Not a bad side made up of those not selected:
15. Brown 14. Ashton 13. Williams 12. Barritt 11. Zebo 10. Wilkinson 9. Care 1. Corbeserio 2. Ford 3. Murray 4. Launchbury 5. Hamilton 6. Robshaw 7. Wood 8. Beatie 16. Best 17. James 18. Lawes 19. Brown 20. Laidlaw 21. Hook 22. Foden
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II didnt realise that Chris Ashton was not selected. I thought he was the best wing in the Northern Hemisphere, although he is not scoring like he was a few years ago. He is a bit of a praat so maybe that counted against him as well.
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Barritt is useless. Then only centre that was worse than him was Trevor Halstead who never passed once his whole career.
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Hook has become a utlity player not great at any one position.
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Full-backs: L Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues and Wales), S Hogg (Glasgow and Scotland), R Kearney (Leinster and Ireland). Wings: T Bowe (Ulster and Ireland), A Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues and Wales), S Maitland (Glasgow and Scotland), G North (Scarlets and Wales). Centres: J Davies (Scarlets and Wales), B O'Driscoll (Leinster and Ireland), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues and Wales), M Tuilagi (Leicester and England). Fly-halves: O Farrell (Saracens and England), J Sexton (Leinster and Ireland). Scrum-halves: C Murray (Munster and Ireland), M Phillips (Bayonne and Wales), B Youngs (Leicester and England). Props: D Cole (Leicester and England), C Healy (Leinster and Ireland), G Jenkins (Toulon and Wales), A Jones (Ospreys and Wales), M Stevens (Saracens and England), M Vunipola (Saracens and England).Hookers: D Hartley (Northampton and England), R Hibbard (Ospreys and Wales), T Youngs (Leicester and England). Second-rows: I Evans (Ospreys and Wales), R Gray (Sale and Scotland), A Wyn Jones (Ospreys and Wales), P O'Connell (Munster and Ireland), G Parling (Leicester and England). Back-rowers: T Croft (Leicester and England), T Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons and Wales), J Heaslip (Leinster and Ireland), D Lydiate (Newport Gwent Dragons and Wales), S O'Brien (Leinster and Ireland), J Tipuric (Ospreys and Wales), S Warburton (capt, Cardiff Blues and Wales).
I used to also think Barritt was average, but he is better than that. No world beater but pretty solid. Far better than a player like Bosman for instance. He had a great game against the AB's.
Ashton has been average for the past 12 months.
Hook for some strange reason keeps gettin overlooked by Wales......he is a handy player, better than say Toby Flood of England who is a similar kind of player
I would have rather taken a 3rd flyhalf on tour. Probably would have been Toby Flood who is a good allrounder. Not exceptional but is very solid in pretty much all aspects of the game.
Taking 2 flyhalfs seems silly. What if one of the flyhalfs gets injured half way through the tour. A replacement will have to be shipped over during the tournament and learn all of the calls. Maybe they are hoping Wilkinson will be ready at that stage if required as the French season will be over.
The likes of Biggar and Hook would have gone before Flood, but I suspect Wilko will go if there is an injury. They said originally that the squad was meant to be 38 strong, with Wilko being number 38, but he made himself unavailable.
I see Hamilton has an ankle injury as I'm sure he would have gone as one of the locks
not surprising to see such a strong team named, they are after all representatives of their nations.
the lions effectively are a squad made up of frontline players.
maybe gatland should have had lions vs non lions team, that would be a nice warm up and im sure those NH crowds would lap it up making it a nice bonus coffers wise.
