDV and frankly the players in the BOK side don't deserve that. because beating the lions is a huge achievement, that they should be allowed to enjoy instead of feeling embarrassed by the actions of a few idiots.

People should enjoy the win not gloat about, it always comes back to bite your arse.

I'm going to ignore all the horrible 'hate mail' and give credit where it is due: well done boks, what a game of rugby.

"if they arent good players they shouldnt be on tour, and if the team is ready to replace some players due to injury they should be ready to lose!"

i don't think i called them rag tag or thrown together, but it is a scratch side built over 6 weeks.

It took SA 3 years to become competitive in world rugby after the sanctions were lifted - lets get some perspective as to exactly how hard a task putting together a wining lions side is.

"RD - Im putting in a FORMAL complaint about boomshakas comment, get this muppet off this site ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Er, read it again!

It's not boom shakas words, he's quoting someone else and calling them a disgrace.

unless of course you're supporting the person he called a disgrace?

I thought not

What, formal as in writing that in the comments section? Nice one mate.

Lets keep it clean boys, no need for the SA, Lions, player bashing.

Few words though:

Boks at times were completely outclassed, as last week. I really don't believe they have earn't either win. Escaped with a win both times.

BOKS 2 lions 0!!!!

Keep things clean please.

What a waste of time it is for me to have to sift through all these comments to remove the immature, lack of class sentiments from fans on both sides of the fence.

Remain respectful, or bite your tongue. Your comment will be removed if it's deemed to be not within the spirit of this website.

the lions are always the underdogs. have only won 4 series, which is why those winning teams are so fondly remembered.

this tour has improved the lions image due to the bickering of 2001 and the shambles of 2005. without those 4 injuries in this match it would be 1-1 and going to a decider next week. thats why this tour has redeemed the lions despite the loss.

many players with enhanced reputations: du preez, r pienaar (1st test), m steyn, roberts + bod, croft, shaw

thats why burger and PDV have left such a bad taste as there are so many positives from this tour

Anon, learn to read: I was quoting someone else and calling them a disgrace.
Anyway, I've deleted my comment since the original has been removed.

lions should have beat them gutting for all the players ! ! !
lost it when roberts and o'driscol went of. BOD was world class again and should have been skipper for he tour,
but the discovery of the hole tour as to be broussow who has been awsome since he played the cheeters vs lions and should have started in place of burger

is it just me or does anybody else her think that half the people bitching and moaning have never touched a rugby ball or put in a hit..

yes burger is a cunt and should have gotten red but fuck it its rugby these things happen in evry game and only get noticed when someone is retarded enough to do it on the touchline in full view of linesman and tv cameras in the first 30 seconds of a match....and cant people just enjoy rugby instead of this bullshit nh/sh commenting?

peace

Think it is funny folk keep banging on about the boks being world champs. Fair enough they won the world cup but have went on to get sacked in the tri nations. As a northeren hemisphere dweller think it says alot for the state of the game up here that we only have 2 midfielders in 4 nations that can deal with the southern giants and we cant even put a squad together without taking one with us. And was dissapionted to see only 1 prop on the bench before the game any one else feel uncontested srcums before the game kicked off. Also think as good a player as he is Mathew Reas should be getting as much stick as Burger silly throat throw on bakkies. And was wondering how long would take the boks to catch on to phillips inability to pass off the ground or quickly at all for that matter.

For all the boks fans who moaned for years about Mr McCaw being a cheat for his work on the floor now have a player in the very same mouled Broussow if infact not a lot worse. Is he invisible to refs at ruck time.

"Think it is funny folk keep banging on about the boks being world champs. Fair enough they won the world cup"

Well isn't that the very definition of world champions?

As for only having two Centers who can deal with the boks, how do you know, the other two haven't had a chance to play them.

They may be the best, but there si still Hook, Fluety and Darcy all in the equation.

Uncontested scrums? I mean seriously. I don't think anyone can prepare for that, Sheridan comes on, Jenkins either switches side, or comes off. That's pretty standard to be frank.

