It’s one of the hottest debate topics egg-chasing has to offer.
Given we live in something of a green goldfish bowl on these Irish shores, there’s no harm getting input from elsewhere. And so we have the HarpinOnRugby Lions Selector Panel, made up of one fan from each nation, with even the Irish panellist based abroad.
And it’s that very same Irish panellist Mark Jackson who gives us his final choices for 2012. I’d like to thank the four of them for their contributions so far this season…many have ridiculed their choices but it takes courage to put your name to your opinion and the panel certainly cannot be faulted on that score.
In the new year we will have the business end of the Heineken Cup plus of course the Six Nations so no doubt the Composite Lions XV will begin to take more shape, but follow this link to see how it stacks up after the 4th round of picks.
So the autumn internationals are done we are through rounds 3 and 4 and the season is in full swing , with the 6 nations a matter of weeks away the focus for the little trip down under is more and more under the proverbial microscope . The coaching team is in place (with two of the main coaching ticket , Farrell and Howley in place of two others that most of the rugby community were clambering for in their respective positions , Joe Schmidt as Attack coach and Shaun Edwards as defence guru again), so players will need to continue to impress from here on in .
A few changes abound due to some impressive performances namely Eng vs ABs and Ire vs Arg plus some Heino performances too so here’s the current First Class company ..
15. Leigh Halfpenny
14.Tommy Bowe
13. Manu Tuilagi
12. Jonathan Davies
11. Craig Gilroy
10. Jonathan Sexton
9. Ben Youngs
8. Jamie Heaslip
7. Sam Warburton
6. Sean O'Brien
5. Donncha Ryan
4. Nathan Hines
3. Dan Cole
2. Richardt Strauss
1. Andrew Sheridan
16. Rory Best 17. Cian Healy 18 Adam Jones 19 . Joe Launchbury 20 . Tom Wood
21. Mike Philips 22. Freddie Burns 23.George North
Thats my lot for this month see you all in 2013! MJ
Mark Jackson (@markusjacksonus) is an Irishman living in London, a lover of this game we call Rugby along with Gaelic Football and NFL (All Hail The New York Giants), having played it for fun and money in many countries around the globe, am now earning a crust coaching, hopefully inspiring and passing along some knowledge gained to the next generation of players.
