One of the men most synonymous with The British and Irish Lions has slammed Warren Gatland's decision to select just two Scottish players in his 41 man squad for the upcoming tour of New Zealand. Full back Stuart Hogg, who was a guaranteed selection, is joined in the squad by only winger Tommy Seymour for the tour, while two teams Scotland beat in the Six Nations, Wales and Ireland, will bring a combined 23 players to New Zealand.
Jim Telfer is perhaps best known a couple of incredible motivational speeches to the Lions forward pack ahead of the tests against South Africa in 1997. They were captured on the "Living with The Lions" docimentary and are among the defining moments in Lions' history.
As a player, Telfer toured both New Zealand and South Africa with the Lions, before coaching them in 1983, and doing his famous job as assistant coach to Ian McGeechan in '97.
He also coached Scotland to a Grand Slam in 1984 and again seconded McGeechan in 1990 when they managed another clean sweep. In 1999, he again coached Scotland to a Championship victory in the last ever Five Nations.
Now, with only two Scots selected in a 41 man squad on the back of a Six Nations when they beat both Ireland and Wales, Telfer is disgusted that their talents and performances have been ignored by Gatland.
Speaking to the Scottish Daily Mail, Telfer particularly unhappy with the selection of 12 Welsh players in the squad despite Scotland's 29-13 win over the team Gatland is currently on sabbatical from earlier this year.
Twelve Welshman who have had a pretty average season in a Lions squad of 41 is not justified, especially as Scotland just got two and we beat Wales well
Scottish rugby fans have every reason to be aggrieved and disillusioned because of that. We beat Wales fair and square. We beat Ireland fair and square — yet only got two players in the Lions squad.
Telfer thinks Scottish rugby fans could reject the Lions this summer. He also claims that ignoring the exciting Scottish backline which ripped through Ireland in Murrayfield and managed 14 tries in the Six Nations to Wales' eight means that The Lions will miss out on exciting, attacking rugby for the upcoming tour.
There is nobody in that Lions squad apart from Stuart Hogg that excites me. You need a bit of spark to win games at the highest level and only Stuart has that.
There is nobody in that squad apart from him that has that “x factor” or the sort of flair that Finn Russell has been showing for Scotland, yet Finn is not being picked.
Scotland have the most creative back division in northern hemisphere rugby yet we only got our full-back and one of our wingers in the Lions squad.
Okay, Finn didn’t play well against England but that was a one-off game when everything that could have gone wrong for Scotland did. You going to ignore him because of that? No, you should not.
When asked about the selection of so few Scottish players, Gatland brushed off any suggestions of bias.
We understand they are going to be disappointed but it wasn’t about what nation you come from. We put together what we thought was the strongest possible squad.
We're not so sure we'd be quite so understanding we were in Scotland's position.
