From the general feeling in the British and Irish isles, the task awaiting Warren Gatland in New Zealand is a thankless one.The

Posted in IYH Forums by jokergreen0220 at 23:36, Feb 24 2020

From the general feeling in the British and Irish isles, the task awaiting Warren Gatland in New Zealand is a thankless one.Their first tour match is just seven days after the Aviva Premiership and PRO12 finals, the players will have reached breaking point and then come the worlds best side who havent lost at home since 2009. As Wales coach, Gatland has faced the All Blacks 10 times and lost on each occasion.It is rugbys version of Mission Impossible; the expected 20,000-strong army of Lions fans may as well save their time and watch from the comforts of living rooms and pubs.But if anyone can pull off the most unlikely of victories against the All Blacks, it is Gatland. One of their own, he knows the opposition inside out, he thinks like them, has their very DNA in his own rugby bones and every sinew of his being must be strained to breaking point if the Lions are to beat Steve Hansens side.Amid the rolling, undulating hills of New Zealands north island lies the Gatland household on the banks of the Waikato River where his wife Trudi lives. Brought up on Hamiltons Laurence Street by his parents Kaye and Dave, he went to school 10 minutes drive away at Hamilton Boys High School and captained their first-team in both cricket and rugby.An abrasive hooker, he made a record 140 appearance for Waikato and would have won full All Blacks Test honours but for the presence of Sean Fitzpatrick.His coaching career is a joint love affair between Waikato and the British and Irish isles.His first gig was at Taupiri in 1989 on the eastern bank of the Waikato river and later that year he headed to Ireland to take charge of Galwegians in a player/coach capacity. Following five years there his stock rose. After a short spell as assistant coach back in New Zealand with Thames Valley in 1996, Connacht then came calling later that year and in 1998 he replaced Brian Ashton as Ireland coach.He left Ireland in 2001 and then came the move to London Wasps in 2002 -- complete with three Premiership titles and a Heineken Cup. He then headed back to the familiar surroundings of Waikato and the Chiefs but in 2007 got the call from Wales and two Grand Slams, a further championship and a World Cup semifinal followed.This rooting in home union rugby has brought home the importance of the Lions to Gatland. In 1993 he was part of the Waikato side that thrashed the Lions 38-10, an appearance he marked with a try, at Hamiltons Rugby Park.Sixteen years on and he was part of Ian McGeechans backroom staff for their tour of South Africa. McGeechan, who was on his seventh and final Lions tour as a player and then coach, was impressed by Gatlands respect for the jersey. He understood why these quadrennial jaunts against one of the big three, where a bunch of players were charged with forging lifelong unity in a matter of hours, were no rugby anachronism.I remember when I was head coach in South Africa in 2009 and he [Gatland] was an assistant coach, and I asked him to speak to the team before one of the early provincial games, McGeechan wrote in his column for the Telegraph. He said no. He said he had not earned the right to do that at that stage. It showed great respect.Four years on, in 2013, and Gatland masterminded the Lions first series win since 1997 with a 2-1 triumph over Australia. He attempted to bring back much of the traditional touring aspects of the Lions with an emphasis on off-field bonding and also showed he is not one to shy away from making controversial calls when he dropped Brian ODriscoll for the third Test.Though his decision was vindicated with a 41-13 triumph, the vitriolic backlash from ex-players and armchair pundits shocked Gatland. At one stage he thought he could do without reprising the role in 2017 but the lure of the Lions proved too much, as did the temptation of gate-crashing his motherlands party.With the role confirmed, now comes the task of moulding his backroom staff. It wont be a case of jobs for his chums; in 2013 he chose then England coach Andy Farrell over his long-time Wasps and Wales ally Shaun Edwards. Its about the bigger picture so expect him to pluck a name from left-field and he may look to tempt Scotland coach Vern Cotter, who interviewed for the top Lions role, to join the brains trust.Then comes the task of assembling the squad. A total of 51 players ran out for Sir Clive Woodward on the Lions ill-fated 2005 tour but Gatland is likely to favour a smaller group like his class of 2013. His choice of captain will be fascinating. He could stick with 2013 Lions and Wales captain Sam Warburton or go for Englands Dylan Hartley; the latter moulded in Gatlands image, an abrasive New Zealand-born hooker.Gatlands gameplan will also be fascinating. His direct approach with Wales, one focused on forcing space through physicality, is likely to be tweaked to counter the All Blacks threats. Winning the collision area and coping with the New Zealand counter-attack will be top of his list. Then will come the task of drawing together the most effective 15 possible from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland.The Lions have already been written off. But this canny Kiwi thrives off winning and baring his teeth as the underdog. Mission Impossible? With Gatland at the helm its more improbable. He will have plenty of tricks up his sleeve and judging by how difficult a task it is to win on New Zealand soil, theyll need them. Darrel Williams Jersey . