British & Irish Lions hope to ROAR in Australia

pic via BBC SPORT

This Saturday will see the British & Irish Lions face Australia for the first time in 12 years, as they look to win their first series in 16 years since the Lions of 1997 in South Africa won 2-1. They will hope to defeat the Wallabies down under, as the tour back in 2001 saw the Lions lose 2-1 to the Aussies after they had won the opening test match.

This time around though the Lions hope to avenge the series loss and see them win a series in Australia for the first time since 1989 when the British Lions beat the Australians 2-1 on home territory back then.

The Lions of 2013 had been on an unbeaten run till this past week, when their winning streak was broken by the ACT Brumbies of the Australian Super Rugby, as the Lions fell 14-12 to the league leaders of Super rugby and put in a pretty poor performance by the Lions .

They had found themselves 14-3 down, till they clawed their way back in the match making it a 2 point game with Scotland`s Stuart Hogg and England`s Owen Farrell kicking penalties for the tourists, as they crawled inch by inch closer to the Brumbies total but they never looked like beating them.

WARREN GATLAND   pic via Guardian.com 

It will be the second successive tour for a Lions touring party to have a New Zealander in charge when playing the Aussies, as back in the last tour there in 2001 the British and Irish Lions were coached by Graham Henry and the tour was dogged by unrest in the camp as players voiced concerns over preparations for the series which they lost.

On this current tour though the man in charge of the Lions is New Zealander Warren Gatland, who is head coach of the current Six Nations champions Wales.

So far on this tour the Lions have played against inferior opposition and build up to the test series has been hampered by the Australian sides resting key players instead of playing stronger squads in the warm up games.

Australian management have said during this tour that they are not in position to help their opponents out before the series, as it`s not their prerogative to help them out.

Gatland`s men started out this tour with a couple of comfortable victories over the Barbarians in Hong Kong, before flying over to Australia where they faced Western Force and thrashed them both fairly easily.

The first test they faced while down under was against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane, where they were given a real game winning 22-12 against the hosts as they overcame a very spirited Reds side. 

pic via getty images

They then faced a Combined New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD) Country side in Newcastle, That contained a Medical student, engineer, Electrician and an apprentice plumber in their ranks alongside a few players from Super rugby too.

It came as no surprise when the Lions torn their opponents apart as they led 38-0 at half time and should have piled the points on more, however that never happened in the second half as they became complacent and sloppy as they started to be over confident.

It led to Gatland being displeased with the performance of the second 40, as they should have been aiming for nearer the 80 to 90 points mark due to the quality of the side they were playing. Also the side they had out on the field too should have put that type of score up to.

With all due respect to the their opponents, they did try their utter most to make it as competitive as they could but they weren`t in the same league as the Tourists as experience and quality shown, as the Lions hit 64 points and shut out the opposition in the process.

pic via getty images

There second real test of the tour came when they faced stern opposition against the New South Wales Waratahs.

Previous encounters against the Waratahs had seen fireworks take place between both sides including the last meeting back in 2001.

Ronan O Gara was punched 11 times by full-back Duncan McRae with an unprovoked attack on the Irish player as he was pinned him down and rained blow after blow upon O Gara, As it looked liked he had been in a boxing ring with Mike Tyson after the beating was stopped.

O Gara had sustained a cut below his eye and bruising too around the eye, as the beating he took told the full story. McRae was given his marching orders as the referee shown him the red card and the match even involved a few yellow cards handed out to both sides too. 

In this contest Warren Gatland’s men came out flying from the start and had put 10 points on the scoreboard after 7 minutes of play as they looked to get into a rhythm a week before they faced Australia in the opening test.

Every time the Waratahs seemed to get closer to the Lions score, the tourists then pulled away again.

pic via getty images

As we went into the break the Tourist went 23-10 up, in the second half the Lions then carried on their good play and upped their work rate as they went from 30-17 to 47-17 up. They were playing some great rugby along the way as well as scoring some well worked tries too. 

pic via yahoo sport

As mentioned the recent loss to the Brumbies in Canberra this week be looked upon as a setback for Gatland and his men, but will also add to the argument that that been mentioned a lot over this Lions tour, as maybe they will be coming into this 3 match series under-prepared due to the way Australia have treated the touring Lions. A Lions tour is looked upon by people in the rugby world as a famous tradition and one to be excited about and celebrate, as it only happens every four years.

But the way Australia have treated this 2013 tour along with the organisation of putting fixtures together, especially as this is the 125th anniversary of the British Lions this year has been disgraceful to the Lions name. 

It`s also been discussed in some corners that maybe future series down under in Australia maybe stopped due to the lack of competitiveness of sides there and the distinct lack of interest shown by the them down under. 

In the test match starting this weekend, If the British Lions can use their power in the scrums and use the turnovers wisely then there is no reason why the Lions can`t roar to victory come full time at Brisbane. Plus with the two new comers to the squad in Shane Williams coming out of retirement to help the injured Lions out he will miss out on the first test. England Prop Alex Corbisiero who joined the squad late is a shock inclusion to the starting line up for the game.