Lets TRY and remain objective.

hey, can someone explain the use of an uncontested scrum? i'm fairly new to the game and saw it in this match and didn't know what was going on... do the players have to call for this or is it solely at the referee's discretion?

congrats boks. slightly better than the lions - not THAT much better. what i'm trying to say is that both sides played very well. kudos to both teams, shame for the lions since i was rooting for them. :(

but ehhh... o'gara...
...

Am pretty sure being champions means beating every one not just winning one tournament then going on to get beaten by a record amoutn by the aussies and coming last in tri nations.

Yeah cause Fluety and D'arcy done such a good job against thier emerging boks fills me with hope just face it in 4 countrys we don't have the depth they do in 1.

Any test side in south africa is looking for trouble only going out with one prop and not to mention seen as the scrum was such a possitve thing for the lions and annoying thing for the boks in the first half what a weapon to lose.

Uncontested scurm during SA and Lions match because, I don't know which team, don't have more replacement prop on the bench (all the prop had been used and there were hurts)so you put an other player on the scrum for example a wing and the scrum aren't contested

(sorry for my english, i m french)

Lions lost 1st Lion's Test because the referee was bad

Lions lost 2nd Lion's Test because the referee was bad

Stop it, it's ridiculous

Admit your defeat

I saw the below clip on Youtube. Apparently fearsome ex-Bok back row Andre Venter got some kind of infection or virus that attacked his spine. It put him in a wheelchair and he has young kids.

I thought I would post this as it helps remind us that winning or losing a rugby match is not the end of the world. It's not really that important in the grand scheme of things, and let us get some perspective even though we are dissappointed.

I hope andre Venter makes a recovery and they can find a cure. Wouldn't it be nice if the rugby community could do some kind of benefit for the big man?! Great player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLO8l7cSwJI

Take a bow Rob Kearney.

First off great game!!
Dissapointed with the result, ROG was poor yes but he can't take all the blame, we didn't look like scoring at all in the second half!!
Dissapointed with the officialling again, the scrum was not reffed what so ever!!
Paul O'Connel was very poor in both tests, barely saw him at all!
Credit to the South Africans great effort and the most frightening thing is they won the game with their youngsters or up and coming players off the bench, certainly have enough cover if some retirements are coming!!
Enthralling series!! Lets hope we save some face next week!!

what a game. well done to boks, but sad to see lions lose. one more game, hope its as good as the last 2,
harry

people saying that winnign the world cup dont make you champions, but they know how to win the big games that are importat and could be win the world cup again in 2011 if they carry on bringing through some of the guns.
what you think?

Yes cirtain players did wrong bit I beleive the game was tarnished by cowedly refereeing by the frenchman who has a responsibility to protect players, STRAIT RED CARD FOR BURGER.

Did anyone notice the missing camera angle on the contraversial try? There should be footage looking down the touchline to prevent cheeting vidio refs. Too many coincidences for one game!

Siman shaw, what a ledgened, deserverd his place in the squad.

Thank you to all the B&I fan's, it was a great game, and I really thought you were going to win this one, Unlucky in the end. Well done to the Bok's and thank you for pulling it out the bag in the end.

Isn't it great that we are not football fans that stoop to such things as mudslinging and whining............

first of all a cracking match second of all we butched it.
but we gave it everything,jenkins and jones were the missing figue of the first test, the scrum that was on our own 5 metre line where jones won the penalty of the beast was sensational, shaw had a cracker but i still think kearney played better. as someone said before the reff bottled sending off burger and 14 men for 80 minuets is a massive advantage. o'gara made a huge mistake that has changed his career for the worse but from that game you saw 5 people have the games of there lives and has changed there careers for the better, o'drisscol had some balls to take on matfield and was so disapointing for him to go off, people say that its the very best from all four nations which is very true but the reason that south africa won this series was because they know eachothers every move and know eachother inside out. that takes months on end to get that its something you carnt produce over night, lions played well and havnt deserved to be 2-0 down but then again havnt deserved to be 2-0 up congrats SA, revenge in 12 years i hope!!!

o'gara shouldnt have been im the squad, hook is more versatile, poor choice by the management cost us the series

Having read all the comments on here, i'm surprised there's not more focusing on the lack of options on the bench. I couldn't believe the replacements were Ellis and O'Gara, for three reasons.

