2017 Lions Tour

[Cheib]

Sky reporting Roberts is going....

Great player in his day.

[London424]

hornetrider said:

DocJock said:

If there are four better locks than Launchbury in the four nations then I have been watching the wrong matches.

Maybe Itoje gets the nod for his versatility? The big surprise for me is JJ - he is most peoples starting 13. Which in a way makes me question the sauce of the story in the first place.

I think Kruis is a better player so if he's picked I can sort of understand it. But I'm already resigning myself to seeing a few past it Wales players making it over much better options.

[768]

Cheib said:

Sky reporting Roberts is going....

Great player in his day.

Baffling, if true.

Any word on Cuthbert? He must be in with a shot if that's the way it's going.

[hornetrider]

Roberts is a crashball option at 12 - what other 12s are there? Farrell looks like going as a 10. Henshaw isn't all that. I have been pushing for Scott Williams to get an opportunity for a while but we were rubbish this year and I don't think he performed very well either. Dunbar? Not a Lion imo.

[Vocal Minority]

I have a horrible feeling, given the rumours coming out, that we will be getting an enormously unimaginative selection. Gatland will stick to what he knows, both player wise and tactically, no matter how out of date that is.

Giving Warburton the captaincy (when being thusly unburdened has coincided with a marked upswing in his Wales form), and selecting Roberts at all (who has been anonymous at best all year) are symbolic of conservative, out of date thinking.

If he is after crash ball centres, Ben Teo has had a decent run for England and has been the heart beat of a rapidly improving Worcester squad having spent most of the season injured or with England

[phil_cardiff]

Both Irish locks are in apparently. Rubbish decision. Roberts is in apparently. Rubbish decision but at least he plays the guitar for entertainment.

Warburton is captain which makes sense as he's the only experienced leader on tour who is nailed on to start.

[DocJock]

Rumours of Te'o as well.

I guess the wings had all better pack a good book 'coz they sure as hell won't be seeing much of the ball.

[TheGreatSoprendo]

Vocal Minority said:

If he is after crash ball centres, Ben Teo has had a decent run for England and has been the heart beat of a rapidly improving Worcester squad having spent most of the season injured or with England

Gatland doesn't pick the best players and then formulate a gameplan around them, rather he picks players to play to his gameplan. Hence why I've said all along I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Roberts on tour. I fully expect Teo'o to make the cut too.

[hornetrider]

One thing is for sure... Sam Warburton is now a two time Lions Captain

[anonymous-user]

Shouldn't the lions squad just be England plus Hogg and perhaps a few others.



Not sure many Welsh players should be on the plane.

[hornetrider]

Why bother with Hogg? I'm sure Mike Brown could do a job.

[anonymous-user]

Hogg certainly deserves a place being central to Scotland's high world ranking,



Wales just avoiding dropping to ninth in the world and facing a disaster in May's World Cup draw.

I think we can all agree that 5th in the six nations and 8th in the world rankings shouldn't really place you in the running for many lions tour places.

Hopefully Gatland will be a bit more objective this time but it doesn't look like it so far.

[TheGreatSoprendo]

El stovey said:

I think we can all agree that 5th in the six nations and 8th in the world rankings shouldn't really place you in the running for many lions tour places.

Speak for yourself, I think that's a massively over simplistic way of looking at it.

Anyhoo, this is the squad, apparently leaked to the Daily Telegraph.



Some interesting selections there to say the least!

[hornetrider]

Watch live:

http://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12321/10...

[Vocal Minority]

edited as incorrect!

[hornetrider]

JJ is in! That leaked list is wrong.

[TheGreatSoprendo]

hornetrider said:

JJ is in! That leaked list is wrong.

Yep. No Roberts either.

[hornetrider]

I heard Jared Pyne as well.

Sinckler is a bit of a bolter eh!

[Vocal Minority]

Leaked list all sorts of wrong

Dan Biggar, Elliot Daly, Jonathan Davies, Owen Farrell, Leigh Halfpenny, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart Hogg, Jonathan Joseph, Conor Murray, George North, Jack Nowell, Jared Payne, Jonathan Sexton, Tommy Seymour, Ben Te'o, Anthony Watson, Rhys Webb, Liam Williams, Ben Youngs.

Rory Best (Ireland), Dan Cole (England), Taulupe Faletau (Wales), Tadhg Furlong (Ireland), Jamie George (England), Iain Henderson (Ireland), Maro Itoje (England), Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), George Kruis (England), Courtney Lawes (England), Joe Marler (England), Jack McGrath (Ireland), Ross Moriarty (Wales), Sean O'Brien (Ireland), Peter O'Mahony (Ireland), Ken Owens (Wales), Kyle Sinckler (England), CJ Stander (Ireland), Justin Tipuric (Wales), Billy Vunipola (England), Mako Vunipola (England), Sam Warburton (Wales)

[London424]

Not too bad all in all.