could a successful lions tour hold the key to Wales beating the SH

A long title I know but stick with it.

We all know that Wales haven't beaten a sh team in a long time. If, as many on here suspect the lions are made up of mostly Welsh and we go down there and smash themcould out gee the psychological key to opening the southern hemisphere for for Wales?

The players are good enough, they know how to win games so it must be a mental thing and for me I think that might do it.

Not only that but having some yonder players come through in Japan well only strengthen...so next season should be dominant...should be

I guess it will depend on how many Wales players will play in the test matches.

And of course if the Lions do manage too win a test. that will be a big question .

Well...it'll always be a case of who-is-helping-you?

Plus... a Welsh dominant Lions beating/ "smash"ing the Aussies doesn't preclude England, Ireland or Scotland doing the same on their own when they next meet the Aussies...or indeed beating Wales itself next time round. It's a continuous game of "we beat you and then you beat the side that beat us"

It won't be a leg-up psycholgically for Welsh players - I don't think psychology is what was defeating them in the first place - just playing well enough to be close but not well enough to win.

And that will always be the unknown on any given day during any given game against SH opposition. How well you play on the day.

For any player involved it would be a massive confidence booster... then again a series defeat can destroy players i.e. Balshaw.

I still think we're big underdogs. The Brumbies look especially good this year and AUS have a backline which would dominate the ABs.

Genia, Cooper, Ioane, O'Connor, Ashley-Cooper, Mogg, Beale.

How do we beat a backline like that?

by smashing their forwards so their backline is nullified forwards win games back decide by how many

How do we beat a backline like that?

With Phillips, North, Roberts, Davies and Cuthbert obviouly .

and i think the lions will have the pack to do that

AUS are the masters of playing so called "stronger" packs. It doesn't impact their game.

AUS have a current 7 wins in 9 vs the boks... the biggest of them all.

fa0019 wrote:For any player involved it would be a massive confidence booster... then again a series defeat can destroy players i.e. Balshaw.

I still think we're big underdogs. The Brumbies look especially good this year and AUS have a backline which would dominate the ABs.

Genia, Cooper, Ioane, O'Connor, Ashley-Cooper, Mogg, Beale.

How do we beat a backline like that?

Henry screwed Balshaw not the series defeat

I still think thats how Gatland will approach it and I think it will be successful

It's worth pointing out that Australia scrum has improved significantly in the last 2 years as well. Doesnt make them a better team though. The key to beat them is defense.

fa0019 wrote:AUS are the masters of playing so called "stronger" packs. It doesn't impact their game.

AUS have a current 7 wins in 9 vs the boks... the biggest of them all.

Thats so true. It is fundamentally holding them back from more decisive wins such is the way their backs carve it up but last year they were hit by injury all over the park- most of their key match winners out and still held their no.2 position basically all year.

On paper the Lions have a very strong side but how the team gels is unknown, sometimes its good, sometimes not. McGeechan had his bad moments as much as he has inspirational ones as coach.

I would say the 01 Lions side had better individuals and the this AUS side is better than the one we faced in 01 (albeit not so strong for Pocock being injured) but a backrow of Higginbottom, Hooper and Auelua would be very useful. The way Auelua smashed the sharks on the weekend was freightening given he's not even capped.

Yes and in that respect I will worry about Roberts if he was to start as although he is an absolute rock when people run head on at him (a la tuilagi) is he is against a stepper he could b wrong footed quite easily

Yes and in that respect I will worry about Roberts if he was to start as although he is an absolute rock when people run head on at him (a la tuilagi) is he is against a stepper he could b wrong footed quite easily