Re: The Lions
 

They haven't quite excised it yet, I'll give them till lunchtime.

You can still find this on news.com.au, underneath the story on expensive haircuts.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/rugby-g...-1226675405568

I do wonder if they told the talking head to unbutton her top to distract the masses from the news though.... :wub:

Re: The Lions
 

"From this time forward, I pledge my loyalty to Australia . . ."

hmm did they break that pledge? :eek:

Re: The Lions
 

No - we don't take the oath until July 25th!!

Re: The Lions
 

good excuse!

Re: The Lions
 

Not the result I was expecting, but then I don't think The Lions and Wallabies were too

A great game of rugby for a neutral

Re: The Lions
 

Yep not really much in the Australian media is there:
The Australian
ABC News
The Age
The Courier Mail
The Herald Sun
Did I miss any?

Re: The Lions
 

Can I just ask that we all concentrate on the rugby and stop acting like poor winners? Don't tell me the thread is going to degenerate ..... This is rugby I remind you again not another day in sport. Sometimes the Brits are no better than the Aussies.

I knew this would happen -particularly as James Horwill was acknowledged as being so great in defeat - despite booing from a Lions contingent.

I am moved to say that the Oz press had some great articles about the series before the game, I give you Wayne Smith of the Australian - and there is also some great pre-Ashes articles in yesterday's paper where sporting Englishman, not expats, are saying good things about Australians in the old days in a conciliatory way. Let's follow their lead, maybe.

Was a great game - when Australia started to score I did not write them off at all. Until the second half....

Re: The Lions
 

Horwill was very magnanious in defeat. I'm not surprised really as, apart from Gregan, Australia have always had good captains

Even the Aussie commentators, who are usually the most biased in world rugby, acknowledged the superiority of The Lions

The Bokke will be along soon to rub it in

Re: The Lions
 

Haven't seen it my newspapers *Cough*

Re: The Lions
 

he he. I will come back to this vid later this afternoon...

must go

Re: The Lions
 

Point stands, we are at midday and to take the first of your links, the focus is on "Coalition tow-backs", "GST" and a surfer getting bounced by a whale. When you scroll down the page you get to "Wallabies have no answer to Lions" - a blame game which seems to be confused where exactly where it should be throwing the mud.

Whilst it wasn't possible for them to totally ignore the defeat this time round, they do have a track record of blocking out defeats as quickly as possible.

Re: The Lions
 

And it sometimes seems Expats have a track record of wanting to bang on and insert a nice little wedge between the people they live amongst and themselves....(!):p whilst being no better than the people they choose to complain about....(not you personally) but I could name a few.

Gary - 'Wallabies have no answer' - I skim read it this morning and will reread it now - but it seemed to me that a sports reporter has to report the story...and if he is confused - well maybe there is no answer. It was a loss.

What I was looking for was the commentary on the refereeing - from both sides - and from more than one source. Perhaps the working week will provide more - but I suggest that Jake White and McKensie will become more interesting and newsworthy.

Some of the UK sports writers get caned for what they write, win or lose.

I clicked on the first link and got a different story perhaps - but it went straight to a paragraph where the journalist says that the Australians were outplayed. Basically he said they were shit but was polite about it. There will be more of these elsewhere.

I've just read the Age piece - they praised the Lions and said the Wallabies were shit. I don't see a cover up or a block.

Re: The Lions
 

To me it's an interesting point and speaks to a difference in national psyche. In the UK we were expecting failure for any sporting endeavour and were overjoyed when they didn't stuff up. Just think of the logical connection between England<>World Cup<>Penalties.

I notice that the aussies tend to expect success, and in fact feel defined by the success, or otherwise, of their sports teams. Any defeat seems to smack of failure and disgrace; any win is just what you should expect.

Is that to do with the longer and more 'interesting' history of the UK? Maybe the changed worldview that came with losing an empire (and indeed having one originally)? Whatever, it seems pretty deep seated - almost definitive of the national mindset. So its worth understanding in my book.

He seemed to want to blame the ref, then mentally sigh and realise he couldn't. First one paragraph, then the next. He didn't seem to want to say "ahh well, the better team one, our players just weren't up to it, maybe next time" - it was always someone not playing up to scratch. The Oz captain was more realistic in this regard.

God knows what they will do if the Ashes goes with the betting...

The UK side of things seemed to say that the refs for the first two matches were judging things too much from a 'league' perspective, and that the last was the only one that had a 'union' mindset.

Personally I just think both codes have too many damn rules for a flowing game, unless you ignore some, which is when you get personal bias creeping in.

Re: The Lions
 

Magnanious was the word in the press today.

On Channel 10, I noticed that Matt Burke and that other bloke (who is he?) with a funny looking dial were full of respect for the Lions and as a couple they were better than the blokes who covered the World Cup.

Mate I had a bloke from your corner of Africa, if not the Republic, in my house for the first test - and he shouts for the Aussies against the Saffers. Such his is gratitude to a country that gave him a future after it was uncertain. Effing nice bloke, from the old school - this country needs more mjigrants like him.

Well it's not as if it hasn't happened in recent years! I think the tide is turning and started to turn a while back. I was very curious to see so many Englishmen included in the paper on Saturday....it was if they were saying - 'We will beat you again this time, but let's all be mates' [and not get stupid about it like we have in the past]. They moreorless said that - and pointed out a rise of sledging from the Australians in the 90s -which has since been in decline.

Other writers are not expecting much from the Ashes series. Most of the blokes I know think it's a good thing, with a sort of sigh, naturally, that the team is finally getting a spanking these last few years.

The problem I have is that rugby is rugby and that you can't have a winning team without a scrum, and if you have a weak scrum you get pinged because in not competing you are not allowing the stonger team to gain the reward from the platform. If you get pinged, you give points. This is actually a view in both hemispheres. It's not just pushing power - there is a lot of technique involved.

I think the issue is more that Super 15 pays less attention to policing around aspects of the scrum, but that it is like League in that the crowd want to see less stoppages and more running rugby too if truth be told. But yet again, everyone wants to see tries - (Look at the way the Welsh crowed even in 2003 when they accused the English of boring rugby even when the current English team was scoring tries too).

I was of the impression when I put on my boots for the first time down south and played all of two matches (my last!) that the harder pitches made for a faster game, but then a Kiwi mate pointed out that in New Zealand the weather can be very much like the UK....

Re: The Lions
 

Unfortunately the Aussie media has a well deserved reputation as worse losers than they are winners.