Warren Gatland and his coaching team are facing the prospect of the most complicated British and Irish Lions tour in history (and the Lions have toured South Africa during the days of Apartheid and played a 35 game tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1888 that involved playing games of Aussie Rules. A tour which departed Gravesend on the 9th of March and returned on the 11th of November! So they have a pretty high bar when it comes to complicated tours). Even without the current pandemic situation organising 4 separate Unions and hoping for cooperation from regional and club teams under the 4 separate umbrellas was always going to be awkward, not to mention expensive. However, the most complicated part has to be selecting the squad and hoping that the players are as enthusiastic about the tour going ahead as the accountants are, Ben Youngs has already decided that the imminent birth of his third child is a priority and Youngs coach at Leicester has politely declined an invitation to go on another tour as part of Gatland’s coaching team so the Kiwi’s job becomes increasingly intricate day by day.
Luckily I haven’t got to worry about the intricacies, I’m just going to pick the 36 players who I think will be in the touring party, so here goes nothing-
Mako Vunipola, Wyn Jones, Joe Marler (who may decline the offer, then it may be Rory Sutherland or Ellis Genge)
Ken Owens, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Scott Baldwin (although the 3rd sport is wide open. Rob Herring would be an interesting selection)
Tadgh Furlong, Kyle Sinkler, Andrew Porter
Maro Itoje, Alun-Wyn Jones, James Ryan, Iain Henderson
Tadgh Beirne, Hamish Watson, Josh Navidi
Justin Tipuric, Sam Underhill
CJ Stander, Taulupe Faletau
Conor Murray, Ben Spencer, Tomos Williams
Jonny Sexton, Dan Biggar, George Ford
Robbie Henshaw, Owen Farrell
Garry Ringrose, Chris Harris
Liam Williams, Louis Rees-Zammit, Josh Adams, Duhan Van der Merwe
Anthony Watson, Stuart Hogg
Traditionally this would be the bit where the “bolters” get a mention but I would be very surprised if there are any shocking selections. There are 3 areas where there isn’t much depth so there could be some unpopular picks at hooker, scrum half and lock but other than that Gatland has players he is more than familiar to pick from.
Inside Centre 