Gatland has gambled with Test selection: Media
london — British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland has taken a gamble with his bold selection for the first Test with world champions New Zealand, British media claimed on Thursday.
Gatland — who is looking to become only the second coach to secure a Lions Test series win over the All Blacks — ditched tour captain and 2013 winning Lions skipper Sam Warburton replacing him with Irish backrow forward Peter O’Mahony.
Other familiar faces from the 2013 series victory over Australia such as Wales wing George North and fullback Leigh Halfpenny — along with Warburton all players nurtured by Gatland in the Wales set-up — are also missing.
Warburton — who lost his role as Wales captain for the Six Nations to regain form as a player — and Halfpenny make the replacements bench. Warburton is the first Lions tour captain not to start the first Test since Doug Prentice voluntarily stepped aside for a match against New Zealand in 1930 — the Lions won 6-3.
“Lions coach Warren Gatland has taken the biggest gamble of his career by axing his 2013 stars,” opined the Daily Mail. “Gatland has gone for broke with dazzling pair (England wing) Elliot Daly and (Wales fullback) Liam Williams in the back three as the tourists prepare for all-out attack at Eden Park.”
The Times also takes the same line headlining the selection as “Warren Gatland’s big Lions gamble”. Like many in the British media it expresses surprise outstanding England lock Maro Itoje is only on the bench but surmises it is a measure to try and halt the All Blacks habit of scoring liberally in the last quarter. “Itoje’s selection on the bench was a surprise but the plan is clear,” it commented. —