Firstly, shane williams can cover scrum half if need be, and its hardly the most specialist position.

Secondly, Hook is a better player than O'Gara. Thirdly, if SW can cover S.Half and Hook centre and FH, why was the bench not Hook, D'Arcy and Shane Williams?

This is where the game was lost. You could even scrap D'Arcy and just have another prop as williams and hook are so versatile.

203 posts wow!!!! Unless this ends up 204,205 then shag it.

'Sore losers?'
'Whingers?'
'You lost,Get over it?'

This is a rugby forum, this is where you come to air your views on events oval related, however ill informed, bias or just plain ridiculous. If you read these comments or reply to them you are searching for something you agree with or want to dispute, to call someone a 'sore loser' defeats the purpose unless they are completely wrong, in which case thats their opinion and they're intitled to it. To come on here and give that line shows you are not interested in debate and are wasting your own time, and ironically shows you up to be a 'Bad Winner', as Jeremy Clarkson would say.

We can all agree there was some great rugby played and SA were marginally better over the 2 tests. No matter what result next sat, it will feel like a letdown, unless you are a Bokke and SA go on and hammer the Lions.

Anonymous says : "ROG cant take all the blame"
Yes he fucking can!! HE took the guy out in the air and HE missed the vital tackles. Im sorry but not even the irish can excuse that performance.

RobbedBlind said...
Anonymous says : "ROG cant take all the blame"
Yes he fucking can!! HE took the guy out in the air and HE missed the vital tackles. Im sorry but not even the irish can excuse that performance.

LOOK AT THE FOOTAGE, YES O'GARA WAS THE CAUSE BUT HE WAS LOOKING UP AND WAITING FOR THE CATCH! HARDLY HIS FAULT!

McGeechan was not present when De Villiers spoke but when informed of what the Springbok boss had said he admitted: "I am very disappointed if that's what he said.

"Because for me you can't see that and say it's a part of the game that I would ever want to be associated with."

Botha misses the next match, burger is still awaiting......

Congratulations to the boks, they played like world champs in the second half. To be honest if Steyn had been on from the start the boks probably would have run away with it!
O'Gara is a tool, he didn't even look for the ball at the end, he just jumped into the South African when he was in mid air! What a stupid amateur thing to do, there are no excuses for that. I hope to god Jonny Sexton gets his chance for Ireland and establishes himself ahead of ROG. That said, the series loss is not ROGs fault, he wasnt on the pitch long enough to be culpable.
Roll on next weekend, hopefully it is as enjoyable a game and we salvage some pride.

Eight weeks ban for Burger. Veeeery lucky once again...

8 weeks...it should have been 8 months. What a farce he citing system is.

There should be a mandatory one year ban for "making contact to the eye area."

Second offense should be a lifetime ban.

This was no accident. The time Burger's fingers were in the eyes showed the intent.

A great game but definitly not the same deal here with some comments...

Blaming the ref, that's usual for people who don't admit a defeat.

Watch again the game, Lions started strongly but as time goes by, they were going down and down, constantly under presure, made mistakes, etc. At the end, they failed, end of story.

And for the red card for Burger, sure he deserved it as Shaw deserved a yellow one for another dangerous tackle around the 70th mn.

And to be honest, i'm quite happy cos i was disgusted by the arrogance of some Lions pompous fans.

Boks won the series, fair enough for them. Will see what they are able to during the Tri Nations.

"O'Gara is a tool, he didn't even look for the ball at the end, he just jumped into the South African when he was in mid air!"

I take it you didnt watch the game, o'gara clearly had his eyes to the sky, there was no way he made any attempt to take out Du Preez!

"I take it you didnt watch the game, o'gara clearly had his eyes to the sky, there was no way he made any attempt to take out Du Preez!"

Yeah he was looking up why didn't he have some sense to know that he should have jumped, that he was always going to take the jumper out illegally if he didn't jump himself. He's a complete tool, I'm more used to seeing O'Gara dumped backwards on his arse than doing anything useful on the rugby pitch these days, some day he might learn how to tackle, it would help his game a lot, plus it would ease the pressure on all those players around him who carry him through games. Every time he plays against quality opposition he is a shambles and then proceeds to blame everyone but himself in the aftermath.

