We have another year and a bit to wait until the greatest sporting event on the planet kicks off, Official RWC 2015 Site - RWC 2015 but not long now until the second greatest 2013 Tour | Australia | British & Irish Lions | Rugby | Official Website : 2013 Tour Fixtures | Hong Kong & Australia, Warren Gatland has just announced the squad to tour Australia this summer, while I'm looking forward to the tournament I have to say that I'm slightly disappointed with the chosen players, its supposed to be the British & Irish Lions yet he has seen fit to pick four players that do not come close to being in that category, the whole idea that player comes to the UK claiming that great auntie Paula once brought a dog from Battersea therefore they claim nationality via ancestry and the right to play for the national team cannot be right surely if you wish to represent at international level you should be of that nation???
Apart from that it should be renamed the Welsh Lions...............Welsh management,captain and largest contingent of players Only positive think is if the get murdered we can at least blame the feckin Welsh:biggrin:
Manu Tuilagi has lived in this country for more than half his life, went to school here and has never played senior Rugby anywhere else, Matt Steven's parents were (are?) English, Toby Faletau has lived in Wales since he was 7 which is punishment enough for anyone, Mako Vunipola has lived here since he was ten. I don't have a problem with any of their eligibility to play for England, in fact I'd suggest it would be more of a travesty if any of them played for the nation of their birth with the possible exception of Stevens because South Africa need more penalties awarded against them for crap propping technique or being offside in the ruck. Edit.. Forgot to mention BRING IT ON!
Shadow you left out Dylan Hartley who is a Kiwi, all of those players are first class and I have admiration in abundance for everyone of them, and I agree they have been here a long time the exception is Dylan who has only been in the UK 11 yrs, I just think its a shame we have to pick non natives, also a real shame that Warren Gatland is in charge when there is plenty of British talent to lead a great team.
15 Welsh, 10 English, 9 Irish, 3 Scots - not a bad mix in all honesty. As Jerry Gusset puts it, there are more Welsh there because they are the best home nation. watching Super Rugby and Heineken Cup, I really can't hold out much hope for us if the two competitions are anything to go by, except in the scrum where we should own the Aussies (so maybe we can starve them of possession???)
I sort of agree but it starts getting into a very murky and grey area once you start going down that route, Simon Shaw was born in Kenya and didn't live here until he was 16 but I wouldn't question his right to wear an England shirt. I take the more practical view that if they're good enough, they're English. The All Blacks have done that for years, as have the Aussies. I absolutely 100% agree about the coach, I think everyone on the party should have to satisfy the eligibility rules from the kit man to the captain of the team.
Martin Johnson was selected and toured with NZ under 21s, should he have not then been selected for England?
Martin was born in England well almost (Sollihul west midlands) and went to NZ because of Colin Meads
I've nothing against the Welsh Cmotandy and in the 6 nations they played 1 decent game when they needed to but the rest were pretty shoddy however the problem here is that history generally doesn't lie and this tells us that every time the Lions have toured with a large contingency of Welsh players its been a disaster, this time maybe different however as most of the Welsh selection are very good with probably 2 exceptions those being Gethin Jenkins and Sam Warburton, although the biggest regret Gatland will have is leaving out Chris Robshaw.
It's the results that will be remembered, and the fact of the matter is Wales lost one game and won the championship. Welsh rugby has had a tradition of playing well but still losing games. I am old enough to remember the bad days of welsh rugby through the eighties and nineties. It was truly awful to watch and I'm glad that the last eight years of 6 nations has tipped in favour of the Celtic nations. It was killing the game having one dominant team with a boring style that would win at any cost, never mind that it wasn't a spectacle that any true fan of the game deserved.
