Ireland captain Brian O’Driscoll said yesterday he was not worried about the performance of the British and Irish Lions after they fought for a 37-25 win against the Royal XV in their South African tour opener.
Writing in the Observer, O’Driscoll — who is on tour but was not playing in Rustenburg on Saturday — said mistakes were made, but this was inevitable for a team made up of players from four countries in their first match.
“Most of the mistakes were minor, the result mainly of jitters and unfamiliarity. They will reduce in number the longer the tour goes on,” he wrote.
PHOTO: EPA
O’Driscoll — who this season led Ireland to the Six Nations Grand Slam, their first clean sweep in 61 years — said Saturday’s match was “a far better and more meaningful match” than against Perth in Australia eight years ago.
“There is no place in a short tour for weak opponents and the Royal XV were anything but that,” the center, overlooked for the Lions captaincy in favor of Ireland team-mate Paul O’Connell, explained.
“There were areas we clearly have to work on, but there were also significant positives, not least bouncing back after we went 12 points behind with 12 minutes left,” added O’Driscoll, whose time as Lions captain on the 2005 tour of New Zealand was cut short by a controversial “spear tackle” involving then All Black captain Tana Umaga.
O’Driscoll singled out Keith Earls for praise, despite the young center from Ireland having a debut in the red jersey he may want to forget.
“He tried to overcompensate after an early slip, but his defense was always strong and he never tried to hide from the ball. He remains a young man with a huge future,” O’Driscoll insisted of his fellow Irish midfielder.
The tour continues with a match against the Golden Lions in Johannesburg on Wednesday and there are a further four fixtures before the British and Irish Lions play the first of three Tests against world champions South Africa in Durban on June 20.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS