Sharks vs British & Irish Lions 2: Electric Boogaloo

[big ginger 8]

Lions:

15. Liam Williams (Scarlets, Wales)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, England)
13. Elliot Daly (Saracens, England)
12. Chris Harris (Gloucester Rugby, Scotland)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Worcester, Scotland)
10. Dan Biggar (Northampton, Wales)
9. Gareth Davies (Scarlets, Wales)

1. Rory Sutherland (Worcester, Scotland)
2. Jamie George (Saracens, England) (captain)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster, Ireland)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, England)
5. Jonny Hill (Exeter, England)
6. Tadhg Beirne (Munster, Ireland)
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh, Scotland)
8. Jack Conan (Leinster, Ireland)

Replacements:
16. Ken Owens (Scarlets, Wales)
17. Wyn Jones (Scarlets, Wales)
18. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol, England)
19. Courtney Lawes (Northampton, England)
20. Sam Simmonds (Exeter, England)
21. Tom Curry (Sale, England)
22. Conor Murray (Munster, Ireland)
23. Finn Russell (Racing 92, Scotland)

 

[AlRums]

In an ideal world you would have all SA Provincial teams and Lions in one place then once they have played, players would either leave or stay on with the SA Team, like an 'Olympic park' setup for 3-4 weeks, I can't imagine this hasn't been thought of before the tour, i can only imagine there isnt the funds or maybe venue the house something like this. Like people have said above, the standard of provincal teams is because of Covid which seems to be rife in SA at the moment. I hope this idea was thought of, because it would have made the most logical sense in terms of making a full tour bubble and seeing every team using the best players and having the best tour possible?

They could sent all out to a couple of safari like lodges to isolate, but there would be no training grounds available

 

[General Melchett]

Lions:

15. Liam Williams (Scarlets, Wales)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, England)
13. Elliot Daly (Saracens, England)
12. Chris Harris (Gloucester Rugby, Scotland)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Worcester, Scotland)
10. Dan Biggar (Northampton, Wales)
9. Gareth Davies (Scarlets, Wales)

1. Rory Sutherland (Worcester, Scotland)
2. Jamie George (Saracens, England) (captain)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster, Ireland)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, England)
5. Jonny Hill (Exeter, England)
6. Tadhg Beirne (Munster, Ireland)
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh, Scotland)
8. Jack Conan (Leinster, Ireland)

Replacements:
16. Ken Owens (Scarlets, Wales)
17. Wyn Jones (Scarlets, Wales)
18. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol, England)
19. Courtney Lawes (Northampton, England)
20. Sam Simmonds (Exeter, England)
21. Tom Curry (Sale, England)
22. Conor Murray (Munster, Ireland)
23. Finn Russell (Racing 92, Scotland)

Swap Hill for Henderson and that might be close to the starting test pack. LCD has a case to start at hooker after his last display but I think he'd make more impact off the bench than George.

 

[AlRums]

Lions:

15. Liam Williams (Scarlets, Wales)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, England)
13. Elliot Daly (Saracens, England)
12. Chris Harris (Gloucester Rugby, Scotland)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Worcester, Scotland)
10. Dan Biggar (Northampton, Wales)
9. Gareth Davies (Scarlets, Wales)

1. Rory Sutherland (Worcester, Scotland)
2. Jamie George (Saracens, England) (captain)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Leinster, Ireland)
4. Maro Itoje (Saracens, England)
5. Jonny Hill (Exeter, England)
6. Tadhg Beirne (Munster, Ireland)
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh, Scotland)
8. Jack Conan (Leinster, Ireland)

Replacements:
16. Ken Owens (Scarlets, Wales)
17. Wyn Jones (Scarlets, Wales)
18. Kyle Sinckler (Bristol, England)
19. Courtney Lawes (Northampton, England)
20. Sam Simmonds (Exeter, England)
21. Tom Curry (Sale, England)
22. Conor Murray (Munster, Ireland)
23. Finn Russell (Racing 92, Scotland)

No Hogg? Could he still be isolated?

 

[General Melchett]

No Hogg? Could he still be isolated?

Who knows. Guess Watson and Williams were due a start. Gonna be tricky to shoehorn him onto the bench when there's a 6:2 split. Daly can cover the back three if needed.

