Lions Tour

The Inbetween is mine

sydthebeat wrote: »

Guscotts lions selection of the week....

Needs more CJ

Louis Friend

sydthebeat wrote: »

i hope not... it would take a warped mind to look at any of those games and think that wales dominated them.

even in the England game it took two very incorrect and significant ref decisions to allow wales to pull away

It’s a big leap alright.

I would have thought the only “sure things” if fit are Itoje, Furlong, and Farrell. Then probables might include Henshaw (on form alone), Vunipola, Ryan, Curry, and Faletau.

joseywhales

sydthebeat wrote: »

i hope not... it would take a warped mind to look at any of those games and think that wales dominated them.

even in the England game it took two very incorrect and significant ref decisions to allow wales to pull away

They dominated as in they beat Ireland,England and Scotland. They may not have dominated each match but over the series of triple corwn games that all four nations played, they dominated. Winning is winning after all.

sydthebeat

joseywhales wrote: »

They dominated as in they beat Ireland,England and Scotland. They may not have dominated each match but over the series of triple corwn games that all four nations played, they dominated. Winning is winning after all.

They didn't dominate.

Small margins, red cards, and all that jazz.

Billy Ocean

Jackman, Linehan and Eddie O'Sullivan picked a team on against the head tonight.

Vunipola
Owens
Furlong
Itoje
Alan Wyn Jones
Beirne
Curry
Falateau
Gareth Davies
Sexton
Liam Williams
Farrell
Henshaw
Rees Zammit
Hogg

Interestingly think that's the same tight 5 as 2017 except for Jamie George.

Mentioned Loose head and SH as tight calls, Tupiric mentioned as unlucky to miss out too.

Eddie said he'd pick Ryan and mentioned him as a possible captain, Donal was saying with SA going 6-2 split on the bench possibly like the world cup big impact was needed there with Ryan as an example, he seemed to favour Wyn Jones as captain. Van De Merwe on the wing mentioned by Eddie as a possible bolter.

Personal opinion of mine not many lads if fit currently cemented as test starters which I believe is a good thing, Furlong and Itoje, possibly Falateau if Vunipola stays out of shape.

Wonder if Sam Simmonds could be a dark horse to make the squad?

Billy Ocean

Louis Friend wrote: »

It’s a big leap alright.

I would have thought the only “sure things” if fit are Itoje, Furlong, and Farrell. Then probables might include Henshaw (on form alone), Vunipola, Ryan, Curry, and Faletau.

wouldn't have Farrell has a sure thing currently, could go with a 10,12,13 of Sexton, Henshaw, Jonathan Davies who i think could have started every test or at least every test bar 1 in 2013 and 17.

Bridge93

Any chance if the tour is to happen in the UK that we see a much smaller squad? Less of a need to round up 40 men if you're not on the other side of the world

The Inbetween is mine

Bridge93 wrote: »

Any chance if the tour is to happen in the UK that we see a much smaller squad? Less of a need to round up 40 men if you're not on the other side of the world

there won't be any Irish players in the squad if that happens, so probably will be smaller

Louis Friend

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

there won't be any Irish players in the squad if that happens, so probably will be smaller

What do you mean?

Of course there will be.

Cosmo Kramer

I'd imagine they'd still need a big squad in that case as it would be harder to call player back from overseas tours with their own countries (unless they are also rescheduled for UK and Ireland venues).

The Inbetween is mine

Louis Friend wrote: »

What do you mean?

Of course there will be.

If it receives British government funding to underwrite the tour...it'll happen in the mainland UK, with no monies to the IRFU..no players from this country will take part

Louis Friend

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

If it receives British government funding to underwrite the tour...it'll happen in the mainland UK, with no monies to the IRFU..no players from this country will take part

That can’t happen. The four Unions own the Lions entity.

And underwriting doesn’t mean underwriting profits anyway, it just means underwriting costs. If the thing goes ahead in the UK but then stadiums turn out to be empty, the IRFU would get nothing. It’s just that the Lions entity wouldn’t be bankrupted.

The Inbetween is mine

Louis Friend wrote: »

That can’t happen. The four Unions own the Lions entity.

And underwriting doesn’t mean underwriting profits anyway, it just means underwriting costs. If the thing goes ahead in the UK but then stadiums turn out to be empty, the IRFU would get nothing. It’s just that the Lions entity wouldn’t be bankrupted.

