Originally Posted by Nathers7:
“52 points in the end. Halfpenny, Sexton, Croft, North, O'Brien and Heaslip impressed, Tuilagi and O'Driscoll worked well together. Other than that I'm not sure the game told us a lot.”
Croft? Apart from his wing play he did nothing all game. It was only after about 70 minutes that he realised he should maybe do a bit of tackling...a minute and a half later and he's off the field.
O'Brien was a one-man back row at the tackle area today, he got absolutely no help at all from his 6 and 8. Ok, Heaslip was excellent with ball in hand but both him and Croft seem scared of a bit of graft. It's great to have forwards with good attacking instincts but in the Tests first things first you have to stop the other team and win the ball.
The pack today were very ordinary and not many of them apart from Vunipola, O'Brien and maybe AWJ are threatening the Test XV at the moment. 11 to 15 is looking like the Lions strongest area so far. All four centres have looked excellent and all four wings are looking threatening. Halfpenny has just guaranteed himself a Test jersey as long as he can get to Brisbane with two arms, two legs and a head and it's good to have a player like Hogg in the mix too.