 

[Ferrari333SP]

Pretty solid squad; excited for this one

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

I reckon this could get close to NZ vs Tonga levels of messy. That's a very strong Lions side and it's facing a Sharks team that's significantly weaker than what played on Wednesday, and that I imagine is going to be coming out pretty low on confidence.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Definitely looks like Daly is in line to be test 13

JG as captain is a surprise, but then all captain choices have been pretty surprising so far

 

[General Melchett]

Definitely looks like Daly is in line to be test 13

JG as captain is a surprise, but then all captain choices have been pretty surprising so far

Looking at the starting 15 it was probably between JG and Itoje and JG probably got the nod after his stellar hosting of today's inside the bubble vodcast.

Yeah looks like Daly is in pole position for 13 if Henshaw is out. Harris is a 13 all day long and never plays 12 for Scotland and so will be interesting to see how he goes. Wonder if they are now viewing Farrell solely as a 10 and are see Aki and Harris (plus Henshaw if fit) as the main options at 12.

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Definitely looks like Daly is in line to be test 13

JG as captain is a surprise, but then all captain choices have been pretty surprising so far

Not necessarily disagreeing but what is it that makes you say that? This team to me still just looks like a stitching together of who is available/hasn't had too much of a workload.

 

[Jockstap]

This is basically who Gats has in mind for the test side bar a couple players, he's named the skeleton of the test team around this stage on the last two tours I think, definitely last one anyways.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

I know like 3 of those Sharks players. Man, the circumstances have made a mockery of this tour so far. Pity the Bok players have not been able to partake and I fully appreciate the reasoning but.. Oh well.

 

[FLOBALOB]

Swap Hill for Henderson and that might be close to the starting test pack. LCD has a case to start at hooker after his last display but I think he'd make more impact off the bench than George.

You could also say he'd make more impact starting than George. It does look like they're both going to be in the 23.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Sam Warburton made a good point after the last game when he was talking about how we're not learning anything from these games. He was saying we need to be tested, to be on the back foot in games before the first test to be in the best shape and highlighting the South Africa A game next week as a really important game for us.

This is kind of stating the obvious but then he said this is even more of a pressing need for SA (especially with the 2nd Georgia match off) and he wonders whether they might be tempted to play at least half of their first team for that match. They might even be tempted to go fully loaded? I think if I was a South African I would want to go fully loaded. It's a win win for them if they do as no one will really care if they lose that game and win, lose or draw they will definitely get a lot out of it.

 

[AlRums]

Who knows. Guess Watson and Williams were due a start. Gonna be tricky to shoehorn him onto the bench when there's a 6:2 split. Daly can cover the back three if needed.

He could have still have been to the bench and cover 10/15

 

[General Melchett]

He could have still have been to the bench and cover 10/15

True. It's anyone's guess.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Not necessarily disagreeing but what is it that makes you say that? This team to me still just looks like a stitching together of who is available/hasn't had too much of a workload.

The more I think about it I really don't know, ha

Just a gut feeling

 

[mdaclarke]

Sharks names almost a completely new team. Getting some bigger forwards involved for that collisions and adapting to the three day turnaround. Some of our remaining pedigreed players such as Marius Louw, Curwin Bosch, Jeremy Ward, James Venter drops out. They should have kept Venter In the team IMO. But we will see how it goes.

[h2][/h2]15 Anthony Volmink, 14 Marnus Potgieter, 13 Werner Kok, 12 Murray Koster, 11 Thaakir Abrahams, 10 Lionel Cronje, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Phepsi Buthelezi (captain), 7 Mpilo Gumede, 6 Dylan Richardson, 5 Reniel Hugo, 4 Le Roux Roets, 3 Wiehahn Herbst, 2 Kerron van Vuuren, 1 Ntuthuko Mchunu

Why no JJ van der Mescht?

 

[Dean Cooperfield-West]

My take was Daly is seen as the 13 after Henshaw (I think they're expecting him to be out) and Harris is a Townsend-led experiment to see how much of an attacking threat they can both pose

 

[AlRums]

British and Irish Lions: Anthony Watson to start against Sharks

England's Anthony Watson will make his first start of the British and Irish Lions tour when they face the Sharks on Saturday.

www.bbc.co.uk

According to the above one player is still isolating (could be Harris) Henshaw and Hogg are getting back to fitness from minor injury