Maori All Blacks vs British and Irish Lions: International rugby live scores, blog

Look at these comments T-man. Remarkable. What a little man you were and are.

Do you remember how many lies you spread back in the day, T-man? And how wrong you were.

ahhh...get it now, you make a good point

Highlander, unfortunately I am overseas where there is no coverage and schedule dictates I can only read about the events well after. The point I was trying to make was that I am no fan of Colin Cooper as a coach and his record with the MAB's I think is woeful given the talent he has at his disposal.

That's the most annoying thing, for a test match the Māori were handed a dud in not being afforded a decent preparation time or warm-up match. The Māori were poor all round in just about every facet of the game, the only player who IMO can hold their head high is Akira Ioane.

Tag rugby, Colin Cooper style. Previous Maori coaches knew that flare is one thing but you have to be competitive in the set pieces. Warning signs were last years tests? against Japan and the loss to the NZ babas. Tag rugby never worked for the Hurricanes under Cooper nor the Maori now. The tight five can be rugged players for their franchises but not for the Maori game plan. To much standing back and waiting for the attack. No combination, no warm up game, sounds like a set up? As long as there are no talk about getting rid of the Maori team! Probably could have been worse, 12 try drubbing and even I would be calling for their disbanding.

The Maori were very poor, but some of that came with kings pressure. And the same as vs the saders, young players didn't cope with the step up to test intensity. Playing McKenzie at ten was foolish, especially as he's not really played there all session. And the few test hardened players, some played well (dixon and messam,, nms when he got the ball) but tkb was game losing bad. However even with mountains of possession and territory, the lions only managed one try

Another reply full of lies, tears, hubris and BS. Try to prove one single claim you say about me. Just one. You seem to have all the time in the world, so just backtrack in my profile and look through my comments. Show the world all the things you claim about me is true.

Typical though, he's a newby, and it shows...he's arrived back in the Lions camp after a bit of an absence. He's been all over the place this series, including calling the Crusaders the best nation in world rugby after England...I mean go figure... this has been typical Lions fare, generally winning up to the first test, the second side doing it hard, the first taking forever it seems to get on top of their opposite. Great that he's now firmly back in the Lions camp. Now we sit back and watch.

Very predictable comments again Neutral, back on the Lions this and that again I see. Yes it's going to be tough but the Lions inability to create tries with such a wealth of possession is 'outstandingly' poor. Samoa played better in that first 20 than the Maori put up all match. In both cases it took both the winners about half hour to get on top of their opposites, the difference being that the ABs made ten times the use of their ball than the Lions, who had the ball and territory for practically the entire match. ABs just don't lose to this style of play anymore unless their guard is down, as in Chicago. There is no element of surprise here. That is gone. Anyway, there will be no convincing you of anything as you've flipped and flopped around this series like any novice to a Lions tour of NZ has in the past. ABs will front just as and if not more physically than the Lions will next week and will do it just as ugly as the Lions won their two matches if they need to. They know they've got the measure of the Lions right across the park...the scrum, lineout, the breakdowns and certainly with ball in hand. It'll start tight but already this AB side looks much better than last year, and probably any before it, their efficiency levels and bench at very good levels. We've met tougher Wallaby and Springbok sides than this in the last ten years and I think you'll find out next week what you've been not getting all along. And the reason the media say they're boring is...'cos they are'. We dropped boring long ago, to look after the sport, to allow our fans to enjoy the rugby, as well as the winning. How we play it is every bit as important as the result. That took a lot of work, but it pays off. The Lions struggle to use the ball creatively, usually through fear of stuffing it up. The ABs welcome risk, buy into it in fact. Because the cost of not using quality ball is too high. The NH don't care about who they please. Their fans buy into matches of attrition, because that's all they know. Anyway, we go forward. The results are pretty much as I picked before the series except the Saders and Highlanders matches went the 'other way. Three more losses for the Lions, just the tests. Then on to the rugby championship, where South Africa after a couple of good wins over France, including this morning, look a fairly good challenge. Should be a great series, but I don't see any losses, the first half of the first test the nearest the Lions will get.

No you.

We will see good sir.

I know and understand that you are backing your team J, anything else would be a huge surprise. And the AB's will be something really different and a big step up for the Lions. But this Lions pack looks pretty special, and that foundation of Saracens/Ireland I told you about before the tour, is looking the real deal. In Itoje and Kruis they have the men to bring it to Retallick and Whitelock. Another thing, the Lions do lack some finishing qualities so far, but they are creating chances non-stop. If those last passes stick, the AB's will be in huge trouble. As said before, the magic number to beat the AB's are to score 30 points. Today they scored 32 and probably leaving another 15-20 points on the park.

I still don't know Neutral. I think the Lions will be working just as hard. The AB's have the backs with skill to unlock these guys, and the forwards to laydown the foundation for them to do so. I guess we will find out who the better total team is.

Hansen and the boys are gonna have a very busy week, no doubt. A huge challenge awaits them if they want to win this series. But honestly, I think Hansen has known for months that this is gonna be the AB's toughest opponents since he took over in 2012. I said from the start that this Lions team is in NZ to challenge the AB's very hard. Does not matter that the gameplan is telegraphed and obvious because it proves again and again that it works against Kiwi teams if you have the kettle and the intensity to go the full 80 minutes. A bit sad to see that every Kiwi columnist can't stop talking how boring the Lions play, instead of saluting a master class performance. All the sudden no one like scrums, lineouts etc. It sounds almost like the columnists are League fans...

Great Haka... but that was the best part of the Maoris game. Then it was the Lions show, poor skills poor execution and handling errors with constant penalties they handed the game to the Lions on a silver platter!! Extremely disappointing, they really let themselves down. The Lions played well with a mountain of possession and waiting for the MAB mistakes to pile up.. the Maori ABs were lucky they didn't blow the score out.... The short space to prepare obviously wasn't nearly enough... but thats a lame excuse for not catching the ball, missing tackles and playing their natural game. Again, the Lions played well, but I dont believe thats the whole reason they won. The Maori ABs blew it!!! The team is a quality side, that let the basics slip and didn't man up in the contest.

Hey Neutral I don't think the MAB built enough phase play. In the second half the lions had the ball 82% and 75% for the match so I don't think the 2 defensive efforts are comparable because the Lions didn't tackle much. But when they did it was quality I recon Hansen and co are working on a way to find space in there. But there control on the game with the ball was very good.

I would be a subscriber! He was driving me up the wall....I was ranting and raving by the end and couldn't listen to another word from him....grrrrrrrrrr ps i swear he said the Lions "are looking onimous" too! ;-)

McKenzie was all at sea--made some dumb decisions.Lowe, Franklin and Reiko Ioane demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge about how to defuse a bomb...especially a wet bomb....and I think I counted at least 3 of Lowe's kicks that were awful. TKB deserves a king-sized rocket for two dumb penalties within 3 minutes( the first cost 3 points and the 2nd was the YC---that he began to argue about ffs!) and dodged a red card very narrowly. The scrum was very bad.Dunno what was going on there but it seems to me that these scratch sides deserve to have a warm-up fixture or two to make them viable--otherwise what is the point? \ Very disappointing.

What an arrogant statement that is! ;-)