The Scots were the most aggrieved following yesterday's announcement of Warren Gatland's Lions squad for this summer's tour of New Zealand.
Just Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour were included from a Scotland team which beat both Ireland and Wales in the Six Nations.
In the Scotsman, an opinion column suggests that Warren Gatland being a former Ireland head coach influenced the decision to include 11 Irish players. Of course, that theory completely ignores the bitter history between Gatland and the IRFU.
Meanwhile Ireland and Wales, both beaten by Scotland this season, are represented by 11 and 12 players respectively.
Lions coach Warren Gatland – clue: a former head coach of Ireland, and currently on sabbatical from the same role with Wales – reckons that a heavy defeat to England ended the hopes of any other Scots. But it is more likely that the Twickenham result provided Gatland with the excuse he was looking for when Scotland challenged his pre-conceived ideas.
Alistair Reid, Scottish rugby correspondent for The Times, suggests that a lack of Scottish influence in the Lions backroom team was a factor in only two of his country's players being selected.
He also questioned the inclusion of six Welsh forwards.
Most Scots could accept meagre representation in the years when their side was bumping along the bottom of the Six Nations. That is anything but the case now, though, and you feel for those who have missed out. Gatland has somehow found cause to pick six Welsh forwards for his squad, yet there have been times in recent games when you wouldn’t back a Wales pack to burst its way out of a paper bag. It is an astonishing state of affairs.
Quoted by the Herald Scotland, former Scottish Rugby Union president Ian McLauchlan attacked Gatland for not even knowing the names of Welsh players.
And Gatland doesn’t exactly have a good track record in liking people from Scotland. He doesn’t come here, does he? And he doesn’t know the names of Scottish players: when he was asked on television whether there were any Scots in the running, he said there’s Hogg and the new boy at centre, and one of the wingers looked quite good. He couldn’t name them. He only knows Stuart Hogg.
With 16 representatives, the English media are far more cheery than their Scottish counterparts.
Rob Kitson, for the Guardian, suggests that the abundance of options on the back row gives reason for optimism heading into the tour. He also lamented the absence of Garry Ringrose from the squad.
But when Mako Vunipola, Taulupe Faletau, George Kruis, Sean O’Brien, Justin Tipuric and Iain Henderson are struggling to make your Saturday pack, there are cautious reasons for optimism and the assistant coach Graham Rowntree also feels that Ross Moriarty, the least expected inclusion along with the Ulster utility back Jared Payne, has an “energy and hunger” that will impress both team-mates and opponents.
If it is a pity no room has been found for the up-and-coming Garry Ringrose, Gatland has also opted for an abrasiveness and positive attitude behind the scrum.
Owen Slot of The Times says that says that Ireland defence coach Andy Farrell will have lobbied for the selection of Jared Payne.
Leave out Roberts and bring in Payne and Joseph and you have a very different picture: out goes one heavy-duty ball-carrier, in come two pacey ball-players with an eye for space rather than contact. This was not completely the expected Lions squad.
... Likewise Andy Farrell, his defence coach, will have lobbied for Payne. Payne is arguably the most surprising addition to this squad — Payne or Ross Moriarty, the Wales back-row forward — but Farrell is an admirer. As Rob Howley, the backs coach, explained, this is going to be a team who can play it both ways in midfield.
Stuart Barnes selected his Lions starting XV for The Times. It includes five Irish players.
Liam Williams, Tommy Seymour, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell, George North, Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, Tadhg Furlong, Mako Itoje, Alun Wyn Jones, Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, Billy Vunipola
For WalesOnline, Rob Lloyd names Jamie Heaslip, Simon Zebo and Garry Ringrose as being unlucky not to have been selected.
He suggested that the tour came a little too early for Ringrose.
It is unlikely that the Leinster centre will ever shed the comparisons to the great Brian O’Driscoll and he shouldn’t be too disappointed about that because there is so much about his play that resembles the Ireland and Lions great. A strong runner, who picks good lines and is strong over the ball. Has huge potential, but this tour has probably come too early for the 22-year-old.
Photo by Paul Harding/Sportsfile
