2013 British and Irish Lions tour schedule

Actually, the two incidents are simply not comparable in any shape or form, but carry on regardless...

Bowman was elbowed in the head was he?

It's Combined NSW and Qld Country. A great boost for grassroots rugby and to be played in Newcastle where they got 25,000 in the foulest weather ever for a test in Australia when they played Scotland. This tour has nothing to do wth the Pacific Islands. Maybe the next time the Lions tour NZ it would be appropriate to play them in Apia as a great bulk of All Blacks have historical links to Samoa. The match in Hong Kong is against the Asian Barbarians. The Lions have stipulated they will not accept playing a selection of NZ/Aus/SA players playing Top 14 in Japan (so excluding the likes of Muilana, Gerrard, Du Preez etc.). However, Craig Wing might get a run as he qualifies as an Asian in Japan as a Phillipines passport holder.

Combined Country team caught my attention too. I think its great, reminds me of the old days and the Country versus Sydney games. Just who would be selected for Combined Country today?

Oh come on, James. Look at the very first comment. When looking back on the 2001 Lions one could have mentioned their devastating play in the First Test when they destroyed the Wallabies with some fantastic tries, or one could have mentioned the Second Test when Australia came back from the dead at half time to win, or one could have mentioned the nailbiting cliffhanger of the Third Test which could have gone either way up to the final whistle. Now they WERE great matches. But no. It's the "great match" between the Waratahs and Lions which was a stoush from beginning to end. And a reference to the single most sordid incident in the match. I'm not going to to and fro too much on the incidents. Fights in football matches, whatever the code, always leave a sour taste in the mouth because they are generally speaking not fair. They usually involve a cheap shot which the victim wasn't expecting, or a mismatch between say a second row and a scrum half or a two on one in which a three quarter enlists the help of one of his forwards to take out his opposite number. Subsequent attempts to justify them are usually cynical and spurious allegations of unlikely events. (Witness the comments above about a supposed "love triangle" between Messrs O'Gara, McRae and some young lady who evidently had a penchant for weedy little men) As one protagonist in another code once said quite eloquently after a particularly brutal encounter : "Look. If you want to box, say you want to box and we'll box. If you want to play football, say you want to play football and we'll play football" Can't argue with that. BTW I'm looking forward to the series enourmously too. :)

I might try getting to all three Tests actually!

Sure!

Where the rumours true about McRae's partner and O'Gara? If they were then I can understand the inexplicable hatred embedded in McRaes fists of fury... I'm sure it's not though.

The back story to the McRae assault (cheap shot) on O'Gara ... a few months before, playing in the English premierhsip, McCrae had been similarly assaulted by the the Lions and Leicester captain Martin Johnston. Johnston got some slap on the wrist punishment to what was a cowardly and thuggish action, or, as DD says above, a cowardly bogan who couldn't hack it in a fair contest. That doesn't condone what McRae did.

Dave I don't see anyone crowing about that hit from McRae.

That was a brilliant game. Tom Bowman was sent off/sin binned from the kick off for the crime of getting elbowed in the head by a Lions player... and it just kicked off from there. Brutal stuff. Sam Harris went absolutely mad in the second half and tore the Liosn to shreds - pity he never performed like that again.

Combined Country? Pacific Island would have been a better choice.

Hey Frank - I'm planning a Lions trip. Wanna swap tips on places to go, travel, etc?

Good. I'm planning a trip to Europe in August 2013, so I'll get to see the Lions before I go. I'm surprised about the Docklands in Melbourne... I know the Wallabies aren't great right now, but the Lions is such a huge tour, why not the MCG, like in 2007 against New Zealand!

You could go and watch Daniel Geil ;). Excuse spelling there..

Yawwn!!! I was wondering which would come first: Spiro whinging about the "Battle of Ballymore" in 1989 (again) or somebody crowing about a heroic thumping of an outhalf while he was held on the ground in 2001. You win. Which is not something you could say about any Australian boxers in the Olympics just gone. :D You want to watch a fight, get down to the boxing ring and watch a contest of skill between two people of approximately equal size going hand to hand without any outside or blindside help. The sort of guy who goes on to a rugby pitch just because he wants to fight is typically the sort of cowardly bogan who couldn't hack it in a fair contest. In my experience.

That game vs the Tahs will be a belt in Sydney. Remember the fracas with Duncan McRae last time...