A Very Strong Lions Squad

Most of the talk has been of the more obvious omissions and a few surprise selections (yes we are baffled by Best, Brown, Grant etc and how lucky Stevens, Hartley, Lydiate etc are). IMO Warburton is the luckiest being neither the best 6 or 7 in the squad.

However - surprises and personal perferences aside this is a pretty strong squad and with only 37 named there will certainly be some additional replacements called up too. It will need to be because Australia are getting better and will be formidable. The team I watched Wales lose to in the Autumn was probably the worst Aussie 15 I've ever seen and probably ever will. The Lions test team - whoever is selected has the potential to be far stronger than any of the home nations. There will still be further surprises as a few of the players force their way into contention. Gatland also needs to get the bench right as it will make the difference between winning and losing.

As always it will depend on how the players can gel and produce more than the sum of their parts. That is always hard for Lions teams and one of the reasons victories have been few.

All this negativity will only serve to galvanise the squad - A Lions team lead by Warburton featuring the likes of BOD, Tuilangi and Hogg alongside North and Sexton is absolutely mouthwatering