International Rugby

[paul_e]

I was a bit early on saying Alun Wyn Jones was confirmed earlier because it was only just officially announced but it's been a badly kept secret since last night.

announcements are all live on sky sports mix and it's pretty well done so far.

[cdbearsfan]

England are shit, Scotland are quite good. Fully expect them to pick more England than Scotland players regardless.

[luke:lamf]

My quick opinions, in no particular order :

- if Bundee Aki is one of the top two/three centres in B&I rugby, then I don't know what to look for in centres (this is a distinct possibility).
- Daly is there purely because he can cover a few positions (and be shit in all of them). No Test minutes for him, please.
- pretty hard to argue with the forwards, nice to see Simmonds get some Test-level recognition.

[paul_e]

Simmonds in as expected, that's the right decision, in place of Billy V as well, which is fair.

Backs: Josh Adams, Bundee Aki, Dan Biggar, Elliot Daly, Gareth Davies, Owen Farrell, Chris Harris, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart Hogg, Conor Murray, Ali Price, Louis Rees-Zammit, Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe, Anthony Watson, Liam Williams.

Forwards: Tadhg Beirne, Jack Conan, Luke Cowan Dickie, Tom Curry, Zander Fagerson, Taulupe Faletau, Tadhg Furlong, Jamie George, Iain Henderson, Jonny Hill, Maro Itoje, Alun Wyn Jones, Wyn Jones, Courtney Lawes, Ken Owens, Andrew Porter, Sam Simmonds, Rory Sutherland, Justin Tipuric, Mako Vunipola, Hamish Watson.

I'm not sure about the 9 options, I'm amazed that Aki is in and I can't work out how Daly snuck in there.

Pack is all good, I can't see anyone I'd disagree with in there and I don't think anyone who has missed out can have many complaints.

[paul_e]

My quick opinions, in no particular order :

- if Bundee Aki is one of the top two/three centres in B&I rugby, then I don't know what to look for in centres (this is a distinct possibility).
- Daly is there purely because he can cover a few positions (and be shit in all of them). No Test minutes for him, please.
- pretty hard to argue with the forwards, nice to see Simmonds get some Test-level recognition.

Yep, you've had the same takeaway from it as me, centres are a fucking mess.

[paul_e]

England are shit, Scotland are quite good. Fully expect them to pick more England than Scotland players regardless.

8 scots, 8 irish, 10 welsh and 11 english.

Turner and george would've been a coin toss for me so he's the only Scot who can feel a little hard done by. A fit North takes Daly out so there's a couple of fringe selections for English players.

[luke:lamf]

I'm not sure about the 9 options, I'm amazed that Aki is in and I can't work out how Daly snuck in there.

I don't know much about 9s, but none of the regular B&I starters in the 6N strikes me as amazing (and they look actively bad when compared to Dupont, and the Italian 9 isn't awful either) - perhaps having already gone with Simmonds he felt he couldn't take too many non-regular internationals. I guess he'll chuck Murray to start as a safe pair of hands, but he's not the player he was.

I might be a bit unfair because I find the Irish backs in general pretty torturous to watch, but Aki is a (very) poor man's Tuilagi. Somebody must have heard Gatland was picking a Pacific Island centre, hence all the rumours about Manu in the press, because I don't think even Aki's own mum would have expected him in the squad. Same with Daly - he shouldn't even be in the England line-up, much less the Lions.

Even without the 6N win, it was always likely to be a pretty Welsh-heavy squad first XV from Gatland, but hope he makes room for the Tadhgs up front and Russell at FH in the starting XV.

Edit : just saw paul's stats re: nationalities - I'm surprised there are that many Englishmen, but I don't think many will make the starting XV. Only Itoje is nailed on, but I'd like Curry and Simmonds in there too. Farrell can carry some drinks or have some extra tackling practice.

[PaulWinch again]

I don’t get Jonny Hill. Always looks bang average to me.

[paul_e]

I'm not sure about the 9 options, I'm amazed that Aki is in and I can't work out how Daly snuck in there.

