The Lions tour will have been pretty tough on those players who started or played lots of time over the three weeks. Players like Robinson, Horwill, Douglas, Hooper, Palu, Genia, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Folau are likely to be pretty bashed up and reports that Douglas, Palu, Genia, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) and Folau are likely to be out through injury are not unexpected.Those players need to have a week off or at worst be on the bench. The Reds have got finals in front of them and can't afford to further fatigue their stars just for the pleasure of beating the Tahs and for the Tahs stars its only a few weeks before Bledisloe 1.
Players who came off the bench or didn't start (like Slipper, Simmons, Gill, Kepu, Horne, etc) should be right to go. The teams that I would expect might be selected would be:
- Kepu Holmes
- Ulugia Fainga'a
- Ryan Slipper
- Atkins Simmons
- Skelton AWH
- Lopeti Quirk
- McCutcheon Gill
- Dennis Schatz
- McKibbin Lucas
- Foley Cooper
- Kingston Shipperley
- Horne Tapuai
- Carter Fainga'a
- Betham Davies
- Crawford Morahan
- Fitzpatrick Hanson
- Robinson Daley
- Douglas Horwill
- Hooper Robinson
- Lucas Frisby
- Volavola CFS
- Hodge Harris
Looking at the head to head match-ups I would think the Reds would start firm favorites, but rugby is a funny game. I'm looking forward to it myself, principally as a guide for how we have gone in developing depth and how Link will plan to counter Cheika's new gameplan.