Lions Squad Post Six Nations

Post Six Nations, and with the Lions tour coming up, here’s my 37 man squad.

Props - Dan Cole, Alex Corbisiero, Cian Healy, Gethin Jenkins, Adam Jones, Mike Ross

The main question with the props is how many the Lions will take. If they decide to take five, then Paul James will really fancy his chances. I’m backing the Lions to take six, in which case at Loosehead, Healy and Jenkins are dead certainties. With two good players already in that position, Alex Corbisiero, if he can get some game time before the end of the season, is worth taking. At Tighthead, whatever passionate Welshmen say, Dan Cole is the current starter with Adam Jones backing him up. I’m not massively enthused about Mike Ross, but it’s him or part-timer Euan Murray and I’d rather have Ross in the midweek team.

Hookers - Rory Best, Dylan Hartley, Richard Hibbard

The main job for the hooker in a side which has so many back row options should be to secure decent lineout ball, which is why Best and Hartley are there. The third choice hooker could frankly be anyone, I’ve plumped for Hibbard on the basis that the coach is the Welsh coach and Matthew Rees is almost certainly going to be broken again.

Locks - Joe Launchbery, Alun Wyn Jones, Geoff Parling, Donnacha Ryan

Parling was the best lock in the championship by a mile, and will go. AWJ got a lot of press for a man who produced two good games, but he’s also secure in selection. Ryan has a petulant streak in his game which needs removing, but he’s also got the necessary talent to make the squad. The fourth lock hopefully the Lions will take the punt on Launchbery, leaving Mike McCarthy wondering how he’s at home and Hibbard isn’t.

Back Row - Kelly Brown, Toby Faletau, Jamie Heaslip, Ryan Jones, Chris Robshaw, Justin Tipuric, Sam Warburton, Tom Wood

The main area of contention, with a list of around 15 players who can make a case for going, yet a large number of those will not. To start with, given the strength in depth, I’m ignoring Steven Ferris and Ross Rennie due to their injury concerns, and Dan Lydiate due to both his injury concerns and the fact he is massively overrated, a problem which also rules out Tom Croft.

The fact is, Tipuric, Warburton, Robshaw and Wood should and will all go. So would Ben Morgan had he not got injured. Number eight is somewhat of a problem area not due to talent but form, with Faletau not exactly setting the world alight and Jamie Heaslip struggling with the weight of captaining a rapidly declining team. Jonnie Beattie is not real competition and Morgan’s injury however sends them on the tour. The two remaining spots go to two old timers, Kelly Brown and Ryan Jones. Both are unflashy players who do the right things, Brown helped by coming through a Saracens environment that demands the best from them. Jones does seem like a bit of a left field selection but he can also play in the second row. Sean O’Brien doesn’t go on the basis that if you doubled his IQ he’d still be an idiot and Chris Henry got injured at a bad time.

Scrum-Halfs - Conor Murray, Mike Phillips, Ben Youngs

Phillips and Youngs should both be fairly confident of selection, although I have a nasty feeling Gatland and Howley might fancy a bit of Danny Care. Murray, Laidlaw and Care are all at roughly the same level, but the Welsh philosophy seems to be with players of equal ability pick the biggest one and that’s why Murray will tour.

Fly-Halfs - Owen Farrell, James Hook, Jonny Sexton

Ireland were pretty good when Jonny Sexton played, and awful when he didn’t. Farrell will prove to be a solid back up but lacks the running game to challenge Sexton, unless Sexton’s injury rules him out of the tour. Due to the limits of squad size, the third fly-half will be James Hook. He’s playing well in France and can cover a multitude of positions, which given I’ve only got two full-backs I need.

Centres - Jonathan Davies, Luke Marshall, Brian O’Driscoll, Jamie Roberts

I typed Jamie Roberts name, thought for some time, typed Brian O’Driscoll’s name, and then thought for a hell of a long time. This is a position of surprising weakness, due to the fact that so many of the centres playing for the home nations are highly one dimentional. I think Jonathan Davies had a quietly awful tournament for Wales, where he did nothing particularly well and was covered by his inside partner, but he was excellent last year so he has cash in the bank. The final centre is a nightmare. Brad Barritt can tackle and organise, but offers nothing in attack. Manu Tuilagi divides opinion massively but even as a big fan I can admit he is a black hole in terms of passing the ball. Luke Marshall has had a good season for Ulster, has a reasonable eye for a break and was unlucky to get knocked unconscious twice. Max Scott looks a decent player but the tour has come maybe 12 months too early.

Wingers - Alex Cuthbert, Craig Gilroy, Sean Maitland, George North

Tommy Bowe’s injury casts a big shadow here, because he was an absolutely certain starter and the only winger with previous Lions experience. North would have to lose form quite spectacularly to not start, but after that it’s a fairly open race. Cuthbert is a deadly finisher but he creates tries at both ends of the field, and whoever starts right wing has to deal with Digby Ioane. That said, Cuthbert is favourite to start ahead of the exciting Gilroy, and the solid Maitland. Chris Ashton will not go, due to both form and personality and Tim Visser is another player whose one-dimensional game will count against him.

Full-backs - Leigh Halfpenny, Stuart Hogg

This could be a closer battle for the shirt than people think, and would be closer if Halfpenny wasn’t such a fantastic goal kicker. Halfpenny is defensively superb but people tend to overlook his weakness is joining the line and broken field running. That is not a problem for Stuart Hogg, who not only is a good player but made sure he had good games when people were watching and a bad one when no-one cared (he was rubbish in Paris). Halfpenny will start the first Test but if Cuthbert struggles early on the tour don’t be surprised if the Lions try Halfpenny on the wing with Hogg at full-back.

Team for 1^st Test and Captain

Cian Healy, Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole, Alun Wyn Jones, Geoff Parling, Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric, Toby Faletau, Mike Phillips, Jonny Sexton, George North, Jamie Roberts, Brian O’Driscoll (c), Alex Cuthbert, Leigh Halfpenny

Some of these selections will be obvious from the comments above, but I’ll explain some. At hooker, I think if Gatland and Hartley can get over their previous bad blood, they will find that Gatland is the perfect coach for Hartley and that will push him ahead of Best. In the back-row, Robshaw and Wood will be extremely unfortunate to miss out but Warburton and Tipuric worked so spectacularly well for Wales against England that it would appear to be the best combination at this point in time, particularly as Wood struggled with the technical aspects of number eight throughout the tournament (Wood struck me as an outstanding blindside trying to play eight throughout the tournament)

The backs are fairly clean cut, but the selection of O’Driscoll as captain is based on the view that Gatland will want to avoid picking a polairising choice as captain. If he chooses Warburton or Robshaw, that is going to annoy one nation of players either way, and given that supposedly some of the Englishmen are already a bit uncertain about Gatland he doesn’t want to get off on the wrong foot. O’Driscoll has been on good tours and bad tours, and will understand the importance of all nations pulling together.