Gatland’s Lions squad will earn places on merit

do,” said Robinson. “It’s the same pressure he’s always been under, but he needs to step up and perform.”

The worrying thing was that many thought that Ford’s form in the last Six Nations – he had a pretty good summer tour as captain – was partly due to the cares of leadership. He’s not a naturally outgoing personality in the same way as other lead- ers in the team like Brown, Mike Blair and Al Kellock.

But his displays for Edinburgh this season and in the first EMC test for Scotland have been troubling. He was picked as captain because he was one of the few players who could be certain of his place in the team – he may not be an automatic choice much longer. A LOT of water has to go under the bridge yet – and no doubt a few bones and tendons will snap as it does – but 2013 is a Lions year and it’s all simmering up nicely with eight months to go.

To be entirely honest, I thought the Lions as a concept had become an anachronism and essentially meaningless after the hapless 2005 Tour to New Zealand. Surely convening a select side from four disparate nations to play three tests and be competitive against a cohesive and united single country – in the middle of their season to boot - was a simply impossible task.

However South Africa 2009 proved different. Although the Lions lost the series, the quality of the matches against the Springboks, indeed the almost dangerous intensity of the game, was utterly compelling.

Warren Gatland is the perfect choice as coach to take the Lions to Australia, even if the last time a New Zealander took the job it did not turn out well when Graham Henry’s squad lost a series they should have won Down Under in 2001.

Gatland’s influence on the 2009 team – even if he was nominally assistant to Ian McGeechan – was palpable. But although he’s clearly a great coach, the best thing about Gatland is we can be assured that selection for the Lions is going to be on merit.

Most Lions coaches in the past have picked their favourites – even McGeechan did so to New Zealand in 1993 with a host of Scots that probably shouldn’t have been there. For Gatland, they’re only favourites if he thinks they can win him games, and he appears to have little or no sentiment, witness how he pensioned off a number of Welsh legends past their sell-by dates.

So if there’s only a couple of Scots in the squad named after the Six Nations, let’s have no excuses. The guys there will be going on merit. SOUTH AFRICA beat Ireland last week. Ireland beat Scotland handily in March.

So South Africa should beat Scotland this week, right?

Of course it’s not as easy as that.

The Springboks’ style actually suits Scotland defensively – none of that All Black ball-juggling magic from the Boks – and Andy Robinson’s team have possibly a better chance this weekend than Ireland did last.

These dichotomies make many question the IRB rankings, specifically with their primary importance in the World Cup draw on December 3.

At the moment Ireland in eighth are barely ahead of the Scots in ninth, and should the Springboks fall at Murrayfield the teams will swap places, Scotland moving up into the second tier of four in the draw.

This seems barely credible, as by any measurement Ireland have been a superior team to Scotland for almost a decade in which they have lost to the dark blue only twice.

Yet Ireland could end up in the same World Cup pool with New Zealand and Wales while the Scots could end up with France and Tonga.

It’s crazy early to be picking the pools anyway, just under three years before the tournament kicks off.

But if you’re going to use the rankings, at least make it a proper draw, in which the eighth and ninth teams are in the same pool and have an effective play-off for a quarter-final place.

Warren Gatland.