British Lions South Africa Tour 2009: First Test

Setanta has started airing the rebroadcast of the first Lions/RSA test match from the 2009 tour and it is definitely worth checking out. Without spoiling anything, the match comes down to the wire and is an exciting spectacle, but more than that we see a lot of what we have been practicing put into action.

South Africa makes the most of the ELV changes by dominating the lineouts and setting up an absolutely devestating maul. You can easily see how patience and coordination makes this move almost unstopable now that you can no longer collapse the maul. Just about every time they use it they get a) 20+ meters, b) a Lions' penalty, and/or c) a try.

On the other side of the ball, the Lions' centers create a ton of headaches for the defense with hard running into contact and great offload passing. There is nothing fancy about #12 taking the ball at pace and running through a tackle or two before dishing to a guy sprinting up on his hip. In a lot of cases, #13 takes the ball back inside looking to hook up with a forward rather than forcing something outside.

The kicking game from both teams is also worth noting, especially how the ball is contested in the air and the back three coordinate counters. All-in-all, one of the more instructive matches that I have seen in relation to the game plan we have been trying to execute.

I will try to find some good clips from the match and update the blog as well as figuring out how to get this on DVD so that people can check it out.

In the meantime, here is a little Brian O'Driscoll move from his club play that you can try out tonight at 7's practice...