Scottish and Irish Lions

After our three nil series loss in the summer, some of our English friends were rightly questioning whether we should have many Welsh tourists for the Lions next year. So after today, I'd like to invite my esteemed English posters to admit that the English quota of players should be minimal too. Any takers?

I said a similar thing earlier, except with a touch more grace

Scary thing is that the exact problems Wales had in the summer England had today.

Wales were one unlucky penalty decision away from winning the 2nd test and in the final test, Joubert's refereeing prevented us from winning (but we were the better team). That's too bad I guess.
After the RC Australia are twice as worse off than they were since before that tournament began. They're travelling away from home on the back of the hardest/longest season (rivalled by this current season for them), they're without some world class players, they're without a fantastic captain, they had to call Sharpe out of retirement to play in a supposedly weak front 5; And they totally outplayed England. Well England fans what you got to say now? Guess you aren't better than Australia and Wales like you always said you were.

Might be the ULSTER LIONS!

rapidsnowman wrote:Might be the ULSTER LIONS!

That'll do. Can we pick South Africans and Kiwis though?

That'll do. Can we pick South Africans and Kiwis though?

It certainly wouldn't hurt!

I was thinking more of the young Ulstermen giving Fiji the run-around just now!

rapidsnowman wrote:Might be the ULSTER LIONS!

As long as Ruan 'Paddy' O'Pienaar can start at 9, I'd be fine with that.

Morgannwg wrote:Wales were one unlucky penalty decision away from winning the 2nd test and in the final test, Joubert's refereeing prevented us from winning (but we were the better team). That's too bad I guess.
After the RC Australia are twice as worse off than they were since before that tournament began. They're travelling away from home on the back of the hardest/longest season (rivalled by this current season for them), they're without some world class players, they're without a fantastic captain, they had to call Sharpe out of retirement to play in a supposedly weak front 5; And they totally outplayed England. Well England fans what you got to say now? Guess you aren't better than Australia and Wales like you always said you were.

How were they allowed to do this? The IRB rule is that a player cannot come back from retirement within six months?

Is that really a rule? Fair enough if so, but why the need for the rule in the first place? What business is it of the IRB if a player decides to withdrawn himself from selection or not? Why would they even be notified?!

I remember Martyn Williams coming out of retirement for Wales but I don't remember any 6 month notice period???

This whole season he's been back from retirement. He was supposed to retire last year but Deans begged him to come back as he didn't have any options with Horwill out. He just extended his playing this year to the AIs but at no time did he retire this year. Rubbish rule if that's the case in any event.

As for a Scottish and Irish Lions, I don't think any of the sides have played well enough to dominate selection. And that might be actually a good thing. Get a real representative Lions instead of a England or Wales team with a few token add-ons. Then you might see some real unity in the team for a change.

I'm just wondering if we can change to British, Irish and French lions and then just pick French players

Definitely we need to go the way of the rider cup. European lions would have a far better chance at success.

This is necessary????

15 - Kearney
14 - Bowe
13 - O'Driscoll
12 - Scott
11 - Visser
10 - Sexton
9 - Cusiter
8 - Denton
7 - Barclay
6 - Ferris
5 - O'Connell
4 - Gray
3 - Murray
2 - Best
1 - Healy

Hows that...

England was not that good yesterday against Australia. But when you consider that Australia are the 2nd/3rd best team in the world. too lose by 6 points wasn't that bad now was it?

If you compare the Welsh team that played against Samoa. Compared to the England team that played against Australia. The Wales team or rather the bulk, majority, of the Welsh team have been together for 2/3 years now. They played together in the Rugby World Cup, in the 6ns (Grand Slam ) that you keep reminding us of. And they played together on the summer tour to Australia.

The Bulk of the England team the majority have only been together since the 6ns this year.

And if you ( Welsh posters ) are honest you would say that England put in a better performance against Australia. Than Wales did against Samoa.

This same team that lost to Samoa only lost to Oz by close margins over three games Madge, so maybe close losing margins are ok then? The Samoan game wasn't great, but I thought the prerequisite for Lions selection was beating Australia? That's what has been said on here. Samoa also beat them recently enough too.

Wales were poor, but I think that it has probably done us a bit of a favour, as it has given us lots to work on. I don't really buy this reasoning that England have only been together a short time, as they've played a few games together now this year alone. But thanks for a decent enough contribution to a thread for once, instead of your usual trying to be clever/funny.