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Lions Watch Posted over 12 years ago

Leigh Halfpenny, Tommy Bowe, Brian O’Driscoll, Jamie Roberts, George North, Rhys Priestland, Conor Murray, Alex Corbisiero, Dylan Hartley, Dan Cole, Richie Gray, Paul O’Connell, Dan Lydiate, Sam Warburton (capt), Ben Morgan

It was not the greatest Six Nations in history, but it did turn up a decent Lions team to go to Australia next year. It also revealed that Britain and Ireland has great strength in certain positions and a dearth of talent in other areas.
How do you choose between Dan Lydiate and Tom Croft for example? Lydiate is a brilliant tackler who sets up a huge number of opportunities to turn over ball, wheareas Croft is a superb lineout forward and an unbelievably quick ball carrier.

Who do you take as full back? I have chosen Leigh Halfpenny because if Priestland starts at 10, then the team needs goalkicking cover. But Rob Kearney was quite brilliant under the high ball for Ireland and stood out on the previous Lions tour. Yes, but that was in South Africa and Australia don’t tend to kick as many high balls on the full back.

On the other hand some of the midfield play in the Six Nations was abominable. Scotland do not have one and Ireland look third rate without O’Driscoll. England and Wales can defend and bash, but there is not much in the way of creativity. But we do know from South Africa that Roberts and O’Driscoll can be brilliant together, so why change?
Scrum-half is a bit of a worry, but Mike Phillips and Conor Murray are ahead of the rest. Phillips just looks as if he might be slowing down a touch and I wonder if he will be over the top by next summer.

It makes some sense to pick a front row unit as England and Wales significantly better than Ireland and Scotland, but it may just as well be Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees and Adam Jones who take to the field in Australia. I just feel that England’s trio has the capacity to destroy Australia’s traditional area of weakness, whereas Wales’s is better around the park.

Ireland’s scrummage collapse against England showed how much they miss O’Connell’s grunt in the second row and it is an area Gray will need to improve on if he is to make the Lions team. Warburton remains the leading number seven, an area of weakness for the other countries, but there is undoubted strength in depth at number eight and two men will be very unlucky not to make the trip.

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Mark Reason has been a sports journalist for over 25 years. He currently works for Fairfax Media and will also be part of the Telegraph's World Cup team and a regular panellist on Radio New Zealand during the World Cup. He has covered every Rugby World Cup since 1991, the 2000 and 2008 Olympics, over 40 golf major championships, the FA Cup final, the Epsom Derby and a lot of other stuff he can't remember. Mark emigrated to New Zealand in 2010 having spent over 20 years covering sport for the Telegraph and Sunday Times in Britain.

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