Hartley in starting XV for prolific non-Lion Test stars
DYLAN Hartley’s fate has prompted his late inclusion into a team he would rather not be part of, the one reserved for the mostcapped players not to have made it into a Lions’ Test team.
England’s captain replaces Rory Best as hooker although the alteration will be reversed should Hartley’s more experienced Irish counterpart fail to appear against New Zealand this summer as he did against Australia four years ago. Ironically, Best made that trip only because Hartley’s red card in the Premiership Grand Final left him in a not unusual state of suspension.
Best has played 104 times for Ireland which puts him third in the alltime list of non-Test Lions behind the Scots, Chris Paterson (109) and Sean Lamont (105). The team, including an England World Cup winner in Mike Tindall, boasts a collective total of 1,246 internationals for their countries, not the Lions.
THE NON-TEST LIONS XV:
15 Girvan Dempsey (Ireland – 82 caps), 14 Chris Paterson (Scotland – 109), 13 Mike Tindall (England – 75), 12 James Hook (Wales – 81), 11 Sean Lamont (Scotland -105), 10 David Humphreys (Ireland – 72); 9 Peter Stringer (Ireland – 98), 1 Paul James (Wales – 66), 2 Dylan Hartley (England – 84), 3 Euan Murray (Scotland – 66), 4 Gareth Llewellyn (Wales – 92), 5 Malcolm O’Kelly (Ireland – 92), 6 Jason White (Scotland – 77), 7 James Haskell (England – 75), 8 Anthony Foley (Ireland – 62).
Replacements:
C Healy (Ireland – 67) M Horan (Ireland – 67) R Best (Ireland – 104) S Murray (Scotland – 87) J Thomas (Wales – 67) M Blair (Scotland – 85) T Shanklin (Wales – 70) K Logan (Scotland – 70)