There will be EIGHT Irish players in Warren Gatland’s Lions squad when it is named next Wednesday.
That much we can all agree on. Well, almost all of us.
On April 19, all of the squad speculation will come to an end. Gatland will name a British & Irish Lions squad that will travel to New Zealand in June and July for a 10-match tour.
It is expected that Six Nations champions England will take up a good few slots while Gatland will surely side with Welsh players that have soldiered for him in the past.
Back in November, Ireland were looking back on six months in which they had defeated New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. Former Ireland and Lions captain Brian O’Driscoll told us:
“You have to remember that if you are picking a team to go down and play the two-time world champions, you have to look at who has played against them recently and who has won against them recently. There’s only going to be one team from the four that can say they’ve done both.”
Seemed like a water-tight argument to us.
However, Ireland had a second place finish in this year’s Six Nations championship and lost to Scotland and Wales in getting there. The final day caning of England helps and so does the Champions Cup and PRO12 form of Munster and Leinster.
On a Lions special of The Hard Yards rugby podcast, our expert panel all agreed on eight Irish players that will definitely travel south to take on the All Blacks this summer. Ronan O’Gara, Kevin McLaughlin, Fionn Carr and Andy McGeady all heckled me when I suggested Rory Best was ‘not locked in’ so I bowed to their rugby knowledge.
Here are the Irish players we feel will definitely represent the Lions this summer:
Jack McGrath, Rory Best & Tadhg Furlong
Sean O’Brien & CJ Stander
Conor Murray & Johnny Sexton
Robbie Henshaw
Anything after those eight is bonus territory but 10 or 11 Irish tourists should not be too much of a stretch in a squad that could include up to 39 men.
As for the ‘probables’, Iain Henderson tops a lot of lists while O’Gara argued that past tourists Keith Earls and Simon Zebo should be on the plane.
There was a case made for Peter O’Mahony, Devin Toner, Garry Ringrose and Jared Payne, while O’Gara and McLaughlin waxed lyrical about Sean ‘Nugget’ Cronin as an impact sub.