Burger gets 8 weeks?

You have got to be kidding me, another disgusting wash over by the men at the top when it comes to SH players.

Absolutely disgraceful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpSv4r_yJRI

The Jones Botha incident - lol @ the voice over.

View Video

bakkies banned for 2 weeks.wata joke..as for burger.8 weeks..his lucky it wasnt 12weeks..

just 8 weeks for Burger? That's pathetic...

Only an 8 week ban for eye gouging for burger, thats a disgrace.

Should have been a lot longer than that, once again the IRB fails.

As a Saffa I have to say the Burger incident is very unfortunate. I'm sure he is regretting it as well.

Burger should get at least three months for what he did, in my mind eye gouging is probably the worst thing you can do on a rugby field.
And IMO, Botha didn't do a thing wrong. He was just clearing the ruck, Jones' arm was in an unfortunate position and he got injured. If he hadn't been hurt, we wouldn't even be talking about it, it'd just be one more ruck Botha cleared.
The irony is that while they'll definatley miss Botha (although he'll be back for the 3-nations), Brussow is in awesome form and will be a better option than Burger anyway. And Russow and Spies can do the ball carrying.

only 8 weeks for burger!! absolute disgrace. 6 months for hartley, 12 weeks for quinlan, how do they justify only 8 for schalk. methinks IRB have bottled this too. If really want to stamp down on gouging then the big names need to get long punishments. They need to show it will not be tolerated by anyone. Have just shown theyre abit weak here.

Hey RD Please disable the Anonymous option 4ever, it really is getting annoying! Also congrats to the Boks, well played ( excluding Burger) ( i think the "50" on his jersey is his IQ):O)

God ROG you really are a Ronan Keating, couldnt tackle a Snackbox!!! Great game of rugby neverthe less!!!! Well done Lions , well done Boks!

Digusting loss

Yeah anon above, stop moaning about the ref, you're making us NH fans look bad.
Well done SA, look forward to welcoming you to Dublin in November.

Well said craig...
Come on guys cop the f**k on and get some f**king class and grow up.
I am an irish man who's desperately disappoiinted but gracious. Well done to the boks and hard luck to all the lions.Thats what rugbys about.

People cant solely blame ROG, he was only on 10 min and the lions were already on the ropes with the centers and props going off.
Well done SA, although i thought a draw would have been a fair result!
Berger - a disgrace and a thug and incident was much worse than Quinlan's, but don't tar the whole SA team with the same brush.
Philips was too slow getting the ball out imo, can he not pass straight from the ground?
Shaw was immense and take a bow Kearney, Irish and British Lions' best player by a mile!

To everyone saying Kearney as the best fullback in the world, Mils? Chris Latham? Stefan Terblanche is really good aswell, same with Zane Kirchner. Yes it was a good game by Kearney, but no where near the standard i've seen from other fullback's.

Anyway to the point I was going to make, Paul O'connell's face when O'gara gave away that penalty, I feel sorry for him as he is an extremely good player and an extremely good captain.

BOD was just asking for a fight in that game, that is not what you want from a captain. Gave away three penalties and caused two fights.

Lions deserved to lose to be honest, ill-discipline, one try to the Lions? Three to the Boks? They were just outclassed.

Francois Steyn at fullback? PDV are you bloody mental? You have two brilliant fullbacks in Stefan Terblanche and Zane Kirchner and you pick none of them. Insane...

All this complaining and blaming wont change the score. Youve lost the test series and now youre fast losing all dignity and pride. No wonder the Lions only tour once every 4 years no one likes to hear this shit.

Desperately disappointing result.

The selection for test 2 really highlights how badly they got it wrong for test 1.

Any team suffering those four injuries will be badly screwed in a close match; both props & both centres, and the amount of time they were on the park really told against the lions (22 mins over standard playing time) at altitude. Once you have that many unplanned replacements, tactics & strategy go out the window.


All credit to SA for clinically taking their chances.

I am gutted for/at ROG so to speak. The kick chase is, what, a 30% shot at recovering possession ? And if he does, his team is in any event out on its feet. The only call was to row ZZ that ball with as much distance as possible to allow his team to reset. Yes the Springboks would have one more possession but the chance of successfully defending was that much better. Had the penalty not resulted, I don't know where the lions would have been in defence - they were, at that point, out on their feet.

