Gatland on Welsh Lions : "Some of them weren't probably good enough to go on the tour in the first place"

Is he HERSH in disguise?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/19478969

The comment is referring to Henrys' 2001 Lions tour. Gatland is doing the usual pre tour " no favouritism" spiel, no doubt right before "doing a Woodward" and picking Hook who he spoke to about his availability and watched this weekend)

2001 and 2005 lions biased selections should have been the other way round

Easier in hindsight of course. I honestly wouldnt see that much wrong with Gatland picking a Welsh heavy squad.
The Welsh have played pretty well as a team and as individuals recently, and most of the stand out players have a decent level of experience. The players know the coaches likely gameplan inside out ( its been the same for years). Theres not so many from Ireland and England who can say the say, and you can count on two fingers of one hand the number of Scots who are in the "must tour" grouping. Obviously this season and the forthcoming internationals may change that, but broadly speaking I wouldnt see it as undue favouritism for him to pick a welsh heavy squad..just a reflection of who he feels best suited top deliver out there.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Easier in hindsight of course. I honestly wouldnt see that much wrong with Gatland picking a Welsh heavy squad.
The Welsh have played pretty well as a team and as individuals recently, and most of the stand out players have a decent level of experience. The players know the coaches likely gameplan inside out ( its been the same for years). Theres not so many from Ireland and England who can say the say, and you can count on two fingers of one hand the number of Scots who are in the "must tour" grouping. Obviously this season and the forthcoming internationals may change that, but broadly speaking I wouldnt see it as undue favouritism for him to pick a welsh heavy squad..just a reflection of who he feels best suited top deliver out there.

I guess the problem is, PSW, that the "likely gameplan" (ie modelled on the Welsh one) hasn't been so effective against SH oppo going on the last couple of years - that is a cause for concern?

I guess we will know the game plan come October when the coaching staff are announced - especially the name of the attack coach.

God lets hope he doesn't choose Howley

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Easier in hindsight of course. I honestly wouldnt see that much wrong with Gatland picking a Welsh heavy squad.
The Welsh have played pretty well as a team and as individuals recently, and most of the stand out players have a decent level of experience. The players know the coaches likely gameplan inside out ( its been the same for years). Theres not so many from Ireland and England who can say the say, and you can count on two fingers of one hand the number of Scots who are in the "must tour" grouping. Obviously this season and the forthcoming internationals may change that, but broadly speaking I wouldnt see it as undue favouritism for him to pick a welsh heavy squad..just a reflection of who he feels best suited top deliver out there.

I guess the problem is, PSW, that the "likely gameplan" (ie modelled on the Welsh one) hasn't been so effective against SH oppo going on the last couple of years - that is a cause for concern?

Depends how you look at it...wales have been close to Australia in all the games (bar one joke game) theyve played, although most other sides have got a win at some point really the big european big 4 are much of a muchness. Is that effective or ineffective? Everyones struggled against the All Blacks and saffers.
Predictable perhaps. But we know how Gatlands going to play it, right or wrong, especially as hes already bought in Edwards. It would be bad enough getting a new team used to a new system whithout the head coach understanding it or believing in it. Maybe with a couple of those lethal scottish backs they will turn form a nearly team into a try scoring machine.
End of the day we have Gatland now, so it will happen. There may be some tweaking, but we know the base plan for the Lions. Unfortunately so do the Aussies.

bedfordwelsh wrote:God lets hope he doesn't choose Howley

I hate to tell you this but theyve already negotiated his availability

I don't think the issues is the tour group being "Welsh heavy", the issue is Gatland picking Welsh players who don't deserve to be selected ahead of English, Irish and Scottish players - obviously an important distinction.

I think there will be a large Welsh contingent in the touring party, and based on how the home nations have performed generally over the last couple of seasons, quite right. No-one, not even us Scots, want tokenism to creep back in.

funnyExiledScot wrote:I don't think the issues is the tour group being "Welsh heavy", the issue is Gatland picking Welsh players who don't deserve to be selected ahead of English, Irish and Scottish players - obviously an important distinction.

I think there will be a large Welsh contingent in the touring party, and based on how the home nations have performed generally over the last couple of seasons, quite right. No-one, not even us Scots, want tokenism to creep back in.

Speak for yourself!

In all seriousness I do feel that certain areas of the Lions squad will come down to 50-50 choices. A lot of Rugby to be played between now and then though, Rabo, Aviva, AI's, HC's, 6N's etc etc etc.

However if there are a bucket load of 50-50 calls going into the selection period we are all deluding ourselves to think Gatland will pick Scots, Irish or English players in these said 50-50 calls.

I do think based on merit and performancs that the squad will be Welsh heavy but thats not to say that Scots, Irish and English players won't have much to contribute. Equally right now I feel that England, Scotland and Ireland would be able to contribute players solely based on merit, being the best in their relative positions.