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.
This week we see the 6th Round of selections, ironically right before the all-important 6 Nations campaign begins. It’s the turn of our English panellist, Rich Church-Keen from #rugbyunited blog.
So 6 Nations season is upon us. The exciting time of year where people who never watch rugby suddenly know everything about the sport!
Well I will not bow to them! This is my 6 nations selection, and no part time fan can make me go with Jason Robinson and Shane Williams on the wings!!!
Joking apart…it’s a very exciting time of year for all European rugby fans, especially this season with the prospect of a Lions tour upcoming!
This week is probably the worst one to blog. After the weekend, 3 teams will be out of the 'Grand Slam' reckoning and we will have had our first glimpse at the majority of Lions contenders. As I write, not even all the match day squads have been announced. There will however be a raft of newcomers to the tournament that may well force themselves into Lions reckoning.
Billy Twelvetrees and Joe Launchbury are both in the week 1 squad for England. Launchbury has been fantastic since coming into the Wasps side and had an impressive Autumn series. Billy Twelvetrees (or “36” as Geordan Murphy christened him.....) has made an outstanding start to his Gloucester career in the 10 and 12 shirts and really deserves his chance with the first team, a real workhorse who's versatility could get him a trip to Australia.
Ireland have a whole host of newcomers to the 6 Nations, and admittedly, I've not actually seen that much of some of them, but the likes of Mike Ross and Craig Gilroy will be looking to make positive impacts on the tournament as will other relative newcomers such as Simon Zebo who has proved himself capable of playing anywhere across the back 3.
Scotland’s rebuilding work see's several new faces for them too. Henry Pyrgos is a firecracker of a scrum half who could push himself into Lions contention if he can find a way to bring a potentially dangerous backline (including fellow newcomers and Lions wannabe's Tim Visser and Sean Maitland) to life.
Wales have been forced into several changes due to injuries in the pack and to other key personnel, Dan Biggar will get his chance to shine in the absence of Priestland (who's lack of form will likely rule him out of the Lions anyway) and Harlequins lock Ollie Kohn will hope he gets a chance to exert his dominance and grab his seat on the plane.
At this point, injuries to the key men could rule them out of contention, Paul O'Connell may struggle to re-emerge in time to stake his place, but I'm going to take it that he will be back, and keep him in my current selection. I have had a couple of tweaks to the line up, Danny Care is on a hot streak of form so I'll include him at 9 and I've selected his fellow Quin and England man, Chris Robshaw at 7 largely due to his huge workrate and tackle count (though Sean O'Brien,Chris Henry, Sam Warburton and Ross Rennie will all be chasing this shirt down!)
15. Kearney
14. Bowe
13. O'Driscoll
12. J. Davies
11. North
10. Sexton
9. Care
8. Heaslip
7. Robshaw
6. Ferris
5. O'Connell
4. Gray
3. Cole
2. Best
1. Healy
My next blog should have some insight to how the newcomers have done in the opening weeks and I will try to cover an 'injury report' !
Til then
RC_K
My name is Richard Church-Keen, born in Coventry, live in Dudley, yet by God's grace, I'm a diehard Gloucester Rugby and also an England rugby fan (and yes, in that order). I'm a rugby mad husband to a rugby mad wife with a rugby mad stepson and indeed, rugby has taken over every facet of my life. I am a chef by day, and #RugbyUnited’s charity director and blogger in chief by night. Oh. And a twitter addict (@RichC_K)!!!
Thanks Rich! If you click on his tag below you can see all his Lions posts to date and find out how his selections have evolved since the start of the season. If you follow this link you can see how the HoR Composite XV shapes up right now, that being the team put together from the four panellists’ selections.
Next week, it’s the turn of our Welsh contributor Hywel Davies.
