Grand Slam tour, thus this blog is ON

it's such a great time for a tour.. and the ABs aren't the only New Zealanders touring.. the Kiwis had arrived a week earlier with their game against "mighty" Great Britain at Loftus Road.. and it's safe to say now that both league and union Lions are more like pussycats.. i guess the disappointment would be less for the league Lions coz personnel-by-personnel they only have 1/10th of the skill that the union Lions had and should have displayed..

the Kiwis squad isn't exactly a true touring squad, with the huge contingent of Super League-based players made available when the Kiwis arrived in GB, e.g. Awen Guttenbeil, Ali Lauititi, and of couse Lesley Vanikolo who to be fair, prob needed that knee surgery or it would have been curtains to his career.. still McClennan has really moulded the spirit of a true touring squad with teamwork and commitment two key elements in this recent Kiwis revival.. just one more win and that's against GB again at the wonderful McAlpine Stadium - now Galpharm - in Huddersfield and we'll be in the Grand Final at the home of the once-mighty football club Leeds United, Elland Road..

anyway just 5 days before the first game.. should i stay up and watch? still decided..

in retrospect

the spear tackle refuses to die.. this week, for the first time since the "spear" tackle, the Lions have had much coverage in the media, thanks to the launching of the Lions diaries of pin-up boys, Gavin Henson and Brian O'Driscoll.. i guess it's the only way for them to have any say in the media this autumn as they're not going to feature for their countries in the internationals next month.. why dint they do it in different weeks though? surely both have much to say abt how crap the Lions were... and well how crap the Lions were..

but i guess the most significant piece of information to come from this week is the release of amateur video footage of that "spear" tackle.. From the Main Stand, the evidence has suddenly been more compelling than it ever was.. at first, i thought those Lions were just whining coz they were just so crap in Christchurch and that they were comprehensively outclassed by a team that never really had any proper warm-up games, if that game against Fiji was anything to go by.. i still do, but i think there is some compelling evidence to show that perhaps Keven Meleamu and Tana Umaga should have received some reprimand from the governing bodies.

i talked to this British guy on the way to Sydney just after that game in Christchurch and my argument was that it was common for much activity to go on even after the ball has left the ruck. i still stand by that.. it was a ruck, and O'Driscoll was trying to go for the ball as u'd expect.. and i should add it would have been interesting to see where the ref's hand was pointing towards at that point.. unfortunately my taped version of the 1st test missed that bit, but if i recall it was prob pointing towards the Lions, so O'Driscoll was legitimately challenging for the ball.. Meleamu was trying to clear him out of the ruck, but was probably over-vigorous and now from this latest footage, looked to have clearly spear-tackled O'Driscoll to the ground, and inadvertently helped by Tana Umaga..

nevertheless, u cannot conclude that there was intentional dirty play there from Umaga.. there are spear tackles which may not be unintentional but because of the tremendous surge of adrenaline, players tend to be over-vigorous in their tackling.. that's why it's rugby, it's the challenge of controlling urself, whilst allowing urself to be as competitive as possible.. and i'd like to point to another spear-tackle incident recently where the offenders actually got off in the post-match tribunal.. it was in the Kiwis v Kangaroos test in Sydney, and early in the 2nd half, Kangaroo second-rower Trent Waterhouse was spear-tackled by Nigel Vagana and Tony Pritchard.. it looked as ugly as Meleamu's "spear" but Vagana got off from it.. Waterhouse was surprisingly p "relaxed" abt it..

i think the Lions management made such an awful mess of it, when perhaps less noise and Meleamu and Umaga may have received some punishment.. now i think they should have received some punishment because the player spear-tackled was actually injured.. perhaps, the Lions didn't deserve that break because they didnt deserve to do well in New Zealand, where there was just more talk rather than result..

whatever the case, there may be more Brits who'll be baying for Meleamu's and Umaga's blood.. nevertheless think that could give them more ammunition to excel at Landsdowne and Cardiff..

All Blacks 35 to tour GB and Ireland

FORWARDS:
Tony Woodcock, North Harbour
John Afoa, Auckland
Carl Hayman, Otago
Neemia Tialata, Wellington
Greg Somerville, Canterbury(may be replaced by Saimone Taumeaupeaou, Auckland)
Keven Meleamu, Auckland
Anton Oliver, Otago
Andrew Hore, Taranaki
Chris Jack, Canterbury
Ali Williams, Auckland
James Ryan, Otago
Jason Eaton, Taranaki
Angus McDonald, Auckland
Jerry Collins, Wellington
Rodney So'oialo, Wellington
Chris Masoe, Taranaki
Richie McCaw, Canterbury

BACKS:
Byron Kelleher, Waikato
Piri Weepu, Wellington
Jimmy Cowan, Southland
Dan Carter, Canterbury
Luke McAlister, North Harbour(replaced by Nick Evans, Otago)
Aaron Mauger, Canterbury
Leon McDonald, Canterbury
Mils Mulai'ina, Auckland
Joe Rokocoko, Auckland
Doug Howlett, Auckland
Sitiveni Sivivatu, Waikato
Conrad Smith, Wellington
Tana Umaga, Wellington(captain)
Isa Toeava, Auckland
Ma'a Nonu, Wellington

i've had a long day

enough of work...