Planet Rugby Lions test team....not that formidable:

This is the team:

Our Lions team: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Liam Williams, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Robbie Henshaw, 11 Louis Rees-Zammit, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Justin Tipuric, 6 Tadhg Beirne, 5 Alun Wyn Jones (c), 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Rory Sutherland
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Joe Marler, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 James Ryan, 20 Josh Navidi, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Dan Biggar, 23 Henry Slade

That backline looks formidable, with lots of pace and the settled Irish half backs. But the forwards, not so much. We should be much stronger in the tight five and at least on par with the loosies. 

The question is what Springbok team will emerge after the chicken run.

"The question is what Springbok team will emerge after the chicken run."

Unnecessarily nasty... are you attempting a move to the Rooi-hole side of bitterbalness...almost as if you are willing the Boks to lose to prove a point...I know it's not that, but your resistance to Rassie gives that impression...we won the bloody world cup for Pete's sake!

No I always support the Boks but we should have played last year....like every other rugby country in the world. So necessarily nasty. Somebody  has to tell the truth when the media is spoon feeding the fans nonsense.

Fassi hasn't had much game time and still hasn't played test rugby. So I would back Willie, Fassi time will come. 

We also have Gelant that was playing really well. Not sure if he is still out. 

But the Lions players at present doesn't really impress me that much. 

Zammit and May could be one of the most quickest wings in Lions history. That kid has some serious pace. 

But, there are still enough quality throughout, but none of the English players haver really  put up  their hands this season. 

I do not think that Willie will be in the team again.   He was solid under high balls - bit his ball handling in the 2019WC  was substandard, 

Mike, have not  watch  any of his tries in the  Top League. He still  has a  lot to  offer, so I won't write  him off. Probably  won't hang onto him until  the next world cup, but  for a lions series I would definitely keep him in the  team.

Just looking at some of our players and i think we have a lot of depth 

Here is my bok squad for the lions series

15 - Le Roux, Gelant, Fassi, Steyn

11/14 - Nkosi, Mpimpi, Kolbe

13 - Am, Kriel, Serfontein

12 - De Allende, Esterhuizen, Steyn

10 - Pollard, Jantjies, Steyn

09 - De Klerk, Reinach, Jantjies (Lost form) 

08 - Vermeulen, Coetzee, Du Preez

07 - PSDT, Du Preez

06 - Kolisi, Marco Van Staden

05 - Lood  Lomp, RG Sneyman

04 - Etzabeth, Kirsten

03 -  Malherbe, Koch, Nyakane

02 - Marx, Bongi, Akker Van der Merwe

01 - Kitshoff, Ggobe, Ox

I'll keep Frans Steyn, he has lions  experience and still performing really well. 

I left out a couple of players as just haven't seen enough of them

Kriel is a prospect but too soon  to put him in a lions series

Goosen.........waaaaahahaha.....Thursday funny!

Where’s Mchunu in your squad Dave.....cutting edge thinkers have this lad in their squads. Are you slipping in your old age?

I have never opined on player performances in games I haven’t seen.....I have quoted stats from those games which is perfectly legitimate. In many cases the stats are definitive.

Hey Dave, you pretty much selected all of our professional players. 

If you had to pick 35 players, who would they be?

"Hey Dave, you pretty much selected all of our professional players. "

Maak die Bulle almal Bokke!...Dave, forever the optimist...

Dave illustrating that South Africa has rugby talent to burn...

I would pick Reinach over Nohamba. Looks Noche hasn't made the list. But he had a few good months for the sharks but haven't stepped up.

Nice to see van Rensburg, completely forgot about him.

Never heard of Dylan Richardson 

I would pick Reinach over Nohamba. Looks Noche hasn't made the list. But he had a few good months for the sharks but haven't stepped up.

Nice to see van Rensburg, completely forgot about him.

Never heard of Dylan Richardson 

Dave the stats are way more accurate than your take on games. One could build a statistical model that predicted player success based on current statistical form that would handily beat opinion based projections.

Given how much data is being collected. And the scant financial rewards for doing so, the stats are amazingly good. The proof is that teams rely on these stats despite the views of amateurs.

Agree with Dave on the stats. If you can  create scenarios of what impact a player had would be far  more valuable then just tackles etc. 

I'm still not sure we should pick Rookies for the Lions tour. Let them play in SA A team. 

Nohambe is really good, but super tiny. 

I've spotted Richardson a few times for the sharks but didn't know who he was. Only been catching up on highlights, haven't watched any full games for a while. 

Trouble is Corn, people bang on about the context for stats....the mistakes of stats. Fair enough. But what about the context for fan opinion, what about the mistakes they make....vastly greater. Hell on this site we have players having terrible games when they are not even on the field.

Stats are many times more reliable than opinion....if you use them correctly. Bad tackling stats in one game could be an aberration. Bad tackling stats over a series of games is a strong warning signal. Yes you need to add to that by looking at the quality of the tackles....but the dominant tackles stat will give you that insight.

And there  are more advanced stats sites that compile positive interventions.....that give you the impact on matches.

Try this test. Watch a game and then review the  match stats and the player stats and ask yourself whether you never learned a few things you didn’t pick up in the game. I always do and I watch matches analytically often rerunning footage.

Watch Gary Gold on stats: https://www.statsperform.com/team-performance/rugby/

Time to lose the buggy whip and enter the modern era.