Austin Healy doesn’t fancy Sam Warburton for the decider either.
Warren Gatland is expected to make just one change to his starting XV for the third and final Test against New Zealand. At a push, he could make two and bring Courtney Lawes in for Alun Wyn Jones. Sean O’Brien is not going anywhere.
The Ireland flanker has excelled at openside in the Test matches and has Kiwi fans and reporters raving about him more than they were early in the tour.
Former England and Lions back Austin Healey believes O’Brien was not far behind Maro Itoje when it came to ‘snarling aggression’ in the Second Test victory, at ‘The Cake Tin’. He would retain O’Brien in his Lions XV but wants him to occupy a role he has hardly played in for the past five years.
‘In my opinion he should roll the dice. This may sound like heresy but I think he should replace Sam Warburton with Justin Tipuric. I don’t think Warburton had a bad game, but he was not at the level that Sam Cane was.’
Healey adds, ‘Defensively, Tipuric barely misses a tackle and that extra speed would create both attacking and turnover possibilities. It would be a huge call to go with a different captain for the third straight Test but that may be the difference between winning a series.’
To accommodate Tipuric in the No.7 jersey, Healey would shift O’Brien around to the other, blind side of the scrum. He also questioned the form of Lions No.8 Toby Faletau but feels CJ Stander has not made the yards to justify getting in ahead of last weekend’s try-scorer.
The final change Healey wants is for Ben Te’o to return to the Lions midfield. He cannot decide whether Gatland should drop Owen Farrell or Jonathan Davies but must have Te’o’s accomplished 57 minutes at Eden Park [in the First Test] in mind.
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