YupDo you believe that all ten are the best in their position for the Lions?
I d have picked best at 2 tooReally? Phillips, Davies, Hibbard, Lydiate and Roberts arguably shouldn't be there
HSM the team has been named
Team: 15-Leigh Halfpenny (Wales), 14-Tommy Bowe (Ireland), 13-Jonathan Davies (Wales), 12-Jamie Roberts (Wales), 11-George North (Wales), 10-Jonathan Sexton (Ireland), 9-Mike Phillips (Wales), 8-Toby Faletau (Wales), 7-Sean O'Brien (Ireland), 6-Dan Lydiate (Wales), 5-Geoff Parling (England), 4-Alun Wyn Jones (captain, Wales), 3-Adam Jones (Wales), 2-Richard Hibbard (Wales), 1-Alex Corbisiero (England)
Replacements - 16-Tom Youngs (England), Mako Vunipola (England), 18-Dan Cole (England), 19-Richie Gray (Scotland), 20- Justin Tipuric (Wales), 21-Conor Murray (Ireland), 22-Owen Farrell (England), 23-Manu Tuilagi (England)
I was greatly shocked by the omission of BOD, so too many welsh men on the board I use, Awfully Brave or awfully stupid to leave him out, Win the Match very brave, loose it and gatland will be crucified,
Youngs had a terrible game Phillips I think is the obvious choice, better than Murry, Davies for BOD, bit iffy that,
Corbisero was going to slot in once fit anyway.
Felatau, well he does offer more I think than heaslip around the fringes
We are going to try and out muscle the Aussies
Dangerous tactic that.
Clearly Gatland wants impact in the centres. Jaw to start and Tuilagi to continue after 55mins methinks. Since they can't carry 2 centres on bench, it comes to a straight choice, who do you drop BoD or Foxy? Foxy has played well out of position BoD has not been on top form but if the chips are down, his experience would be what I'd want. It's a close call, but I'd have gone with BoD
BOD is like George Smith - I think its a question of class.That selection has done wonders for my cause. Strangely considering BOD was the only person I wanted on the tour in the first place, I didn't really think he deserved to be on the plane on the basis of his six nations form.
Truth be told the Lions will lose this tour in the forwards and more especially the line out. Without a functioning line out that your opponents struggle to challenge a team cannot gain any sort of grip on a modern game of rugby. The hookers have copped the blame but the coordination involved just cannot be achieved by a scratch team in a matter of weeks. At least I can unequivocally support Australia on Saturday, I suspect I will be joined by many thousands of fellow Irishmen and women.