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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from News Talk zedb.

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Speaker 2: Frish and Irish Lions will look to secure a series

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Speaker 2: victory over Australia with a game to spare when they

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Speaker 2: face the Wallabies in the second Test at the Melbourne

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Speaker 2: Cricket Ground tonight. The lines of course winning the first

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Speaker 2: Test twenty seven to nineteen in Brisbane a week ago.

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Speaker 3: And a lives stay unbeaten in Brisbane and put one

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Speaker 3: hand from a Tom Richet job.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. A Liones win tonight would sew up the series

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Speaker 2: with a game to play. By contrast, an Australian win

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Speaker 2: would level the series at one all. The final Test

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Speaker 2: is in Sydney next Saturday night. Great pleasure to welcome

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Speaker 2: in British and Irish Lions coach on their twenty thirteen

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Speaker 2: tour of Australia and twenty seventeen tour to New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: as well as former Chiefs and Wales coach and former

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Speaker 2: All Blacks hooker Warren Gatland, who's involved in the television

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Speaker 2: coverage of this current tour. Larren, thanks for joining us

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Speaker 2: on Weekend Sport. Let's look back a week what stood

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Speaker 2: up most in the British and Irish Lions win in

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Speaker 2: Test one in Brisbane.

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Speaker 3: For you, I just thought the way they dominated the

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Speaker 3: first half, I just sort their collision stuff, they go forward,

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Speaker 3: territory and possession really kind of shut Australia out in

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Speaker 3: the first stuff. In Fairnis Australia. They are a lot

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Speaker 3: better in the second half, but I felt that the

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Speaker 3: game was kind of had gone by then, so I was,

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Speaker 3: you know, I was impressed with them, you know, particularly

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Speaker 3: upfront dominating probably that Australian food pack.

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Speaker 2: How much improvement do you think there is in this

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Speaker 2: line side?

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Speaker 3: That's interesting. It's always this has been would have been

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Speaker 3: a tough week for them because they've had that game

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Speaker 3: on Tuesday against the First Nations team, so they sort

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Speaker 3: of mixing and matching and bought some players in and

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Speaker 3: you're trying to prepare for that. You're trying to give

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Speaker 3: the players that sort of belief that a good performance

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Speaker 3: and they play well, they've got a chance to be

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Speaker 3: collected in the in the in the test site. That's

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Speaker 3: a challenge, and you're also trying on the back of

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Speaker 3: your mind trying to prepare the Test team to get

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Speaker 3: them ready for seven night too, so it's a tough week.

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Speaker 1: But I felt that.

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Speaker 3: They have improved from the pre tour game against Argentina

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Speaker 3: and they've got better. Obviously, some of the combinations are

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Speaker 3: working quite well and there's a lot of competition to

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Speaker 3: lose forwards. They've picked up a few injuries, so I

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Speaker 3: think it's Tralily going to be absolutely desperate. You know,

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Speaker 3: they want to they want to tie the series and

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Speaker 3: go to Sydney hopefully for a decider. The great thing

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Speaker 3: about winning the first tests is that you know that

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Speaker 3: you're there right until the end anyway.

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Speaker 2: Indeed, so three changes to the line starting fifteen seven

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Speaker 2: to the twenty three for the second test tonight, A couple,

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Speaker 2: as you mentioned, injury enforced Joe McCarthy, Siowy Top a

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Speaker 2: Lot who both injured, Olie Chessham Bundy a key and

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Speaker 2: also Andrew Porter come in. Is that kind of what

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Speaker 2: you expected, that that, barring those injuries it would be

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Speaker 2: a fairly settled line sight.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't expect too many changes. I think that

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Speaker 3: the word was that it was going to be Archy

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Speaker 3: and ring Rows in the midfield. Ring Ross pulled out,

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Speaker 3: you know, he's had a couple of head knocks and stuff,

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Speaker 3: so you know, maybe one or two changes, three changes,

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Speaker 3: it's you know, it's quite a number of changes. But

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Speaker 3: there's been a lot of competition on this tour and

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Speaker 3: I think for Australia, you know, they've have got to

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Speaker 3: dominate somewhere. And I thought that First Nations team there

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Speaker 3: was a couple of areas. I thought they were quite

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Speaker 3: good at the breakdown, they had a couple of turnovers

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Speaker 3: even though they were earned a lot of pressure in

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Speaker 3: that first half. I thought the scrumb went well. I

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Speaker 3: got a couple of scrumping reason they defended aggressively at

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Speaker 3: the back and then shut the lines down at time.

