My Lions 23 for the first match, 1st of a set of summer articles on my selection for each Lions game.
My team for first fixture against NZ Barbarians on Saturday 3rd June. This selection is based purely on who has been in camp longest with the crazy scheduling and is fully(?) match fit so not included Sexton, O'Brian and Warburton. To get a bench means selecting some players who were involved in semi-finals last weekend but nobody selected who was involved in games on the 26th/27th May.
Hopefully future articles will be more open for selection and debate rather than selecting itself based on who has actually attended training camp.
Forwards: Aidan Ross (Bay of Plenty) Tolu Fahamokioa (Wellington) Sam Anderson-Heather (Otago) Andrew Makalio (Tasman) Marcel Renata (Auckland) Oliver Jager (Canterbury) Keepa Mewett (Bay of Plenty) Joshua Goodhue (Northland) James Tucker (Waikato) Mitchell Dunshea (Canterbury) Lachlan Boshier (Taranaki) Matthew Matich (Northland) Peter Rowe (Wanganui)
Backs: Jack Stratton (Canterbury) Richard Judd (Bay of Plenty) Bryn Gatland (North Harbour) Dwayne Sweeney (Waikato) Kaveinga Finau (Inga) (Canterbury) Jonah Lowe (Hawke’s Bay) Sevuloni Reece (Waikato) Sam Vaka (Counties Manukau) Luteru Laulala (Counties Manukau) Junior Ngaluafe (Southland)
Nice idea. Think you won't be far off. I think those non-match fit players will be involved though, especially warburton. It's the easiest game on tour and chance to get some fitness in to him.
Thank you for reply and and can see some sense in getting some game time into Warburtons legs, just as long as he does not break down in the 1st match of the tour.
My match skipper would be Wyn Jones.
The idea for the articles was that we have to post regular stories over the summer to keep the Sportsnet site alive and st least these predictions are rugby related and act as a little preview (sorry no where need the Chris C standard)
If anybody else wants to write an article please let me know as many of you will know more about Super 12 sides and the opposition, plus will ease the pressure on me trying to write these around my shifts.
It's a good idea, let me know if you need some help, in terms of keeping the site up I think it's 1 per fortnight Tiggs needs so you could always predict two in a row or something!
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