THE TEAMS I PREDICT WILL LINE UP FOR THE FIRST TEST
I’ve given you my reasoning, both in terms of individual capabilities and how players fit into what I expect the game plans to be so let me now go where no man has been before and boldly list the teams I predict for the first test:
| 2013 1ST TEST WALLABIES v LIONS IN BRISBANE | |||||
| Wallabies | Number | Lions | |||
| Benn Robinson | 1 | Cian Healy (ireland) | |||
| Stephen Moore | 2 | Richard Hibbard (Wales) | |||
| Ben Alexander | 3 | Adam Jones (Wales) | |||
| James Horwill | 4 | Paul O’Connell (Ireland) | |||
| Sitaleki Timani | 5 | Richie Gray (Scotland) | |||
| Scott Higginbotham | 6 | Tom Croft (England) | |||
| Michael Hooper | 7 | Sam Warburton (Wales) | |||
| Wycliff Palu | 8 | Jamie Heaslip (Ireland) | |||
| Will Genia | 9 | Mike Phillips (Wales) | |||
| James O’Connor | 10 | Johnny Sexton (Ireland) | |||
| Nick Cummins | 11 | George North (Wales) | |||
| Pat McCabe | 12 | Jamie Roberts (Wales) | |||
| Adam Ashley-Cooper | 13 | Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland) | |||
| Israel Folau | 14 | Tommy Bowe (Ireland) | |||
| Kurtley Beale | 15 | Lee Halfpenny (Wales) | |||
| Reserves | |||||
| Saia Faingaa | 16 | Tom Youngs (England) | |||
| Sekope Kepu | 17 | Gethin Jenkins (Wales) | |||
| James Slipper | 18 | Dan Cole (England) | |||
| Dave Dennis | 19 | Alun Wyn Jones (Wales) | |||
| Liam Gill | 20 | Justin Tipuric (Wales) | |||
| Luke Burgess | 21 | Ben Youngs (England) | |||
| Christian Lealiifano | 22 | Owen Farrell (England) | |||
| Berrick Barnes | 23 | Jonathan Davies (Wales) |
That looks like a very strong Lions team to me with lots of experience and combinations from the 2009 Lions tour – the Wallabies are going to have their hands full. My predicted Lions team includes eleven players from Wales (including seven in the starting team), five from England (with only one in the starting team), six from Ireland (all in the starting team) and one from Scotland (also in the starting team). That looks like too many from Ireland given their results in the 2013 Six Nations but the only Irish player I think may be replaced is Tommy Bowe – I think Healy, O’Connell, Heaslip, Sexton and O’Driscoll are certainties.
That team would also feature eleven in the twenty three who played together on the 2009 Lions tour, which would help with combinations.
That’s not the Wallaby team I think should be selected – it’s the team I expect will be selected. It’s very similar to the Wallabies teams that faced Wales last year with the addition of some key players that will strengthen the team – James Horwill, James O’Connor and Israel Folau.
The loss of Digby Ioane and Tatafu Polota-Nau from last year’s squad is a real blow and although the Wallabies have got Liam Gill and Michael Hooper, how much better could things have been with David Pocock or George Smith in the team?
Of course, now that I’ve made these bold predictions players will get injured in the remaining matches before the first test and everything will change! We’ll see how close I got in less than three weeks. I’ve already replaced Dylan Hartley (England) with Tom Youngs (England) since I wrote part one of this series even though I think Rory Best (Ireland) would be more of a threat to the Wallabies.
Regardless of results, it’s going to be a fantastic couple of months for Australian rugby and I’m really looking forward to the Australian leg of the tour starting next week.
Next week before the Lions play the Force I’ll add a part six to this series showing you video of the similar attack patterns of the 2009 Lions and Wales over the last couple of years which should give you a better idea of how the Lions will attack.
