YOU EARNED IT
Gatland praise for Scotland’s Lions
WARREN GATLAND last night insisted that all eight Scots picked for the Lions tour of South Africa had earned their places on merit.
And he said there was no need for Scotland coaches Gregor Townsend and Steve Tandy, both part of his backroom staff for the summer series, to lobby on behalf of ‘their’ players.
Scotland’s resurgence under Townsend has been recognised with the nation’s largest Lions contingent since 1989.
Townsend is attack coach for the tourists, while Scotland defence coach Tandy will serve that same role for the Lions, and both were involved in selection meetings before yesterday’s squad announcement.
But Gatland, who picked just two Scots for the New Zealand tour four years ago, said: ‘When you look at a Lions team, you don’t look at what nations they come from. You probably look at it afterwards and, yeah, you’d love to get a balance.
‘I was involved in 2009 when Ian McGeechan was coach — and we had two Scottish players
THE guessing game is over. We now know who’s made it into the Lions squad and all the debates and arguments are over for another four years.
I can safely say that there will be no one on this planet who will have got all 37 players correct.
When Jason Leonard read the names out in alphabetical order, starting with the backs, I agreed with the first player, Josh Adams.
But the second player mentioned threw me so much that I missed the names of the next three.
Bundee Aki was as left-field as you could possibly get.
I must have read hundreds of potential Lions squads from pundits, players, journalists, you name it, and not one had the Ireland international in their squads.
What Aki’s selection said to me was that Warren Gatland was going for power and physicality — and this was proven with some of the other players chosen.
I am delighted that Scotland have eight players going to South Africa. I thought we were pretty sure of six — and could have had as many as ten.
But the one who really caught me by surprise was Ali Price.
I think he is a great player but he didn’t have the best Six Nations. He got charged down a few times, which shouldn’t happen with the protection a scrum-half gets these days.
Now that he is selected, he could thrive in this environment as he has the game for the hard grounds of South Africa and, although he might start as third choice, he could play himself into the Tests.
Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Hamish Watson were certainties simply because they are, in order, the best full-back in Europe, the most talented stand-off in the world and the best player in the recent Six Nations.
I had both Rory Sutherland and Zander Fagerson in my squad.
But I was a bit worried for Fagerson that his self-enforced early departure from the Six Nations might have allowed other tighthead props to get in front of him.
The Covid-delayed France game helped as he showed how good he was in that contest; a match he would have missed through suspension if it had gone ahead when originally scheduled.
Duhan van der Merwe really did put his hand up for selection with his performances in the Six Nations and he has been a beneficiary of the strategy of going for power.
Are Jonny May and Jack Nowell better rugby players than Duhan? Probably, but they are not 6ft 5ins and 17-and-a-half stone and able to cause mayhem in opposition defences.
The final Scot in the squad is Chris Harris, who has been immense for the national team for a few years now but not in the most obvious way that grabs headlines. His defence and work rate have been outstanding and a big factor in why Scotland have improved so much in this area over the last two years.
When there are positives, there are always negatives, and I feel for Jamie Ritchie and Jonny Gray. They are victims of the selection strategy that Van der Merwe benefited from. Gatland has selected bigger, not better, players than Ritchie and Gray. But their day will come.
With eight Scots in the squad, you can see the benefit of having Scottish coaches as part of the Lions set-up.
On a short tour like this, Gatland has to take players he has confidence in and can trust to deliver when the heat is turned up.
When Gatland was considering someone like Price and Harris, and Gregor Townsend or Steve Tandy were able to give a personal opinion on how they operate under pressure or, even what they are like as people, then he was going to listen.
Having eight players selected for the British and Irish Lions squad shows how far Scotland have improved over the last few years — and it’s certainly a fair reflection of how well they played in the Six Nations.