Lions Watch

[Italophile]

Jake White says he turned down an interview with the IRFU. Probably true, though he has history in this area, having claimed to have been approached by the RFU for the England job.

 

[thierry dusautoir]

This guy has to be on the plane....close to the best finisher in europe.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

There is a newspaper article on another thread claiming that Dingo has chucked his hat in the ring for the IRU gig.

Edit: Stuffed that up. It is that Dingo may be in line for Leinster Head Coach.

Leinster look to Deans as Schmidt departure looms


http://www.independent.ie/sport/rug...eans-as-schmidt-departure-looms-29210840.html

In the article it suggests that Deans' agent has been throwing his CV around Europe, perhaps Dingo has accepted that the writing is on the wall.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Gatland on Rugby HQ tonight. "The Lions Squad will be announced on Tuesday".

 

[JSRF10]

Betting on St Sam as captain was suspended the other day. I think making him captain could be a huge mistake. He has played one good game this season and IMO shouldn't even be in the tour squad. Carlsberg don't do over rated rugby players...

 

[the plastic paddy]

I think Warburton would be an excellent choice as Lions captain, nothing better than having a captain who cannot really justify his place. Will be even more of a divisive decision if Fatland doesn't take Robshaw which looks increasingly likely, the English press will be right after Warburton then. They are pushing the claims of the drunk driver at scrum half and the hair puller on the wing, I hope they are successful as it will, hopefully, mean that Murray and Zebo are left at home to recuperate after Munster's heineken cup win.

 

[Bardon]

The backrow for the Lions is so competitive for the Lions that it would be crazy to name any of the captain. It's one area where some fantastic players are going to miss out even on getting on the plane. For me it's not about where Warburton, Robshaw or Heaslip are good players, on their day they're all fantastic players. But so are the 8-10 other guys who could be wearing numbers 6 to 8 for the Lions.

If we're to have any chance of competing with Australia we need to pick the inform backrow, that combination will emerge on the tour and may not contain any of those whose names have been bandied about over the last year or so as potential captains. Trying to shoehorn a captain into a backrow when there may potentially be 4 or 5 guys ahead of him, performance wise on the tour, would be ridiculous.

The captain should be an automatic pick so should come from a position where we don't have as much dept. Aside from the fractures it would caused that others have mentioned the last thing you need is for us to lose the first test and then for question to be raised about if the captain should have even been picked to tour. I don't see anyone as an automatic pick for the Lions backrow at the moment. The only guy I'd have in that bracket would be Fez, but he's injured and I wouldn't have him as captain anyway.

 

[the plastic paddy]

Madigan 1/7 with Paddy Power to tour!!!!! Hopefully that means Murray is going to be staying at home.

 

[JSRF10]

He went from 11/1 to 1/7 in a few days, dont actually think the Fatman will take him. One man who'l be regretting those numbers is Declan Kidney, if he'd picked him after Sextons injury in the 6 nations he'd probably still have a job.

For whats its worth my backrow selection would be:

SOB, Lydiate, Wood, Tipuric, Armitage, Faletu, Heaslip

POC would be my captain, there isn't a better leader in the NH right now.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Gatland on Rugby HQ tonight. "The Lions Squad will be announced on Tuesday".

Last chance to name your touring squad, or Captain and get bragging rights before the team is announced.

I think Warbuton will be named Captain and that the Soap Dodger Media won't be happy on account of too many Welsh and Irish.

 

[KevinO]

POC to be named Captain, won't be that many Irish in the squad. Think Warbuton is not going to start in the test's on form so he won't get captain. If he does it will be as a tour captain with match day captain to be named at a later stage.

Connor Murray to be there even though nothing I have read today suggests it.

Fox Sports news are showing the team announcement at 8pm tomorrow.

 

[KevinO]

Just read this to back up my previous post.

Planet Rugby Team of the week from the Heineken Cup Semi's

9 Conor Murray (Munster): You can't fault Murray for not getting involved. He made double the tackles of any other scrum-half this weekend and more than double the metres gained with ball in hand. He also kicked well. A mention for Clermont's little general Morgan Parrawho was his usual nuggety sense, bossing everyone around.

4 Paul O'Connell (Munster): The resurgent Munster skipper was the weekend's top lock in terms of line-outs won and was second only to Steve Borthwick in tackles made. Nathan Hines was initially pencilled in on teamsheet but loses out after a review of the stats revealed a few too many penalties conceded.

