Warburton's not even a first choice flanker for his country any more.
Tipuric's well ahead of him now at openside, and Ozzy pitches and conditions are never going to swing that back in Warburton's favour.
And he only got a Wales game at 6 'cos of RJones' injury.
That makes him unlikely to start, and even if he did, he's proven before that he doesn't always last. At least Robshaw won't be turning up for training with a sicknote from his mom.
IMO, any back row's a bad choice for captain this tour. Don't think any of them (with captain experience) will play all three tests. Too much chance of injury, and too many excellent alternatives.
And front row's too much of a lottery, so for me, AWJ or POC.
Tipuric is good and certainly has had better form for the majority of the season, but Warburton is better at more aspects than Tips when at his best. I agree though that flanker open and blind will be hugely competitive and some very good players will miss out. Less strength at 8 imo. They should make Toby captain, then we wouldnt have to listen to endless drivel in press conferences as he hardly ever seems to speak.
Toby?
TOBY??!
SOB 4 no8 😉
AWJ or Ryan (how is Ryan by the way?) seem like good choices as test captains but I feel they will do far better without the extra pressures.
Someone like POC or BOD will handle this better but may or not play too often on the tour. Whenever the Lions have been mentioned or there has been media around the Lions BOD has been the man fielding the question (of course recent injury did make him more available though)...
To be fair, in recent tours the teams have been rotated quite a lot between tests so it is very hard to predict who will be around for all tests. A "tour captain" such as BOD/ POC could be good...
Lydiate is [s]more talented[/s] recovering from injury and Robshaw [s]more consistent[/s] is a donkey
FTFY
Pub crawl a couple of days before a game ? WTF.
Sale dont play until the 4th so 9 days! I dont think player have to be teetotal for the whole season.
In all fairness being on the lash would explain a bit for Sale this year.
Lydiate is more [s]talented[/s] recovering from injury and Robshaw [s]more consistent[/s] is a donkey
Lydiate seemed fully recovered in the last few games I've seen him play, got plenty of tackling practise too as he plays for the dregs
He's getting some match fitness back but there's a big difference between Pro12 and test match rugby. I'm sure Gatland will have a few surprises for us though.
If you think robshaw is a donkey, you know **** all about rugby.
and **** all about donkeys. 🙂
Away from the captain and team debates...Where do you rate a Lions tour in the general 4 year sporting cycle of RWC, Olympics, wendyball WC etc?
Fantastic sense of humour bypass there, wrecker. Well done. Of course Robshaw isn't a donkey. Nice to see you're still biting though. Arf.
😳
Serious SOH bypass on my part. Should have been much more chilled after a ride yesterday, obviously didn't try hard enough.
Lions tour doesn't even come close for me.....the best part is arguing over whom should go on the tour...after that I'm not that fussed-I'd like them to win but wont really care if they don't.
Robshaw seems to me to be like Martin Corey a great player not the most naturaly skilled but a real grafter.
Lions tour important, but still a bit Meh....Of course I would have had a different view in my youth as I forced down the first pint at what approx 4/5am? for previous tours in a rugby club with the shutters up.
Lions tour is more time for a party than taking it to seriously. I like the tradition of it all.
Lions Tests in Australia are a great excuse for a fried breakfast washed down with a beer.
I've been lucky enough to see football (Paris) and rugby WC finals (Marseilles, Paris and London), winter (France) and summer (London) olympics but am still gutted I didn't go with the brother in law to South Africa for the Lions (back when we won the first two tests and thus the tour). To try choose between "the best" is crazy, they are all different.
[b]Pigface[/b] - Member
Lions tour is more time for a party than taking it to seriously. I like the tradition of it all.
Exactly - it's the only time you can sing the oppositions songs without feeling a bit guilty !
Lions by a mile for the craic!
Pic from outside the Gabba last time round.
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Well.....Work commitment means I shall be in Hong Kong for the Lions v Baas game.
Which is nice.
Now, how to get a ticket....
clermont are a bit good arent they!!
Thought Munster were going to pull off a second half comeback. A lot closer than I expected.
Wilkinson was superb today
Farrel has just played himself out of a Lions place, Imho
Barnes summed it up: Sexton comes off after 60 mins,who would you rather was on the bench,Farrell or Wilkinson?
Neither?
Only take 1 fly half?
I don't think gavs in the running.......
You're forgetting Biggar! He's just as good as apparently 😆
So st johnny can kick a team with a huge domunant pack to victory and Farrel still has a lot to learn. This is not news.
So based on that A-A, plane seat for St J?
@CFH the Lions HK match sold out very quickly - I'd say the chance of a ticket is pretty slim - the rugby crowd there love the game and I doubt they'll be many sellers.
