Dvd review
Chasing the Lions with Hector O heochagain and Risteard Cooper has generated huge hype in the media. The title is particularly apt as Sky’s exclusive rights to the 2005 Lions tour allowed Hector no access to on the field action and the whole DVD plays like a 90 minute exercise in trying to obtain sound bites from the Irish Lions.
Hector does display admirable ingenuity in his attempts to get an audience with the players. At one stage he poses as a courier to gain access to the foyer of the Lions hotel. He succeeds in getting a package delivered to Brian O’Driscoll’s room, a home made t-shirt proclaiming “Wanted Tana Umaga for the assassination of Brian O’Driscoll”.
The DVD follows in linear order the progress of the tour mainly through analyzing media coverage both here and in New Zealand. Gerry Thornley, Eddie Butler and George Hook all contribute from this part of the world while the range of Kiwi pundits is fantastic. Legendary All-Blacks such as Colin Meads, Ian Jones and Grant Fox offer insightful perspectives.
Irish viewers may be most interested in the views of Stu Wilson, Wilson was the original rampaging All-Black wing long before Lomu and Kirwan. He toured Ireland with the Grand slam winning New Zealand side of 1978 that famously came unstuck against Munster at Thomond Park. Little Seamus Dennison of Munster knocked Wilson into the middle of next week in a tackle that changed the course of the match. The moment has bee re-created as one of the seminal scenes in “Alone It Stands”, the Broadway play made in memory of the game.
Whether you enjoy this DVD or not will largely depend on your feelings about O heochagain and Cooper. Cooper’s impersonations of Eddie O’Sullivan, Clive Woodward and George Hook, among others, are sidesplitting. Hectors brash style works well in some of his dealings with the New Zealand media but the fact he is not a huge rugby fan is obvious. The over shoulder style of the documentary can look shabby when compared to the sleek packaging we have come to expect from modern sports programming
All in all the entire documentary is good fun but not something to engage the serious rugby buff. It was always going to prove extremely difficult to make a compelling documentary about a subject matter that was so disappointing.
Hector does display admirable ingenuity in his attempts to get an audience with the players. At one stage he poses as a courier to gain access to the foyer of the Lions hotel. He succeeds in getting a package delivered to Brian O’Driscoll’s room, a home made t-shirt proclaiming “Wanted Tana Umaga for the assassination of Brian O’Driscoll”.
The DVD follows in linear order the progress of the tour mainly through analyzing media coverage both here and in New Zealand. Gerry Thornley, Eddie Butler and George Hook all contribute from this part of the world while the range of Kiwi pundits is fantastic. Legendary All-Blacks such as Colin Meads, Ian Jones and Grant Fox offer insightful perspectives.
Irish viewers may be most interested in the views of Stu Wilson, Wilson was the original rampaging All-Black wing long before Lomu and Kirwan. He toured Ireland with the Grand slam winning New Zealand side of 1978 that famously came unstuck against Munster at Thomond Park. Little Seamus Dennison of Munster knocked Wilson into the middle of next week in a tackle that changed the course of the match. The moment has bee re-created as one of the seminal scenes in “Alone It Stands”, the Broadway play made in memory of the game.
Whether you enjoy this DVD or not will largely depend on your feelings about O heochagain and Cooper. Cooper’s impersonations of Eddie O’Sullivan, Clive Woodward and George Hook, among others, are sidesplitting. Hectors brash style works well in some of his dealings with the New Zealand media but the fact he is not a huge rugby fan is obvious. The over shoulder style of the documentary can look shabby when compared to the sleek packaging we have come to expect from modern sports programming
All in all the entire documentary is good fun but not something to engage the serious rugby buff. It was always going to prove extremely difficult to make a compelling documentary about a subject matter that was so disappointing.
posted by wesley maj at 12:03 PM
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