
Share
15th December 2018
10:49am GMT

There will be few complaints with Tadhg Furlong and Cian Healy making the front row, along with Springboks' dynamic hooker Malcolm Marx. The second row has All Blacks Bridie Retallick and Sam Whitelock but, controversially, no place for Leinster and Ireland star James Ryan.
There are two Aussies - David Pocock and Michael Hooper - in the back row with Peter O'Mahony. Conor Murray beat out Faf de Klerk and Aaron Smith for scrum-half while - and this was the closest call - Beauden Barrett edged out Johnny Sexton.
Jonathan Davies of Wales and Owen Farrell are the midfield pairing while the back three is all Kiwi - Rieko Ioane (12 tries in 12 Test matches this year), Ben Smith and Damien McKenzie.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrVaYuHFmzK/
Not a bad looking team at all, but the likes of Sexton, Ryan, Bundee Aki, CJ Stander, Dan Leavy, Rob Kearney, Garry Ringrose and Keith Earls all would have been with a decent shout of making the final XV.Explore more on these topics: