• Help Support The Rugby Forum :

The Lions squad for 2021 prediction

Curry is a lineout jumper - he's a regular target for England and Sale,

For some reason, pre RWC, people got it in their head that he's not a lineout option (when trying to justify Lawes starting in the backrow) and it's just stuck with him


lol @ using one kick, four years ago, to justify Daly's inclusion
Have they not watched him since?
Fair play he might take a long range pot shot once a series, but will that outweigh his poor defence and lack of aerial skills?

Picking Fagerson because of Scotland's low penalty count when he missed more than half of the tournament

Lawes selected exclusively as a flanker who is "able to stand in at lock in an emergency"

I'm more confused than if they hadn't tried to justify these calls
 
"In the back-row, Gatland admitted than Courtney Lawes was the '37th' player, due to the need to have big, fresh flankers available and fit for the demanding schedule, with the added bonus of him being able to stand in at lock in an emergency or a replacement situation, but stressed he'd been selected as a flank primarily"

WTF
 
So Courtney is not maybe intended as a starter at this point, but as a backup to allow him to mould his back 5? Idk
Also he says the scrummaging legality was paramount, so why on earth is Mako going? I could understand it as scotland have had a very strong scrum with fagerson and Sutherland, but Mako makes even less sense now
If he starts Lawes at 7, Olly will have an aneurysm
 
Te'o's England career deserves a good bit of criticism but in fairness he was excellent on that tour.
But people would argue that others could have done just as well if given the chance. And we don't know if aki will play well this tour. What is in common is that neither were expected (as far as I can see I was the only one predicting aki) to tour, and both, I think, were picked for the same reason.

"In the back-row, Gatland admitted than Courtney Lawes was the '37th' player, due to the need to have big, fresh flankers available and fit for the demanding schedule, with the added bonus of him being able to stand in at lock in an emergency or a replacement situation, but stressed he'd been selected as a flank primarily"
In other words he's there for the midweek side only
So Courtney is not maybe intended as a starter at this point, but as a backup to allow him to mould his back 5? Idk
Also he says the scrummaging legality was paramount, so why on earth is Mako going? I could understand it as scotland have had a very strong scrum with fagerson and Sutherland, but Mako makes even less sense now
If he starts Lawes at 7, Olly will have an aneurysm
Oh, you already said what i was goin to say
 
So judging from the comments this is one of the weakest Lions squads ever selected.
 
Lying in bed last night I remembered my Grand Mother was South African born to English parents moved back as a teenager, did work in the embassy at one point, tenuous at best but better than some.

I also have Irish ancestry through my Great-Granfather

Full declaration I'll support the Lions but this was an exercise in can I justify supporting SA instead through tenuous ancestry. I also consider myself fully English I've been to Ireland twice and never SA. I grew up and lived here. This is a bit of fun.

So I tried to work out I'd SA will be more SA than the Lions would be that I'm English/Irish.

A full SA matchday side has 23 South Africans. This gives them in my mind 23 patriot points.

I then need to work out how many patriot points an English or Irish player vs a SA one is worth with my background.

Being 2/8 SA and 5/8 Eng means every English player is worth 2.5 v SA.

However being 2/8 and 1/8 Irish means every Irish player is worth 0.5 v SA

This means if 10 Englishmen and no Irishmen did the team would be worth 25 patriot points and therefore I should support the Lions as they repsent me better. If 9 played a single Irishman would being to 23 to make even (go draws!) And a 2nd to bring it back over.

If all 8 Irishmen were in the matchday squad I'd only have 4 PP for the Lions so would need 8 Englishmen to make up for it.

Conclusion, I should be joining the Go Bokke bandwagon and I've proved ot through Maths.
 
'VDM' is in no way Scottish. Let's tell it like it is ...

I find it a disgrace that he's in the squad TBH given how he's behaved.

I mean Harris, Price and Watson are all English but at least they're still valid Lions.
I really can't understand this. I am no expert but is Mako not Tongan? By your reasoning Itoje is Nigerian. And so it goes on.....I find it disgraceful......
 
I really can't understand this. I am no expert but is Mako not Tongan? By your reasoning Itoje is Nigerian. And so it goes on.....I find it disgraceful......
Did Mako or Itoje leave their adopted country as soon as they qualified?
 
Did Mako or Itoje leave their adopted country as soon as they qualified?

you based your initial comment on his nationality, saying other Scottish players, who in your opinion, are English as they were born in England with an English bloodline are valid Lions. Th at can only mean that you believe that Mako and Itoje who are Tongan and Nigerian by bloodline are not valid Lions. You are just changing the goalposts to suit a poorly judged comment.
 
you based your initial comment on his nationality, saying other Scottish players, who in your opinion, are English as they were born in England with an English bloodline are valid Lions. Th at can only mean that you believe that Mako and Itoje who are Tongan and Nigerian by bloodline are not valid Lions. You are just changing the goalposts to suit a poorly judged comment.
I'm not being funny but you can't argue in any way shape of form that VDM is Scottish. He's not. He's a SA that lived in Scotland for 3 years because he's not good enough for the SA team.

No connection to Scotland, no Scottish relatives, no ancestral links.

Ignoring all your other stupid statements on Itoje and Mako just think before you post. How long have the others spent in the country, what family do they have there , what links do they have, where did they grow up.
 
you based your initial comment on his nationality, saying other Scottish players, who in your opinion, are English as they were born in England with an English bloodline are valid Lions. Th at can only mean that you believe that Mako and Itoje who are Tongan and Nigerian by bloodline are not valid Lions. You are just changing the goalposts to suit a poorly judged comment.
What about Duhan's brother? Akker van der Merwe, who played 3 tests for the Springboks...
 
Richard Cockrill has spent longer in Scotland than VDM, let that sink in.

So who's more Scottish out of those two?
 
Top