1
Austin Healey backs three England players for Lions call-up, but one sticks out
By Ian Cameron
Former British and Irish Lions utility back Austin Healey has picked three England players he believes will likely play some role in South Africa, despite not being picked in Warren Gatland's initial Lions squad.
Gatland's squad may already be selected, but injury both before and during what is likely to be an attritional series in South Africa will undoubtedly see a significant number of replacements flown in South Africa from the UK and Ireland.
Healey believes that Ellis Genge, Manu Tuilagi and, maybe most intriguingly, Marcus Smith; will be among those to be flown, presumably based on their outstanding Gallagher Premiership form in recent weeks.
"3 names who I think will end up in SA on Lions Tour Genge, Smith and Manu. All could add something to that squad," wrote Healey on Twitter.
While Genge and Tuilagi have fully-fledged Test careers in the bank, Smith has just seven England caps to his name, and hasn't featured for Eddie Jones' team since 2019.
Sale Sharks' Tuilagi has been dogged by injury and despite only returning to the field this weekend, is viewed as a very likely addition should Gatland's suffer midfield casualties. Gatland has gone for a heavyweight midfield, with many viewing Bundee Aki's inclusion coming as a direct result of the lack of availability of Tuilagi.
Genge has played like a prop possessed since he learned that he hadn't made the plane to SA. The loosehead admitted this weekend that his omission had forced him to 'have a word with himself'.
“It was disappointing not to be selected for the Lions so I had a word with myself. I accepted that my performances had probably not been good enough."
Most of the hype around Smith has been his likely inclusion in England's summer Test squad, never mind being called up by the Lions.
"Marcus has done unbelievably well in putting his hand up and foot in the door for England,” said Quins coach Evans this weekend following their victory over Bath. “One of the main things he’s concentrated on is playing well for Quins. In the past even he would admit he’s looked forward too much on how to get into England."
Despite Smith's form, one might imagine that Gatland would likely look to the tried and trusted Johnny Sexton, who many were surprised didn't make the original squad.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
Go to comments