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from. Kyler Fackrell Jersey . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. http://www.prochiefsauthentic.com/Youth-Demarcus-Robinson-Elite-Jersey/ . Newcastle dominated in the early stages but City weathered the storm and then raised its game in extra time. 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RALEIGH, N.C. --?North Carolina?is challenging the NCAAs jurisdiction to pursue charges in the schools long-running academic fraud?scandal and is holding off on self-imposed penalties.The school on Tuesday publicly released its response to five potentially top-level NCAA charges, which include lack of institutional control. UNC acknowledged problems tied to irregular courses in a department popular with athletes on the Chapel Hill campus, but it argued that its accreditation agency -- and not the NCAA -- was the proper authority to handle such a matter.That agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, sanctioned the school with a year of probation that expired in June.UNC also said some charges were invalid because of an expired four-year statute of limitations. And it argued that the NCAA knew several facts that led to charges in this case when it issued sanctions against the football program in March 2012, which should have precluded any charges because a ruling is final, binding and conclusive, according to NCAA bylaws.UNC raises these jurisdictional and procedural issues not to excuse the underlying conduct or to escape accountability for those events before its accreditor or elsewhere, the response states, but rather to ensure mutual adherence to the rules that govern NCAA enforcement actions, including this one.As a result, the jurisdictional and procedural issues make it difficult ... to assign appropriate penalties for the alleged violations, the response states.The school argued that it disagreed with the institutional-control charge, but it accepted that former philosophy professor and womens basketball academic counselor Jan Boxill had provided improper academic assistance in several cases.Randall Roden, a Raleigh-based attorney representing Boxill, provided The Associated Press with a copy of his clients separate response to the NCAA charges. It denies wrongdoing in the opening sentence.It did not happen, Boxills response sttates.dddddddddddd Not one of the allegations against Jan Boxill is true.The responses are the latest procedural steps in a case that began as an offshoot of the football probe that began in 2010. The school and individuals charged had 90 days to respond to the NCAAs Notice of Allegations (NOA) sent in April outlining violations, though they received a one-week extension and filed their responses Monday.The NCAA enforcement staff now has 60 days to respond. That would eventually lead to a hearing with an infractions committee panel, with a ruling weeks to months afterward -- a timeline likely to carry the case into 2017.The case centers on independent study-style courses requiring a research paper or two while offering GPA-boosting grades in the formerly named African and Afro-American Studies (AFAM) department. Many classes that didnt meet were misidentified as lecture courses.A 2014 review by former U.S. Justice Department official Kenneth Wainstein estimated more than 3,100 students were affected between 1993 and 2011, with athletes across numerous sports making up roughly half the enrollments.The NCAA reopened its case in 2014 and first filed charges in May 2015. UNC was near its August 2015 response deadline when it reported additional information for review, pausing the process for eight months until the arrival of a new NOA.The revisions to the amended NOA expanded the time range for Boxills violations to stretch back four years earlier to February 2003 through July 2010, while a failure-to-monitor charge against the school ran from fall 2005 to summer 2011. There were also charges against each of the two former AFAM staffers most directly linked to the irregularities for failing to cooperate with NCAA investigators.In addition to trouble for UNC with its accreditation agency, the case also led to several lawsuits by former UNC athletes. ' ' '