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,...planetrugby+(Planet+Rugby+|+Rugby+Union+News)

 

[Wales Fan]

He went from 11/1 to 1/7 in a few days, dont actually think the Fatman will take him. One man who'l be regretting those numbers is Declan Kidney, if he'd picked him after Sextons injury in the 6 nations he'd probably still have a job.

For whats its worth my backrow selection would be:

SOB, Lydiate, Wood, Tipuric, Armitage, Faletu, Heaslip

POC would be my captain, there isn't a better leader in the NH right now.

Love Lydiate as a player but to select him after just a handful of games would be a big risk Imho.
Agree with the rest of them apart from maybe Croft over Wood ? If he'd had a little more rugby Ben Morgan would've been on my shortlist too.

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[USARugger]

He went from 11/1 to 1/7 in a few days, dont actually think the Fatman will take him. One man who'l be regretting those numbers is Declan Kidney, if he'd picked him after Sextons injury in the 6 nations he'd probably still have a job.

For whats its worth my backrow selection would be:

SOB, Lydiate, Wood, Tipuric, Armitage, Faletu, Heaslip

POC would be my captain, there isn't a better leader in the NH right now.

To be fair to Declan (I feel sick) I think Madigan has really raised the level of his game post-Six Nations due to the extra games he got with Sexton representing country and after the official confirmation of Sexton's upcoming move to France. Either way I'm sure you have your fingers crossed you may get to see him ripping into the 'Tahs during the midweek game

 

[USARugger]

Love Lydiate as a player but to select him after just a handful of games would be a big risk Imho.
Agree with the rest of them apart from maybe Croft over Wood ? If he'd had a little more rugby Ben Morgan would've been on my shortlist too.

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Lydiate is a proven big-game player and absolutely played the house down last year. Injury, not a lack of form, is the reason we haven't seen his name in the press so much this year. Gatland also has a history with the lad and knows better than any of us exactly what he's capable of. He has a monstrous work-rate and is a defensive machine.

Can't agree with the idea of Morgan being on the plane. Offers no versatility in terms of positions he can play and also blows very hot and cold and seems to give a bit under pressure at times. Faletau is a consistent performer and does tons of all the ball work and while Heaslip hasn't particularly impressed me recently he has far more experience than Morgan, including Lions experience.

 

[Wales Fan]

Agree with all that on Lydiate, but just think a lions tour isn't the place to try and play yourself into form, however good you are.
That's exactly the mistake Wales made in Australia last year and Imho the main reason they lost the series. Gatland did a similar thing with Warburton on that tour - he'd hardly played in 3 months and was very rusty. He admitted himself that it took until the 3rd test til he felt comfortable with the pace of the game. Training fit isn't match fit.

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[USARugger]

You have to admit the overwhelmingly largest issue with Wales on their tour down under was Priestland. He bombed many opportunities that would have lead to Wales winning at least one match and possibly two. Persisting with him was a huge mistake, and weren't they under Howley for the summer tour?

 

[JSRF10]

Personally I wouldn't select Croft, probably St Sam aside the most over rated back row in Europe. He got dumped into touch by Paddy Wallace for gods sake! Back row is a competitive area for the Lions that said I wouldn't back any of the Lions options to make the back row. Reports are that Gatland will pick:

Warburton (c), Lydiate, Faletau, Heaslip, SOB, Croft, Tipuric

I'd bring Wood ahead of Croft anyways, given Stephen Ferris is injured can't argue with too many of the other choices

 

[Hugh Jarse]

You have to admit the overwhelmingly largest issue with Wales on their tour down under was Priestland. He bombed many opportunities that would have lead to Wales winning at least one match and possibly two. Persisting with him was a huge mistake, and weren't they under Howley for the summer tour?

I think Hawley was in charge of the Welsh for their downunder tour last year after Gatland fell off a ladder in NZ and broke his ankle/s.

My tip for the Breadman as Captain is based on what I think Gatland will do, not who I think is the best man for the job.

 

[JSRF10]

The Guardian, BBC and other English papers are reporting that the tour party will be made up of:

15 Welsh
12 Irish
8 English
3 Scots

Gatland obviously attaching a lot of weight to the Irish Heineken/Amlin performances. Apparently 2 of Wilko, Farrell and Twelvetrees will go.