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Speaker 3: So you know, there's there's areas of this game where

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Speaker 3: you want to have some sort of dominance and I

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Speaker 3: didn't feel, you know, apart from the aspects of the

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Speaker 3: second half, that Australia really had that in the first Test.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think most people expected more from them. Did

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Speaker 2: you did you think they would be better from the

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Speaker 2: first worst the less? You say, they kind of came

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Speaker 2: right in the second half, But did you expect more

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Speaker 2: from the Wallabies from the start?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think it's been one of the things that

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Speaker 3: the lines have done. They've defended really well. I mean

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Speaker 3: the forced teams back, the teams haven't really had a

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Speaker 3: lot of go forward against him. And I thought in

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Speaker 3: the second Test when Australia started to pick and go

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Speaker 3: a little bit, they McDermott came on and caused a

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Speaker 3: little bit of damaged sort of snipping around the fringes

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Speaker 3: and they got a little bit of go forward and

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Speaker 3: then probably in that second half they you know, they

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Speaker 3: had you know, a lot better performance. And I think

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Speaker 3: there's something that Skelton come in and that'll see to

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Speaker 3: his game. Valentini he's always really direct in the way

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Speaker 3: that he that he carries in pereki as well up front. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: so I think there'll be a lot more direct, you know,

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Speaker 3: particularly around the fringes. You know, tonight for the game

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Speaker 3: and and looking forward to it.

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Speaker 2: Tomliner retains the team jersey. It's a bit of a

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Speaker 2: baptism of fire, isn't it for a young player, even

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Speaker 2: though he's got a very famous surname. Do you think

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Speaker 2: there would have been any temptation Warren from Joe Schmidt

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Speaker 2: to give James O'Connor the teen jersey?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, possibly or maybe some time, but you know, sometimes

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Speaker 3: when you make a call like that, you've got to

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Speaker 3: stick with it because then you're just going to completely

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Speaker 3: knock his confidence and that and he would have learned

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Speaker 3: a huge amount of fight as a young player sort

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Speaker 3: of playing at a level and experience and the pace,

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Speaker 3: the intensity and the physicality of his first start and

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Speaker 3: he's come off the bens a couple of times and stuff.

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Speaker 3: So I think as a coach often you make those

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Speaker 3: big calls and then you've just got to stick with them.

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Speaker 3: And then and maybe you know the thing with Joe

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Speaker 3: and Australia and know the lines so is important, but

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Speaker 3: they're also in the back of them, want to potentially

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Speaker 3: thinking a couple of years time with the World Cup

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Speaker 3: and developing players for that term, making sure that it's

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Speaker 3: going to be really important for Australian rugby two.

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Speaker 2: So since the lines have arrived in Australia, they've won

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Speaker 2: all seven matter, which is no Lions side has gone

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Speaker 2: unbeaten overseas on a tour since nineteen seventy four in

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Speaker 2: South Africa. How big an incentive would that provide the

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Speaker 2: Lions an unbeaten time on Australian soil.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I think that would be massive. You know, it'd

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Speaker 3: be huge for them. It would be I know how

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Speaker 3: disappointed they were with the game in Dublin. It's before

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Speaker 3: they before they're left, but to go and defeate it

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Speaker 3: on a tour, you know, it's incredibly tough because I

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Speaker 3: don't think people always realize, you know, how difficult it

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Speaker 3: is to bring a Lions titting together. When you're bringing

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Speaker 3: the players from four nations and you have a few

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Speaker 3: weeks preparation and you're playing, you're trying to mix a match,

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Speaker 3: you're playing two games a week, you're in and out

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Speaker 3: hotels and traveling, and you're playing away from home against

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Speaker 3: you know, normally one of the best teams in the world,

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Speaker 3: and so it's a massive challenge. So if they're able

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Speaker 3: to do that, it would be be a huge coupe

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Speaker 3: for this Lion team. I think it's going to be

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Speaker 3: a huge part of your motivation in terms of going

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Speaker 3: to win that second Test and definitely go undefeated.

