Wallabies squad for Lions tour

[mazolaman]

The BOD thing is clearly tactical, because despite terrible form in the lead-up to the tour, BOD has looked ok on the field. BOD and Davies looked poor side by side as neither of them is a 12. With Roberts at 12 things will be looking up for the man outside him.

I think the Lions just need to put the best team on the park and win... that's the coach's job anyway... the tabloids worrying about "how many players from each country" happens every tour and is a silly distraction (elsewise the scots could claim injustice on every recent tour)

I guess that's my point, the coaches job is to pick the best team available, not make a side to fit his system.

Tipuric or Lydiate rather than Robshaw? That's a joke.

Not just tabloid chit chat, it is a shame if better players are left behind in favour of others.

I think we will still be bereft of ideas on saturday, so if we can't barge through, we will not have the brain to find another way. But, Gatland has picked a team to barge through only.

Either way ain't bad; they win, great Lions victory, they loose, those bloody Welsh lost it for us!

[Ken Gargett]

I guess that's my point, the coaches job is to pick the best team available, not make a side to fit his system.

interesting. there is no doubt that deans takes the contrary view. it is a team to fit his system. if he felt that Campo, Mark Loane or Horan didn't fit his system, they'd be gone for certain. i have no doubt he'd have picked mccabe ahead of horan, horne ahead of campo and palu ahead of Loane.

[mazolaman]

interesting. there is no doubt that deans takes the contrary view. it is a team to fit his system. if he felt that Campo, Mark Loane or Horan didn't fit his system, they'd be gone for certain. i have no doubt he'd have picked mccabe ahead of horan, horne ahead of campo and palu ahead of Loane.

Yeah, I guess I should have been more clear.

Some coaches pick the best from what they have, some have a system and pick the best players for that system.

I guess this goes for any sport.

Both of our coaches are certainly the latter, which I find tough when very good players are left out..(as you mention above).potential match winners.

This would also explain Gatland's Welsh bias, as he has obviously built the side to his system.

[frenchkiwi]

Tipuric or Lydiate rather than Robshaw? That's a joke.

Either way ain't bad; they win, great Lions victory, they loose, those bloody Welsh lost it for us!

That's typical Lions support right there - one hand on the champagne and the other on the pitchfork /

Robshaw is a handy player but definitely not a fetcher like warburton or tipuric (and warburton proved how useful that can be)

If he was included it would've been as a 6 for trench warfare but Lydiate came back from injury ... and Lydiate was named player of the tournament in 2012 for a reason. As rowntree et al said, Robshaw was unlucky to miss out but in the end there were better players ahead of him for the task at hand.

Had they been going on a tour of the Irish bogs rather than the fast and loose brown fields of Australia, Robshaw might have made the squad instead of the Tipurics and O'Brien's. The irony is that the latter were taken along for a faster gameplan which the lions have only shown glimpses of, in part because it was based around Roberts go-forward and line breaks. And in part because Sexton, who has played well, has a style unsuited to effective backline play ... he tends to stand very,very deep... a traditional "stand-off"! (bring on Farrell for the last 30? unlikely but...)

lookin forward to it! hopefully both teams will surprise. i couldn't put money on either of them tonight.

(George Smith on and Warburton gone is THE biggest change for mine)