I don't know much about 9s, but none of the regular B&I starters in the 6N strikes me as amazing (and they look actively bad when compared to Dupont, and the Italian 9 isn't awful either) - perhaps having already gone with Simmonds he felt he couldn't take too many non-regular internationals. I guess he'll chuck Murray to start as a safe pair of hands, but he's not the player he was.

I might be a bit unfair because I find the Irish backs in general pretty torturous to watch, but Aki is a (very) poor man's Tuilagi. Somebody must have heard Gatland was picking a Pacific Island centre, hence all the rumours about Manu in the press, because I don't think even Aki's own mum would have expected him in the squad. Same with Daly - he shouldn't even be in the England line-up, much less the Lions.

Even without the 6N win, it was always likely to be a pretty Welsh-heavy squad first XV from Gatland, but hope he makes room for the Tadhgs up front and Russell at FH in the starting XV.

Edit : just saw paul's stats re: nationalities - I'm surprised there are that many Englishmen, but I don't think many will make the starting XV. Only Itoje is nailed on, but I'd like Curry and Simmonds in there too. Farrell can carry some drinks or have some extra tackling practice.

For me there's 3 types of 9, a safe hands box-kicking type, a sniper who's good with ball in hand and a tempo player who speeds up play. I don't think we have that mix right now because I don't think any of them have the pace to do the sniper role, Robson, Mitchell or Randall would give us that but I can understand why he hasn't risked going with any of them.

Of the England players Cowan-Dickie is the best hooker in the squad, Curry should start, Simmonds would be my choice at 8 (we've only got 2 in the squad) and I'd have Watson and Mako on the bench, I think Lawes will be involved in the tests as well.

[paul_e]

I don’t get Jonny Hill. Always looks bang average to me.

He's a workhorse, he's not exceptional at anything but he's everywhere and doesn't make many mistakes, I think he was a bold choice but I can understand why they went with him.

[UK Redsox]

I don’t get Jonny Hill. Always looks bang average to me.

He's a workhorse, he's not exceptional at anything but he's everywhere and doesn't make many mistakes, I think he was a bold choice but I can understand why they went with him.

He's also someone who probably only made the squad because of injury, ie Launchbury.

As mentioned by others, the same goes for Daly because of North

Simmonds over Billy V will come as a shock only to those who've watched no rugby for the past couple of years...........or Eddie Jones

Aki is a bizarre one. He looks bang average and a red card in waiting

[UK Redsox]

Two members of the Lions squad now isolating

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/57751748

The SA squad are already in isolation

[luke:lamf]

https://twitter.com/QuadeCooper/status/1414779860300357632

Turns out Quade Cooper, despite 70 appearances for the Aussies, is not actually Australian. Whilst I find it disgusting that they have rejected his application given that record of representation for the country, I'm equal parts astounded and appalled that he was ever allowed to play for them in the first place. If you don't hold the actual citizenship of the country you're representing, what's the point of international competition ? Might as well just be glorified club games.

[paul_e]

https://twitter.com/QuadeCooper/status/1414779860300357632

Turns out Quade Cooper, despite 70 appearances for the Aussies, is not actually Australian. Whilst I find it disgusting that they have rejected his application given that record of representation for the country, I'm equal parts astounded and appalled that he was ever allowed to play for them in the first place. If you don't hold the actual citizenship of the country you're representing, what's the point of international competition ? Might as well just be glorified club games.

His family moved to Australia when he was 13.

[UK Redsox]

https://twitter.com/QuadeCooper/status/1414779860300357632

Turns out Quade Cooper, despite 70 appearances for the Aussies, is not actually Australian. Whilst I find it disgusting that they have rejected his application given that record of representation for the country, I'm equal parts astounded and appalled that he was ever allowed to play for them in the first place. If you don't hold the actual citizenship of the country you're representing, what's the point of international competition ? Might as well just be glorified club games.

I totally disagree with your view.