Congrats to SA for winning the series over two absolutely cracking games.

Francoise Sten...wow after all the hype he did absolutely nothing in this series. Can't see what all the fuss is about.

Firstly congratulations to the Boks, well done boys we have waited 12 years for this...! Burger, you are a disgrace and should never be allowed to play for this Springboks again! Bakkies I think a 2 week ban is harsh. The guy came from behind and did exactly the same as all rugby players when they go into a ruck, attempt to run and shoulder the opponent "off the ball" personally i do not think he deserved to be banned for 2 weeks. Ive read some comments and it makes me laugh when people post comments about the video ref, cheats and everyone carrying on about Burger. The guy was yellow carded and during the 10 minutes the Lions scored 10 points. Why keep on going on about it, do you really wanted to play against 14 men just to be able to win? If the Lions kept their composure and played attacking rugby then you would have won. O Gara`s challenge was stupidity. It would have made for a very exciting final test had the Lions won, but hey I will take the 2 - 0 series won any day of the week! Oh and one more thing, the guy that keeps on talking about us going on about being world champions, you sound jealous my friend, the fact is we are regardless of losing the tri nations!!

the last try for the boks should not have been given he was defiantly in touch. bad refereeing.

above anonymous...that is eh BS...quite clearly there is footage of blue boots on the touchline. The trailing player is wearing blue boots (Broussow ?) not the man who scores. There's no footage which tends to put the try scorer in touch and therefore try given.

Oh yeah, to (a very few of the Bok fans who you would think had better practice at winning), Lions lost because SA played better than them. I'm happy to say that.

There's then questions of fact and degree as to why that is (injuries, selections, altitude, and yeah refereeing decisions etc.) all come into that as well as the fact that SA are a truly great side. Its legit to discuss these without being seen as taking away from a great series win for the Boks on foot of two brilliant test matches and again, Kudos and more power to them.

To the idiot above, its strange how everytime SA win we are cheaters? You are only another idiot who can not accept the fact that you lost against a better team. At least we know how to play rugby in what you call a "shit country" and if you havent noticed everyone is talking about rugby but i guess it makes you feel big slating SA as a country? The fact is the Springoks are world champions and you have lost! Not a nice feeling is it....? loser

While there has been plenty of talk about dirty tactics, former England captain and British & Irish Lion Will Carling has come out in defence of the Springboks.

"When all is said and done though, South Africa won the test and with that the series and have proved that they are one, if not 'the', strongest team in the World at the moment," Carling wrote on his website.

"Did the Boks cheat, were they just thugs?" Carling continued, " No, not in my mind. If Burger gouged that is inexcusable and the referee should have sent him off there and then. But apart from that, what else did they do that was thuggery? It was hard for sure, bloody hard, but isn't that Test rugby? Botha's illegal challenge on Jones? well what about BOD's illegal tackle? It is swings and roundabouts and the Boks have always been a very very physical side. It is nothing new," he said.

"The Lions can and should be proud of what they have achieved in throwing four 'teams' together in a matter of weeks and secondly the Boks are a bloody good, tough side, with many great players and great characters, and they should not be branded thugs, or cheats. They have won the test series, and congratulations to them."

I great comment from a rugby legend

sorry this off topic hear.but did anyone see pierre spies smash jamie robert.it was when spies ran the ball back from his 22.was few mins before the habana try I think.robert went flying. impressive stuf

"No wonder the Lions only tour once every 4 years no one likes to hear this shit."

Its because they only tour every 4 years you do hear this shit, if there was a lions tour every year, then people would be more inclined to say, sod it, better luck next year....but its simply going to be 2021?!? when the lions next play SA.....so people have to moan, personally i wish the lions had won, and had burger been off and botha hadnt broken jones then maybe they would....but they didnt so i live with it....


APART FROM COMMENTS FROM DOYLE

You can say all you like about what O'Gara should have done, personally i think he should have run over matfield and the rest of the SA pack and scored 20 tries, but he didnt, just like he didnt jump! this does not mean he lost the game. the simple fact is he didnt jump, and Du Preez jumped and they both ended up connecting, i think there is no malice there and your original comment of how he didnt look for the ball is wrong! he was looking for the ball and that is why i find the penalty very harsh.


To someone that knows what they are talking about:

"should that be a penalty? he was looking for the ball and someone jumped into him (as he ran into them...) so is that penalty by the laws?" when answering my Q please forget the score and who won or lost i just simply would like to know for myself.......

I actually have come to learn of some good British and Irish players I didn't know much about from this tour, guys like Kearney, Byrne, Bowe, Roberts, Ferris etc and the matches were good and close so it wasn't totally pointless in my opinion, pretty entertaining

ok lets set things straight, we carnt heep all the blame on o'gara!!!
some of it has to be blamed geeks for putting the god damn idiot on the field!!!!!!
congrats sa been 2 great tests. just so dissapointed to see stadiums not even half full for an occasion that happens every 12 years to see that amount of people for a lions match its rediculas. more lions fans than SA fans for the 2 tests

btw -- anyone see that on the video that Francois Steyn looks like John Heder (aka Napoleon Dynamite)?

I pity the RD moderator trying to keep this place clean. Really. Calm down with the extreme abuse.

I'm also getting sick of the O gara bashing. My first impression - what was he at?

But come on: the bench had too many physiclaly tiny guys on it - for a match where the two centres and two propbs get taken off. That's unusual, and difficult to coach for: unless, being wize after the act, you say: all subs should be multi taskers.

That said, the size of the squadplayers picked was supposed to be an advantage, and the coaches went or mobility.

Analysis: the warm up matches lulled the Lions into a false sense of security.

O gara was put into the centre - guaranteed steamroll for a guy of his stature.

And the try: 3 players were steamrolled, not just one.

Lions were def on the ropes as has been said.

Burg(l)er and PDV are a disgrace: appelas if poss should happen - and what de fk is happenin with the ammount of eye gougoing at the top level at the moment? Really? Madness!
Rugby has a high and decent profile right now,especially when compared to soccer and its financial excesses and cheating.

But this eye gouging fashion right now - guaranteed to be caught on camera too! - is a disaster

PDV retracts:
http://tvnz.co.nz/rugby-news/boks-coach-backtracks-burger-support-2816848

Im against ROG bashing for this game but seriously:

"ok lets set things straight, we carnt heep all the blame on o'gara!!!
some of it has to be blamed geeks for putting the god damn idiot on the field!!!!!!"

THAT MADE ME F*CKING LAUGH!!!

looking for the heaslip punch on habana.can't find it

I don't know about Heaslip, but here's Vickery's punch :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9C98cv3AA4

View Video

Woops, I meant SHeridan

that's not even a punch?

I mean seriously, he gives the guy a push after driving him off his feet. If you're clinging onto that as an example of lions foul play thn seriously guys you've lost it.

If he'd punched the guy in the danglies, he would have known all about it.

terrible way to end a great match. Personally I think it was a pretty. O'Gara didn't make a play on the ball, but he also just got landed on as he was trying to stop. Anyway, I understand the call, just a frustrating way to end it.

I also wished they just played best of 3 so that this third match wouldn't even happen unless it was breaking a tie. Now its just a waste of time and a danger in potential injuries for both sides. Clubs in both hemispheres will just be crossing fingers we don't get another Jones type injury on either side.

To No. 7 :

I would say yes its a penalty. He is in pursuit of a ball, the opponent has legitimately left his feet and ROG has turned his back and made a clumsy contact. Law 10.4(e) states a player must not tackle a player dangerously and a player must not tackle an opponent whose feet are off the ground. Law 10.4(h) is even more apt and explicit :

"Tackling the jumper in the air.A player must not tackle nor tap, push or pull the foot or
feet of an opponent jumping for the ball in a lineout or in open play"

ROG's contact is clumsy and reckless as opposed to intentional in my view. It still infringes law 10 and the sanction is a penalty kick.

In response to Anonymous comments to South Africans claiming to be tough. If you havent noticed we are talking about rugby. To answer your question it is not always South Africans that claim we are tough. Rugby commentators and rugby players playing against the Springboks always talk about how physical the Springboks are. As for being pussies Im not so sure if i can agree with that comment, the pussies you are revering to are the world champions and just won the series against the Lions 2 - 0 and its not over yet, the tour might even end in a white wash... Pussies 2 Lions 0 bet you were close to tears after the match tough guy??

And regarding your comments on comparing rugby players to MMA fighters and boxers to make your point as to your definition of a tough guy that is just stupid. I bet most boxers and MMA fighters would not have lasted the full 80 minutes in Saturdays test match...Compare apples with apples.About winning a war, does that make you tough? Idiot...

PDV is a bloody joke. Having just seen the latest video on BBC sport, he still barely condemns eye gauging and just said it the sport. he also says that the lions wrong an illegal in some aspects of the game ..... then take US to the citing commity.

Second, he says that it the sport...its not ballet... redding a quote of his of wiki....i think he is delusional and a hypocrite:
'Following the Springboks' 19-8 defeat at the hands of the All Blacks, De Villiers accused them of cheating. Several months later, in an interview with SA Sports Illustrated, he declared,

I know the game. Technically, I'm very strong. When I said the All Blacks were cheaters in the first Test in Wellington, I picked up some of the technical stuff they did wrong in the scrums and how they played outside of the laws and how they used that to good effect. I also picked up that, instead of standing a metre apart in the line-outs, they stood a metre and a half apart so that we couldn't compete; and anything outside of any law is cheating.'

So is eye gauging cheating now!!!! or is it just standing too far away in the line out.

This man is a disgrace and a joke to rugby and SA.... i feel sorry for you and i that it has diminished your win. You deserve the cheers, it was a great game.

Anonymous: what are you, Scottish, English, Irish, Welsh? Im proud to be South African and the fact is you lost the series 2 - 0 and that is why you are pissed off. Calling us pussies wont change the result of the series. You make me laugh actually and im not even sure why I am wasting my time responding to you. I also do not agree with gouging and if you read my previous posts I made the comment that Burger is a disgrace to the game and should never be allowed to play for the Springboks again. Regarding the comments of PDV, the man is an idiot and it is embarrassing, but what can we do? He was picked as the rugby coach for South Africa when everyone knew he was not the best qualified but we all know the reasons why.

Whats with slating South Africans? If it makes you feel better and ease the pain of losing please continue to do so.

Following the match on Saturday:

Tommy Bow elbow injury
O Driscoll Concussed
Jamie Roberts injured wrist
Jenkins cracked cheekbone
Adam Jones dislocated shoulder

All the above injuries sustained by playing against so called pussies Say no more

To Eoghan, thanks a lot for trying to clear that up......im still a little unsure though as to the wording, (if we want to be really picky) because technically O'Gara made no attempt to do any of those things..... but then i suppose Parisse was deemed reckless, so the same could be said against O'Gara.....i dont know as a lions supporter id probably say it was a very harsh decision but probably the right one.....

Thanks again!

SA got away with it big time...

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,16024_5410749,00.html

This, given that it is purely a reaction to the weekends events, is vindication for all who were unsatisfied by both the refs reaction and the light ban Burger recieved.

Jot; you shouldn't reply to that anonymous poster, his posts are absolute shit stirring of the highest order. Comparing rugby players toughness to boxers and MMA fighters? Duhhhhhh

Commenting will be disabled if the immaturity continues. I cant waste any more time sifting through abusive comments.

If you'd like to discuss the match or any other topic like adults, join the forum.

Cheers

I have watched the this match this match was very interesting match. I was searching tv downloads of this match then I reached to your blog. Here I found that you have describe that match in very good way. that is really nice one.

Matthew Rees is actually scum. Look at 2.17. Kearney scores and then Rees just shouts in Pieterson's face and makes him flinch. Firstly, he had nothing to do with the try, and secondly he's shit, so what the hell is he doing?

the last bok try was'nt a try his foot went into touch, it's the same bloody video ref from the world cup that's two try he's got wrong now, and o'gara did'nt take him out in the air had his eye's on the ball the whole time that scrum halve in my books jump at him.

thats just stupid... he was clearly looking at the ball and was practically shocked when your man hit into his shoulder

One of, if not the, greatest game of rugby ever played