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Speaker 2: What are the best strategies for navigating the challenges you

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Speaker 2: just outlined there bringing everybody together, short space of time,

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Speaker 2: highly motivated opposition who only really get one chance in

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Speaker 2: their career to play the lines. How do you navigate

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Speaker 2: those challenges as a coach and as a management team.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's always the real challenge. And I speak to

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Speaker 3: a lot of people who had been on previous tours

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Speaker 3: and probably the common vene that came back to me

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Speaker 3: was the rugby kind of took care of itself. It

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Speaker 3: was trying to make sure that harmony off the field

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Speaker 3: was as good as it could be. And it's one

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Speaker 3: of the things that I did, and it doesn't always

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Speaker 3: help with your preparation. And if you're in the back

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Speaker 3: of your mind, if you're thinking about combinations and test matches,

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Speaker 3: is sort of saying to the players, you know, everyone

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Speaker 3: would get a start in the first three games. And

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Speaker 3: if you're a player and you're on tour and the

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Speaker 3: coach says you're going to get a start, and you think,

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Speaker 3: I five play well and the team plays well, and

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Speaker 3: now maybe there's an opportunity for me to be selected,

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Speaker 3: and the test side of the startiing fifteen or the

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Speaker 3: twenty three, and that kind of I found that was

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Speaker 3: really really positive for the group, feeling everyone felt like

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Speaker 3: they had an opportunity that they've been in the shop window,

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Speaker 3: you know. So, like I said, it's not always the

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Speaker 3: easiest thing to do, but you know you've got to

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Speaker 3: try and really get those things. And you know, having

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Speaker 3: a few nights out together as a team are particularly

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Speaker 3: early on, you know, a couple of quiet ones to

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Speaker 3: sort of bring everyone together as always as a real

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Speaker 3: positive as well, and they would have done lots of

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Speaker 3: things with committees and you know, having for that we

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Speaker 3: things in terms of everyone being involved, and I'm sure

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Speaker 3: Andy would have done a really good job in terms

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Speaker 3: of trying to facilitate that all.

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Speaker 2: Right back to tonight to finish, can you see Australia

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Speaker 2: improving enough to take this to a third Test?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think they have to. I think that they DestinE.

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Speaker 3: I can remember back in twenty thirteen and the emotion

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Speaker 3: afterwards that the Australian players, James Fall and that sort

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Speaker 3: of expressed and released they were so desperate to win

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Speaker 3: their second Test and they're going to be absolutely desperate tonight.

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Speaker 3: So and it's probably in the back of their minds

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Speaker 3: that they are the desperate ones Australia. The Lions know

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Speaker 3: they've kind of sort of a get out of jail cut,

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Speaker 3: if you know what I mean. In terms of I'm

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Speaker 3: sure that they won't want to use that, but it's

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Speaker 3: a testament. It's rugby. Even in the season, it's really

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Speaker 3: really difficult to be on that absolute mental age and

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Speaker 3: peak game after game after game, and so I think Australia,

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Speaker 3: you know, that's definitely where they have to be. But

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Speaker 3: you know, it's a really strong Lions team and looking

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Speaker 3: forward to what's going to be hopefully you're really entertaining

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Speaker 3: and you know, really really exciting encounter.

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Speaker 2: Yet so Laarren, really appreciate you joining us with your

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Speaker 2: insight and expertise. Thanks for your time this afternoon on ZB.

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Speaker 3: Cheers, Cheers, funny thanks.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Warren. Warren Gatlin. They're out of Melbourne where

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Speaker 2: he's part of the television commentary team for tonight's second

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Speaker 2: Test Australia, British and Irish Lines mcg vearying reports, what

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Speaker 2: was the placehold? One hundred thousand over ninety thousand? Anywayre

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Speaker 2: going to be there, you have to think it will

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Speaker 2: get pretty close to capacity. Just as an indication of

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Speaker 2: the favoritism here on our tab, the British and Irish

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Speaker 2: lines are paying a dollar twenty two Australia four dollars

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Speaker 2: twenty but they will be desperate they have to win

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Speaker 2: to keep the series alive, but the British and Irish line,

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Speaker 2: certainly last week it didn't feel to me anyway got

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Speaker 2: out of third gear and winning that. So it's going

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Speaker 2: to take a big upswing in the fortunes of Australian

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Speaker 2: rugby if they're going to take this to a serious

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Speaker 2: decider in Sydney a week from now.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk zed B weekends from midday or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio