- Jun 13, 2008
- 21,894
- 32,582
New Zealand? A tad underwhelming to be honest, maybe they aren't the unbeatable machine afterall? It's not to take away from the Lions performances either. They showed the all blacks to be mortal.
For me they lacked a bit of leadership, particularly in the backline and just lacked a bit of pragmatism and direction at times - no Carter, Nonu or Smith any more showed, and then injuries/suspensions didn't help.
It seemed to me that they kept trying to force it and play in the wrong areas. Lions defence was its strong point, and they did well in this aspect, but I felt NZ kept repeating mistakes, playing in the wrong areas, and definitely playing to the Lions benefit. They lacked someone who could calm things down and a touch of pragmatism, it wasn't until late on yesterday that 9 and 10 started to kick and so play in the right areas and build pressure for example.
Lack of a reliable goal kicker in tight games does also eventually come back to haunt you.