Lions Lose Close Encounter with the Kiwis : Sat Nov 02, 2019 5:58 am  

Lions Lose Close Encounter with the Kiwis After defeats last weekends both the GB Lions and New Zealand were looking for a victory in the first of two tests between the two sides as the rugby league world cast its eyes to Eden Park in Auckland. Both coaches made some changes after last week with the Lions promoting Jonny Lomax at full back and Tom Burgess at prop, while Michael McGuire shocked the home support by dropping creative half back Shaun Johnson. The last time that the two sides met was in late 2007 when GB secured a three match whitewash on home soil, the only survivor from that last game, a 28-22 win in Wigan, being Lions skipper James Graham. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Lions Lose Close Encounter with the Kiwis After defeats last weekends both the GB Lions and New Zealand were looking for a victory in the first of two tests between the two sides as the rugby league world cast its eyes to Eden Park in Auckland. Both coaches made some changes after last week with the Lions promoting Jonny Lomax at full back and Tom Burgess at prop, while Michael McGuire shocked the home support by dropping creative half back Shaun Johnson. The last time that the two sides met was in late 2007 when GB secured a three match whitewash on home soil, the only survivor from that last game, a 28-22 win in Wigan, being Lions skipper James Graham. READ MORE ON THIS STORY...

Re: Lions Lose Close Encounter with the Kiwis : Sat Nov 02, 2019 8:19 am  

Close encounter? We were a shambles. We went with an ageing out of form team picked on reputation and played boring 1 up rugby and didn’t do a single offload in the first half.

We only started to play in the final minute of the game.

When Brian Noble is criticising the team and saying they need to play more expansive and utilise the 2nd phase and offload you know they’re crap. Absolutely dull as dishwater.

Re: Lions Lose Close Encounter with the Kiwis : Sat Nov 02, 2019 10:23 am  

It was close but it shouldn’t have been. The game was there for the taking for GB but Bennett’s horrendous tactics meant we never challenged them until it was too late. When we did we started to roll through them and around them but McGillvary had a nightmare on two occasions.

If Daryl Clark isn’t a better player than Josh Hodgson by the way then I must be watching a different game. The continued selection of Hodgson simply has to stop. If he is in next week then the halfbacks will continue to be redundant and we may as well pick two extra forwards.