British & Irish Lions squad announced NEWS
Warren Gatland and his British & Irish Lions coaches announced their 37 man squad to tour Australia this Summer and, as always the case with the Lions, there are a couple of surprises.
Wales' Sam Warburton was appointed captain of a squad that sees 15 players from Wales selected, 10 from England, nine from Ireland and just three from Scotland in a 37-man party to tour Australia in June.
The last few weeks had seen mounting speculation that former England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson would be selected to tour. This reached a crescendo with Wilkinson's man-of-the-match performance for his French club Toulon in their Heineken Cup semi-final defeat of Saracens at Twickenham on Sunday.
However, Gatland stuck to his original statement of not selecting French-based players who will be involved in the latter stages of their domestic championship and are therefore unable to join the tour from the start. Toulon's Welsh prop Gethin Jenkins has been included in the squad on the basis that he will be released early as he leaves Toulon at the end of the season.
Surprise selections include Saracens prop Matt Stevens who has retired from international rugby with England, fellow Saracens prop Mako Vunipola and Northampton hooker Dylan Hartley, who has been supplanted as England's No.1 by fellow tourist Tom Youngs, who only a few short years ago was plying his trade as a centre. The lack of a place for England's captain, Chris Robshaw, is perhaps a minor surprise, although competition for places in the back row was fierce, with a number of top-notch players missing out.
Robshaw and a number of other players who must have been in real consideration, such as Ireland's Donnacha Ryan and Rory Best, Scotland's Kelly Brown and England's Joe Launchbury and Tom Wood will now pin their hopes on being called up should there be the usual run of pre-tour injuries.
The other unexpected aspect of the squad selection was the decision to only take two out-and-out fly-halves, with Ireland's Jonny Sexton and England's Owen Farrell getting the nod.
In terms of the squad composition Gatland and his assistant coaches, Andy Farrell, Graham Rowntree and Rob Howley, have picked three full backs, four wings, four centres, two fly-halves, three scrum-halves, six props, three hookers, five lock forwards and seven back row forwards.
Unexpectedly, given their recent Six Nations successes, Wales players dominate the squad and will, fitness permitting, do likewise in the starting XV, with as many as 10 or 11 likely to start the first test against the Wallabies.
The full squad is as follows: -
Fullback - Leigh Halfpenny, Stuart Hogg, Rob Kearney
Wing - George North, Alex Cuthbert, Sean Maitland, Tommy Bowe
Centre - Manu Tuilagi, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, Brian O'Driscoll
Fly-half - Jonny Sexton, Owen Farrell
Scrum-half - Mike Phillips, Ben Youngs, Connor Murray
Prop - Dan Cole, Gethin Jenkins, Cian Healey, Adam Jones, Matt Stevens, Mako Vunipola
Hooker - Richard Hibbard, Dylan Hartley, Tom Youngs
Lock - Paul O'Connell, Geoff Parling, Richie Gray, Alun Wynn-Jones, Ian Evans
Flanker - Sam Warburton (captain), Justin Tipuric, Tom Croft, Sean O'Brien, Dan Lydiate
No.8 - Toby Faletau, Jamie Heaslip
So, the squad has been announced and Gatland's choices, which seem largely based on established Test experience, will now be debated in rugby clubs and pubs up and down the British Isles. It's sure to change to some degree before the plane to Hong Kong and then Australia departs, and, once the matches start, due to the inevitability of injuries.
The Lions play their first match, a warm-up in Hong Kong against the Barbarians on June 1, before their first game in Australia on June 5. The first Test against the Wallabies is June 22.
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