British and Irish Lions 2021: the winners and losers

There are always surprises, some happy, some disappointing, and squawks of resentment and anger when a Lions squad is announced after weeks and months of speculation. Over the four countries, there are always twice as many candidates deserving to be selected as there are places available. Almost all of us will find players we fancied omitted, and others we wouldn’t choose to get the selectors’ nod.

I doubt if Warren Gatland and his assistant coaches paid much heed to picking a squad with a nice national balance, but they have given us that. So, though there will be people in each of the Lions countries who are dismayed or angered by the omission of particular favourites, there’s much to be said for a squad that isn’t dominated by one country.

This is, I would think, especially the case given the peculiar nature of this tour, with Covid-enforced bubbles; you don’t want cliques to be formed or players whose country is meagrely represented to feel outsiders. So there are eleven from England, ten from Wales, eight from Ireland and eight from Scotland. Moreover, in a few cases, I suspect that the question of character – the likelihood of a player being a good or bad tourist – may have decided close calls.

The most notable absentee is, of course, Johnny Sexton. He has been an outstanding Lion and in the Six Nations showed that he is still a fine player. But his record shows that he now rarely plays two matches in succession and more often leaves the field than lasts beyond the hour mark. In any case which of the three named fly-halves – Dan Biggar, Finn Russell and Owen Farrell – would you leave behind to accommodate Sexton?

Some, even in England, would say Farrell, but his ability to play at 12 as well as 10 must indeed have counted in his favour. Those of us who hope to see Russell start in the Tests should be pleased to see Farrell picked, for the Lions must have a top-class goal-kicker, which Farrell is and Russell isn’t. So if Finn is to be at 10, Owen must surely be at 12.

The omission of Kyle Sinckler has disappointed and angered many, not only, perhaps, in England. Few of us armchair watchers are, to be honest, competent judges of a prop, often basing our opinion on one or two flashy moments. One would say that competition for the number 3 jersey was very hot, and Sinckler was perhaps unlucky to be edged out. Tadhg Furlong is generally reckoned the best tight-head in Europe, but both Andrew Porter and Zander Fagerson would have been as unlucky as Sinckler now is if he had been preferred to either of them.

There was a late groundswell of opinion calling for the selection of Manu Tuilagi, but his inclusion would have surprised me. Gatland has never seemed a romantic, and the case for Manu seemed to be based on what the player was several years ago and what he might have been but for a succession of injuries rather than any recent achievement or solid evidence.

If any centre has cause for grievance and disappointment, it is Ireland’s Garry Ringrose or England’s Henry Slade rather than Tuilagi. Both are more creative centres than Bundee Aki and Chris Harris. On the other hand, Aki breaches the gain-line more powerfully than either and Harris, who often seemed to me rather ordinary when Gregor Townsend first picked him for Scotland, has become a consummate defender at 13, the most difficult defensive position on the field.

The scrum-half selection must have been among the most difficult. Gatland might have been justified in taking three Welsh scrum-halves or three Irish ones. Instead, he has opted for the experience of Conor Murray and Gareth Davies, while Scotland’s Ali Price, scarcely mentioned till recently by anyone (but me, I might add), seems to have come up with a late run.

I’m delighted because I have always rated him very highly, and his game management has been exceptionally good in this year’s Six Nations. It’s noticeable that Gregor Townsend has several times had him play the full eighty minutes, which few scrum-halves do now. He has always been lively, but his judgement of when to pass and who to pass to is now exemplary, while he always asks questions of the opposition.

Moreover, though Finn Russell has been with Racing92 in Paris for some time, he and Price are an established pairing, and Ali reads Russell better than any other 9. So he should; they used to be flat-mates in Glasgow as well as partners on the field.

There’s a lot of rugby still to be played even before Gatland gathers his flock at their training camp in Jersey and an international against Japan, which it would be wrong and discourteous to describe as a warm-up before the squad gets on the plane to South Africa. So those who have been left out needn’t despair. It would be remarkable if all the 37 named today escaped injury between now and then.

This is likely to be Gatland’s last engagement in charge of the Lions. He hasn’t always been popular, the rather limited game he favoured – called Warrenball by some – not seeming to many in keeping with the Lions’ reputation for enterprising and adventurous rugby. There was substance to this reputation, but the glorious play was more often in evidence in provincial matches than in Tests.

Even the 1971 Lions in the days of Welsh Wizardry from Gareth, Barry, Gerald and JPR, under the guidance of Carwyn James, knew when to play a cannier, more limited game. In any case the shorter tours, which are now the norm, have taken some of the old Romance away, with all concentration now directed to the Tests.

Gatland’s great strength has always been that he knows his mind and isn’t afraid to make unpopular decisions. The most notable, much deplored and resented at the time, was to drop the great Brian O’Driscoll for the Third series-decider Test against Australia eight years ago, replacing him with the young Jonathan Davies. The match was won and Davies had a cracking good game.

Now, setting sentimental attachments aside, Gatland and his fellow selectors have omitted Davies from this year’s squad, judging that, for now at least, he isn’t quite the player than he was then and again in New Zealand in 2017. All coaches have their favourites, the players they especially trust, but the best recognize that the light fades for even the finest – as it did for O’Driscoll in Australia.

The light, however, is still shining steadily, not even flickering, for Alun Wyn Jones, who in his mid-thirties becomes the latest in the distinguished line of lock forwards to have been named as Lions’ captain: Mike Campbell-Lamerton, Willie-John McBride, Bill Beaumont, Martin Johnson, Paul O’Connell. Campbell-Lamerton. Back in the days when the Lions had no coach in charge, he had the courage to drop himself from the Test side when he thought he wasn’t playing well enough.

Sam Warburton recently recalled that when Gatland made him Lions captain for the second time in 2017, he warned him that he was Tour captain but would be the Test captain only if his form justified his place in the XV. I would guess that he will have said the same to Wyn Jones and that the Great Man will have nodded in silent agreement – while resolving to show that Gatland would not need to make that painful decision.