Taranaki 14 Lions 36

another fantastic game.. and one which should dispels claims that New Zealanders can't scrummage anymore.. those Mountain men sure could scrummage and maul.. they taught those NHers some great lessons in the New Zealand scrum..

to be fair to Taranaki, despite having the 7-6 lead at halftime, u could sense that a huge wave was about to overwhelm them.. their handling let them down a bit in the first half when the Lions were dominant.. yet they had the lead.. their handling let them down in the second half when the Lions were utterly dominant and they conceded 4 tries..

okay they lost their Samoan winger, Sailosi Tagicakibau at half-time and their first-choice kicker in Scott Ireland.. and of course Andrew Hore got sin binned - he was warned so good call by the ref - so they had to take off Soqeta who was quite impressive at the back of the scrum.. and the number of really good players slowly went down.. to be honest, names like Favre, Young, Stewart, Willis, etc didn't really tickle the spine as much as the likes of McQuoid, Ormond, Bourke, Latu somehow.. Masoe wasn't really a Latu and so Moody and Corry had an easier time of it around the breakdowns.. Tito did get one heck of a punch-up from that old mongrel of New Zealand, Danny Grewcock..

and remember Taranaki did lose out on the NPC semis while Bay of Plenty actually finished 3rd so i can say crudely that the Bay are a better side than Taranaki.. although the Taranaki did thrash the Bay at Yarrow Stadium last year..



anyway, another superb 2nd half performance from the Lions.. and that could be a feature of this Lions team this tour.. 7-6 down, they just ducked down and definitely played the superior rugby.. try of the match started with a kick from Charlie Hodgson which weighed perfectly for Shane Horgan to pass to Geordan Murphy to run away and score late in the game.. as we saw in the Bay, they are gonna use the kick to the wingers.. can Sivivatu counter that? maybe..

remaining on Hodgson, there is no doubt now that it's either gonna be Wilkinson or Stephen Jones for no.10.. and word is he may start against Wellington next Wednesday.. mind ya, Hodgson was much better than O'Gara was although their kicking is abt the same level.. Ollie Smith looks great.. Michael Owen, Martin Corry and Lewis Moody could form another terrific loose forward trio.. Titterill may be the Lions' answer to Meleamu when it comes to mobility..


to be fair, apart from John Hayes, none of the Lions really played badly unlike at Rotorua.. even 7-6 down they still were p good.. but as expected, they faced up against the New Zealand rugby experience, esp the forwards and boy did they learn heaps..

bring on the Maori..now that's a game to watch..