Jack Fairs

Lions Squad Reaction

I have been trying to predict the 2013 Lions Squad for weeks, looking at player form, predicted returns from injury and Six Nations re-runs, so you can understand that I had a lot riding on the announcement this Tuesday at 11am.

I sat at my desk and watched as Andy Irvine gave his introductory speech to a global audience of deaf ears; people didn’t want to hear sentences, they wanted to hear names. And the four names missing from my list, once Irvine had cut to the chase, were: Maitland, Murray, Stevens and Hartley. In a squad that most had accepted was going to be Welsh-dominated (the squad is only missing a Welsh fly-half in order to make up a complete starting Welsh fifteen), these were the names that I had not seen coming.

Scottish winger Sean Maitland has played only five international matches and scored just one international try. Apart from the prospect of a potential match-up with his Australian cousin, Quade Cooper, and a very respectable Super Rugby record with the Crusaders, he has shown little cause for selection. Tim Visser has scored 6 tries in 10 games for Scotland and dominates the RaboDirect Pro 12 scoring lists every year. Surely if you were going to take a Scottish winger you would take him? And that’s if you don’t throw Ashton, Zebo and Wade into the equation.

There were more shocks to be had in the front row. Rory Best had been nailed-on for a Lions spot after his eye-catching displays for Ireland this Spring, but they were not enough to impress Warren Gatland and his team who instead opted to take England hooker, Dylan Hartley. Perhaps the biggest shock of all was the selection of Matt Stevens. The England prop, previously banned for drug offences, emerged from international retirement to claim a front-row spot on the plane to Australia.

My final contention with the squad picked by Warren Gatland was at scrum-half. I had expected, with only two fly-halves picked, that Gatland would opt for the versatile Grieg Laidlaw as an in-form half-back covering option. Failing that, I thought that he would choose an impact scrum-half, someone who could come off the bench and turn its game on its head, namely, Danny Care. Instead Gatland has settled upon Conor Murray as his final scrum-half, a man very much in the Mike Phillips mould.

I came away from the selection on Tuesday feeling rather pleased with myself, with my 33/37, but also feeling very excited. I’m sure this is just the start of what will be a much talked-about tour. Oh yes, I forgot to discuss the fact that the Lions captain is an out-of-form openside who lost his place and the captaincy of the Welsh team during the Six Nations. Maybe next time.

Lions Squad 2013

Halfpenny, Hogg, Kearney, Bowe, Cuthbert, Maitland, North, Davies, O’Driscoll, Roberts, Tuilagi, Farrell, Sexton, Murray, Phillips, B. Youngs; Cole, Healy, Jenkins, A. Jones, Stevens, Vunipola, Hartley, Hibbard, T. Youngs, Evans, Gray, A.W. Jones, O’Connell, Parling, Croft, Faletau, Heaslip, Lydiate, O’ Brien, Tipuric, Warburton (c)