In the lead-up to the announcement of the Lions squad, I happened upon a video call with Gregor Townsend which was part of the Sky build-up to the event. Townsend is never short of something to say, yet in this interview he seemed a little sheepish and the body language told you something about what was to come.
regor said “nationalities come well down the list of priorities” when it comes to selection of the Lions squad. We now know that statement to be utter bulls**t and when the team was announced Townsend had pulled off one of the great performances of his coaching career.
The Scottish coach is the only current head coach of a Six Nations side who will actually tour with the Lions in July and August and, as such, he made sure that he got as many of his countrymen on the plane with him – none of whom deserve to get on the Test side.
Townsend had a couple of steri-strips on a cut over his right eye. Rare for a coach to be sporting war wounds – maybe Johnny Sexton clipped him one when he knew what the composition of the team was going to be.
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Hands up who got all 37 names right before the squad were announced? Ireland and their prospective players were hamstrung on two fronts – firstly, they had nobody at the selection table and, secondly, Leinster’s non-performance over in La Rochelle at the weekend.
On that basis, a lot of the players would have been preparing for the worst, but it is absolutely galling to note that the majority of 50-50 calls went the way of a Scottish player and that sticks in the craw.
Scotland finished fourth in this year’s Six Nations, fourth again in 2020 and fifth in 2019, which is effectively last! They have not beaten Ireland in that period. The Scottish Pro14 teams finished eighth and ninth in that championship and were never even remotely competitive. Yet, they get eight players into the Lions squad on the back of their coach’s recommendation and also on the basis that they may win something soon.
There are a number of big tech companies on the stock market and particularly on the NASDAQ with hugely over-inflated share price values. These companies have never made a penny of profit, their valuations are based not on what they are doing now but what they might do in 10 years’ time. This is Scotland.
It is true that they beat England in Twickenham and France in Paris but Ireland and Wales have been doing that for years. Indeed, just about everybody beat England this year and France, when it became obvious that they could not win the championship by scoring enough points, they gave up the ghost. It was a gritty and stoic performance, but eight Lions? Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey!
It was interesting to see that the schedule has not been officially confirmed yet, so we still don’t know what sort of a run-in the Lions will get before the Test series begins. Anything can happen on a tour and form can change and players who were dead certs can fall away as evidenced by James Ryan and Johnny Sexton who were ‘definite’ selections to at least travel during the Six Nations.
None of the Scottish players who have been included are starting Test standard. If you ask me, I think Liam Williams is a far better player than Stuart Hogg and Warren Gatland will definitely pick him in the full-back slot.
Gatland too will not risk the whole Test series on the vagaries of some lunar alignment in Finn Russell’s head or how he feels when he gets out of bed on the day of the Test match.
I was delighted to see that Simon Harris, Minister for Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, was selected to tour on the back of some outstanding form over the last few seasons …
“It’s not Simon Harris, it’s Chris Harris you say.”
“Who the hell is Chris Harris?”
“Anything to do with Keith Harris & Orville?”
“Chris Harris?”
“We don’t know either.”
An incredible selection. I don’t quite know how somebody can get in on the back of being a great defender, but the Lions midfield looks very light and sure there were issues with Manu Tuilagi, Henry Slade, Garry Ringrose and Jonathan Davies. After dropping Brian O’Driscoll in Australia in 2013 and replacing him with Jonathan Davies, Gatland now drops Davies in favour of Chris Harris – that is the selection call of the decade. Wazza has an annoying habit of getting these calls right, though.
Bringing Duhan van der Merwe makes me sick to my stomach and you can only feel sorry for somebody like Johnny May, left out for a Saffer who is worse than hopeless under the high ball. Ali Price is the worst original selection pick at scrum-half for decades. Everybody poo-pooed the thought of Danny Care going along as a bolter, but the Harlequin would be a vastly better option than the Scottish scrum-half.
Ellis Genge and Kyle Sinckler are not particularly likeable people and they have questionable disciplinary issues on the field and that would seem to have cost them dearly because, in terms of talent and ability, they are way ahead of Zander Fagerson and Rory Sutherland.
Gatland himself has a little bit of history with Sinckler but the Englishman played well in the Test series against New Zealand and has been an ever-present in the England side since that tour.
However, he did not distinguish himself off the field in New Zealand and was called an emotional ticking time bomb by Gatland in 2019. If the head coach doesn’t like you, irrespective of your ability, then that is that. Townsend may have suggested that his players, although inferior in ability, might be handy to have on tour and so the Scots get another two in.
Hamish Watson also gets a seat on the plane. He was voted as the player of the tournament in this year’s Six Nations by the fans. However, every time Edinburgh play against Leinster he seems to be blown off the pitch by Josh van der Flier.
Either way, neither of the two are big enough, or good enough, to go to South Africa. Van der Flier was the best of a bad lot against a monster La Rochelle pack last Sunday and that is the type of task ahead of the Lions this summer – trying to subdue a monster pack.
The South African back row that won the World Cup in 2019 consisted of Siya Kolisi, Pieter Steph du Toit and Dwayne Vermeulen, savage beasts and huge men. Gatland, again if I know how he thinks, will not be putting a groundhog in against that lot.
It was a populist selection and one I can’t believe Gatland concurred with Townsend on. It makes the non-selection of Sam Underhill all the more surprising.
Congrats to all the Irishmen who made it and we will await news on the green non-selections before we comment. Scotland go brea!
The Lions Squad
Back three (6):
Josh Adams (Wales), Stuart Hogg (Scotland), Louis Rees-Zammit (Wales), Duhan van der Merwe (Scotland), Anthony Watson (England), Liam Williams (Wales)
Centres (4):
Bundee Aki (Ireland), Elliot Daly (England),
Chris Harris (Scotland), Robbie Henshaw (Ireland)
Out-halves (3):
Dan Biggar (Wales), Owen Farrell (England),
Finn Russell (Scotland)
Scrum-halves (3):
Gareth Davies (Wales), Conor Murray (Ireland),
Ali Price (Scotland)
Hookers (3):
Luke Cowan-Dickie (England), Jamie George (England), Ken Owens (Wales)
Props (6):
Zander Fagerson (Scotland), Tadhg Furlong (Ireland), Wyn Jones (Wales), Andrew Porter (Ireland), Rory Sutherland (Scotland), Mako Vunipola (England)
Second-row (6):
Tadhg Beirne (Ireland), Iain Henderson (Ireland), Jonny Hill (England), Maro Itoje (England), Alun-Wyn Jones (Capt, Wales), Courtney Lawes (England)
Back-row (6):
Jack Conan (Ireland), Tom Curry (England), Taulupe Faletau (Wales), Sam Simmonds (England), Justin Tipuric (Wales), Hamish Watson (Scotland)