most people I had a sense of anticlimax at the final whistle. It was a strange feeling. I couldn’t help but think: “Even if they flip a coin, surely it can’t end like that?” But thinking about it a bit more, it means that the 2017 series will go down in history. We will look back on it in the future and there will be a bit of mythology to it. And for all that it was a perplexing end to the tour, I don’t think there should be any changes to the laws. It is so rare that it happens and, as Steve Hansen said, it was probably a fair result for where the two teams were in that point in time. If it comes down to a draw after all the hype, everything that has gone on before, then so be it. We expected a reaction from New Zealand and we certainly got it but all credit to the Lions for hanging in there on the scoreboard and keeping the pressure on the All Blacks. Looking back across the series, I expected more from the All Blacks. But if I were to look for a turning
Amos Youth Jersey point, or a key moment in the tour, I would say Sean O’Brien’s try in the first Test. Yes, the Lions lost the match but it made the New Zealand public sit up and take notice. Guardian Australia sport newsletter: subscribe by email Read more We expected the Lions to try to be dominant at the set piece and I think they found out early on that New Zealand teams have a decent set piece themselves. That forced them to play a bit wider and they did it well. Their kicking game was superior but they also created chances. It caught the New Zealanders by surprise and made for a more compelling series than it might have been. We were all surprised by the Lions a little bit. Before the tour started we knew they had the ability but we didn’t know if they would use it. We didn’t know if they would play Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell together
http://www.nflbengalsofficialshop.com/Nike-Josh-Shaw-Jersey.html but they did and that allowed them to get the ball wider, bringing Jonathan Davies into the game more and letting Elliot Daly, Liam Williams and Anthony Watson show what they can do. If O’Brien’s try was a key moment, I have to say that the decisive factor in the series was goal-kicking. Farrell got a bit of stick from a few people, myself included, because early on in the tour he was not quite at the top of his game. But in the second and third Tests he was right there. He is a big?match player and, whenever he was standing over those kicks on Saturday, you never thought he would miss. In the end Farrell kicked his goals and Beauden Barrett did not. The series would have been completely different had Barrett taken all his chances. For all the good Barrett does, he does have one chink in his armour. Advertisement We knew that New Zealand would come out of the blocks firing in the last Test – and they did. They were all over the Lions after 20-30 minutes and
Amos Youth Jersey they should have been 20 points up. They looked the more dangerous; they looked the more threatening; they had all the possession and territory but they could not capitalise on it. It looked as if they were playing in Wellington still, tipping up ball that normally they wouldn’t. It was the pressure that they were under. They would have been used to the line-speed of the Lions by that stage but the pressure got to a few of them – Julian Savea shelled a ball with an open goal-line, Barrett missed a few kicks and there were too many knock-ons near the Lions 22. The Lions hung in there, they kicked their goals and that is what a good team does. As a consequence the pressure got more intense on the All Blacks, especially in the last quarter. There was a little bit of inexperience in the three-quarters for the All Blacks but I still thought they would come up with more across the whole series. Injuries did affect them more than the Lions and that was a contributing factor to the inexperience. But still they had enough in the pack and in the half-backs to do a bit more with the ball. Speaking as an All Blacks supporter I was rather disappointed in that sense but the Lions were superb defensively. I think they learned a huge amount from the first Test and they were able to regroup, cause New Zealand problems and force them into uncharacteristic mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes when the pressure is on – even the All Blacks. I do not see this as a seminal moment for northern hemisphere rugby because I think we have already had the sea change. You look at how Eddie Jones has England playing, Ireland under Joe Schmidt, Scotland as well. They are all improving in an attacking sense. Perhaps it is down to southern hemisphere coaches or maybe it is just that the players are more confident but they have a better understanding
http://www.authenticducksstore.com/frederik-andersen-jersey_c-426.html of how they are trying to improve, and that is making them more skilful. It can be easy to revert to the defensive game plan, as we have seen in the past, but I believe the shackles have been broken and they now have some licence