I've had the very great pleasure of watching Toulon play the quarter and semi final, JW is still in a different league. Farrell is the best 10 currently playing in the 6 Nations but he's still learning the game and is quite away behind Wilkinson who did everything right distributing the ball well and making some nice steps plus his usual defense and match winning kicking.
On this form Wilkinson should be the Lions starting 10 and captain too.
Farrell the best ten currently playing in the six nations.... My arse he is.
Do any of you know if St Johnny is available for the whole tour?
If playing well in a Heineken cup semi is the bench mark maybe O'Gara should be thr outside half for the Lions.
O gara it is then!
O'Gara's face is too soft to ever go back to Oz
Top 14 finishes 1st June same day as Lions v Barbarians in HK, think the Lions due to fly out 27th.
Gatland has already said he is keen for them all to travel together, how many exceptions will he make zero or 3 or 4 so all the French based candidates can go?
Not sure how wilko could not be considered but Gethin is.
Phillips, Hook are not in any danger of being in the final
Perhaps Toulon are happy to let Jenkins go as he is not starting regularly where as Wilkinson looks pretty key to their game plan.
Very likely Toulon and Clermont will contest the Top 14 final on June 1 and Lions training starts before then as well as the game (exhibition jolly) in HK. So common knowledge JW would not be available for the "whole tour"
Not taking a match and tour winning asset like JW because his club are likely contesting another championship would be a very short sighted basis for a selection decision.
Hard to forgive O'Gara for the headless chicken penalty he gave away to allow Steyn to kick the tour winning penalty in South Africa last time.
Regarding Toulon letting Jenkins go what I've heard rumoured is that Toulon are trying to line up Dan Carter as JWs replacement when finally retires after next season.
So what about a comp before the squad is announced tomorrow. Pick 38 players in any combination you want and nominate a captain. You get 1 point for each correct pick as named tomorrow and 5 points for getting the captain correct. The winner gets a bazooka joe and the bragging rights over all other contributors on the rugby thread.
My squad:
Leigh Halfpenny, Rob Kearney, Stuart Hogg
George North, Tommy Bowe, Alex Cuthbert, Simon Zebo
BOD, Manu Tuilagi, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, James Hook
Jonny Sexton, Owen Farrell
Mike Phillips,Laidlaw, Ben Youngs
Gethin Jenkins, Cian Healy, Andrew Sheridan, Adam Jones, Dan Cole, Euan Murray
Richard Hibbard, Rory Best, Tom Youngs
Alun Wyn Jones, POC, Ian Evans, Joe Launchbury, Ryan Jones
Dan Lydiate, Tom Croft, SOB, Sam Warburton (c), Justin Tipuric
Toby Faletau, Jamie Heaslip
As would be expected a fair bit of overlap with BM. I also expect that as others puts their squads up there will be players i have forgotten about and think should be in but here goes
Leigh Halfpenny, Rob Kearney, Stuart Hogg
George North, Tim Visser, Alex Cuthbert, Simon Zebo
BOD, Manu Tuilagi, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, Iain Maddigan
Jonny Sexton, Jonny Wilkinson
Mike Phillips, Ben Youngs, Laidlaw
Vinupola, Cian Healy, Ryan Grant, Adam Jones, Dan Cole, Euan Murray
Richard Hibbard, Rory Best, Ross Ford
Alun Wyn Jones, POC (c), Jim Hamilton, Joe Launchbury, Donnacha Ryan
Kelly Brown, Tom Croft, SOB, Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric
Toby Faletau, Jamie Heaslip
Hmm looking at them there are a few I have included that I don’t think should be going but will.
You both forgot Keet Earls 😉
Good game BM.
Might as well get as much arguing out of today as we can .
Guess my squad will look pretty similar too. Will [s]cut and paste [/s]post soon.
He isn't St Johnny - he is G-d ! Was sat next to these guys yesterday ...
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I find it weird all this love for Jonny, he is fine playing behind a juggernaut pack when he had the luxury of time, but behind a pack that is going backwards he is headless. I think he is an average 10 with a very accurate boot. His idiocy of tackling people it isn't his job to tackle caused him loose a good couple of years out of his career.
Out of the england team that won the world cup none of the backs* could be accused of being world beaters, same cant be said of Johnson and Hill in the pack who are true greats of the game.
*Robinson when he played on the wing was very very good but putting him at FB was plain daft.
How about bonus points Melon for correctly picking a "wildcard player" the makes the squad tomorrow- this could be defined as a player no others here have in their predicted squads (such a Wade as the current predictions stand)
