A lot of people want Sean O’Brien to start against New Zealand instead of Sam Warburton

It’s a fool’s game trying to guess how Warren Gatland will line out his Lions’ side next Saturday.

We had a go at it though because it’s fun to do.

The team is filled with talking points such as whether Jonathan Sexton should be in ahead of Owen Farrell and no doubt if Stuart Hogg wasn’t out injured there would be massive arguments over whether he or Leigh Halfpenny should start.

But now there is a debate that nobody really expected to really come about, Sam Warburton vs. Sean O’Brien.

Now, whether you sat on the side of the fence that Sean O’Brien is a better player before the tour started it still seemed unfathomable that Warren Gatland would drop his captain.

Yet, and to his credit, Sean O’Brien has made himself borderline undroppable after a number of impressive performances for the Lions and it has not gone unnoticed.

There has been an outpour of support for O’Brien from fans and pundits alike in the past week calling for the Leinster player to start.

Jeremy Guscott knows a thing or two about the Lions given that he has been on three tours as a player.

The 51-year-old recently wrote a piece for the BBC about the upcoming test match against New Zealand.

In it he says,

“I don’t think the Lions’ tour captain Sam Warburton will start, he may be on the bench. That’s because Sean O’Brien had such a big game and it would be a strange selection if he didn’t continue at open-side flanker.”

After the 32-10 victory over the Maori All Blacks, New Zealand media obviously paid great attention.

One such newspaper is the reputable New Zealand Herald and they labelled O’Brien as the star performer in the win.

Their writer, Peter White, had high praise for O’Brien and was in the same frame of mind as Guscott in his review of the players.

“Tour captain Sam Warburton is still not at his very best so Ireland’s fearless openside flanker has taken every opportunity to show he deserves the No 7 jersey against the All Blacks. Against the Crusaders and the Maori All Blacks he was superb on defence with a similar approach to knocking over the ball carrier to Sam Cane. In a word, ruthless.

“The Lions could do worse than start the fiery O’Brien next week in Auckland and have Warburton on the bench.”

Former England international Ben Kay also chimed in on who he thinks should start.

https://twitter.com/BenKay5/status/876329476862423040

And the general consensus seems to be similar.

Itoje, Jamie George and O'Brien superb. Can't see AWJ, Owens or Warburton starting next Saturday.

— Richy Boy (@richbarry_03) June 17, 2017

Sean O'brien MUST start against the All blacks. Warburton is a Passenger #MABvBIL #LionsNZ2017

— Stephen Jones (@Stephenruggamad) June 18, 2017

Itoje, Kruis, O'Mahony(c), O'Brien, Faletau. Bench: Owens, McGrath, Sinckler, Jones, Warburton, Webb, Sexton/Farrell, Joseph (2/2)

— Jamie Weir (@jamiecweir) June 18, 2017

The FootballJOE quiz: Were you paying attention? – episode 10