Underwriting costs, yes but no games in Ireland, no benefit whatsoever to the IRFU...so no Irish participation.
Tbh, it's a moot point anyway..I can't see the Lions tour happening in any shape or form

sydthebeat

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

Underwriting costs, yes but no games in Ireland, no benefit whatsoever to the IRFU...so no Irish participation.

thats never how it worked ???

The Inbetween is mine

sydthebeat wrote: »

thats never how it worked ???

Well we've never had a home tour..so that's correct

sydthebeat

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

Well we've never had a home tour..so that's correct

why would where the tour takes place affect whether irish players are selected or not??

awec

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

Underwriting costs, yes but no games in Ireland, no benefit whatsoever to the IRFU...so no Irish participation.
Tbh, it's a moot point anyway..I can't see the Lions tour happening in any shape or form

The profit made by the Lions is split among the 4 unions. Clubs also get money for any Lions selected (which also means money to the IRFU in our case).

It must be worth a couple of million at least to the IRFU.

Louis Friend

The Inbetween is mine wrote: »

Underwriting costs, yes but no games in Ireland, no benefit whatsoever to the IRFU...so no Irish participation.
Tbh, it's a moot point anyway..I can't see the Lions tour happening in any shape or form

There are never any games in Ireland...

The benefit to the IRFU of a commercially successful tour is clear. They part-own the Lions.

Former Former Former

I think a few people are having the chains yanked a bit here lads.

The Inbetween is mine

Former Former Former wrote: »

I think a few people are having the chains yanked a bit here lads.

It's my natural sceptical nature is all

The Inbetween is mine

I killed boards

Cookiemunster

Apparently a behind closed doors tour in SA is to be confirmed within the next hour.
https://twitter.com/GavinMairs/status/1374374113410609155

Boscoirl

thank **** for a decision!!

The Inbetween is mine

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Apparently a behind closed doors tour in SA is to be confirmed within the next hour.
https://twitter.com/GavinMairs/status/1374374113410609155

It was probably the only way it could happen, I'm happy with that if it goes ahead

Tigerandahalf

So will the Lions have to go into quarantine on their return from S Africa or will they be vaccinated before they head off?
Pretty risky given the situation there.

GreeBo

Billy Ocean wrote: »

Jackman, Linehan and Eddie O'Sullivan picked a team on against the head tonight.

Vunipola
Owens
Furlong
Itoje
Alan Wyn Jones
Beirne
Curry
Falateau
Gareth Davies
Sexton
Liam Williams
Farrell
Henshaw
Rees Zammit
Hogg

Interestingly think that's the same tight 5 as 2017 except for Jamie George.

Mentioned Loose head and SH as tight calls, Tupiric mentioned as unlucky to miss out too.

Eddie said he'd pick Ryan and mentioned him as a possible captain, Donal was saying with SA going 6-2 split on the bench possibly like the world cup big impact was needed there with Ryan as an example, he seemed to favour Wyn Jones as captain. Van De Merwe on the wing mentioned by Eddie as a possible bolter.

Personal opinion of mine not many lads if fit currently cemented as test starters which I believe is a good thing, Furlong and Itoje, possibly Falateau if Vunipola stays out of shape.

Wonder if Sam Simmonds could be a dark horse to make the squad?

Is Itoje nailed on for a place?
He is on everyones list, but with 12 penalties to his name, at what point is he a liability?

irishbucsfan

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

So will the Lions have to go into quarantine on their return from S Africa or will they be vaccinated before they head off?
Pretty risky given the situation there.

If the Lions get vaccinated before they head off it’ll be absolutely outrageous. Not sure I could watch that tbh (not that I think it’ll happen)

Cookiemunster

irishbucsfan wrote: »

If the Lions get vaccinated before they head off it’ll be absolutely outrageous. Not sure I could watch that tbh (not that I think it’ll happen)

The ones living in the UK will possibly have been vaccinated by then anyway as part of their roll out.

Cookiemunster

It's official now. They tour is to go ahead as per the original schedule. https://www.lionsrugby.com/2021/03/23/lions-rugby-2021-tour-update

Boscoirl

The UK based players would be vaccinated by then anyway I would imagine, no harm to let them vaccinate our players too for us, save a few doses for use here