Some of the Lions prospects put forward by English 'experts' have been off the wall

Neil Francis

A big performance from Leinster's Jack Conan today should push him closer to selection for the Lions squad. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

May 02 2021 02:30 AM

It is faintly ridiculous how jingoistic a Lions selection can be given the nationality of the person picking the squad. In this instance, the only selection that counts is that of a New Zealander with strong links to Wales.

However, some of the selections put forward by the ‘experts’ for this year’s squad have been off the wall. Danny Care, Joe Marler and Alex Dombrandt — all from Harlequins — have been endorsed by various English pundits. It is true that Harlequins did manage to keep the score down to 49-7 when losing to Racing and 21-7 when losing to Munster in the Heineken Cup.

Then there’s Sam Simmonds from Exeter, who also has many advocates. When Leinster beat Exeter we had to point out that Simmonds was playing, otherwise you might not have known. He was played off the park by Jack Conan, who also played the English back row off the park in the last Test match of the season.

Looking for ‘bolters’ is a fool’s game. Just pick players who have excelled in the last two Six Nations and Heineken Cups.

There are places at stake today in La Rochelle.

Conan and Josh van der Flier have outside chances if they have big games. So too does Hugo Keenan. The mainstream in Furlong, Porter, Kelleher, Ryan, Henshaw and probably Ringrose need to play well and stay uninjured to push for Test places. Sexton needs to be considered as a starter or not at all. I can’t see Wazza wanting to gamble the whole series by starting Finn Russell against South Africa.

That is a Leinster-centric selection but if others want to take the mickey, why can’t I? What are the odds that Leinster will have a representation of six or more — particularly if they win today?

MY LIONS SQUAD

15: L Williams (Wales), S Hogg (Scotland)
14/11: A Watson (England), J Adams (Wales), L Rees-Zamit (Wales), J May (England)
13/12: J Davies (Wales), M Tuilagi (England), G Ringrose (Ireland), R Henshaw (Ireland), O Farrell (England)
10/9: J Sexton (Ireland), D Biggar (Wales); B Youngs (England), C Murray (Ireland), G Davies (Wales)
1/3: M Vunipola (England), R Sutherland (Scotland), W Jones (Wales), T Furlong (Ireland), A Porter (Ireland), K Sinckler (England)
2: K Owens (Wales), R Kelleher (Ireland), J George (England)
4/5: I Henderson (Ireland), AW Jones (Wales), J Ryan (Ireland), M Itoje (England)
6/8/7: T Beirne (Ireland), J Tipuric (Wales), T Faletau (Wales), S Underhill (England), T Curry (England), H Watson (Scotland), J Conan (Ireland)