Sure, why not?
Earlier this morning, the Lions announced their fixture list for the hotly anticipated visit to New Zealand in 2017. Seeing Joe Schmidt’s Lions squad take on the back-to-back World Cup winners on their own patch should be fascinating, and we decided to give the current Ireland coach a hand in forecasting what a potential touring party might look like in two years time.
We used to template from Warren Gatland’s *shudder* successful tour to Australia in 2013.
Here is our 37-man squad if it was picked today.
Props (6)
Cian Healy (Ireland), Jack McGrath (Ireland), Joe Marler (England), Dan Cole (England), Samson Lee (England) and David Wilson (England).
Hookers (3)
Rory Best (Ireland), Dylan Hartley (England) and Sean Cronin (Ireland).
Second Rows (5)*
Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), Iain Henderson (Ireland), Jonny Gray (Scotland), Courtney Lawes (England) and Joe Launchbury (England).
*Paul O’Connell was not considered… he will be almost 40!
Back Rows (7)
Taulupe Faletau (Wales), Sam Warburton (Wales), Sean O’Brien (Ireland), Peter O’Mahony (Ireland), Chris Robshaw (England), Steffon Armitage (England) and Billy Vunipola (England).
Scrum-halves (3)
Conor Murray (Ireland), Rhys Webb (Wales) and Ben Youngs (England)
Out-halves (2)
Johnny Sexton (Ireland) and George Ford (England)
Centres (4)
Robbie Henshaw (Ireland), Jamie Roberts (Wales), Jonathan Joseph (England) and Kyle Eastmond (England).
Wings (4)
Tommy Bowe (Ireland), George North (Wales), Anthony Watson (England) and Chris Ashton (England).
Fullbacks (3)
Leigh Halfpenny (Wales), Mike Brown (England) and Stuart Hogg (Scotland).
Who would you have in your squad?
