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Gatland in town as Sam Underhill looks to push Lions bid
By PA
Sam Underhill will complete a half-century of Bath appearances knowing a strong performance against Montpellier on Saturday could secure a place in the British and Irish Lions squad.
Warren Gatland will be watching the Challenge Cup semi-final from the stands at the Recreation Ground just five days before he names his 36-strong party for the summer series against South Africa.
Anthony Watson and Taulupe Faletau also start and are certain to be picked by Gatland, but Underhill would benefit from a timely reminder of his destructive power as a big-hitting flanker having missed the Six Nations because of a hip injury.
The England back row plays in a ferociously competitive position where the Lions are populated with a number of high-quality options.
Bath won the Challenge Cup in 2008, while Montpellier followed in their footsteps in 2016. Bath won both previous meetings between the rivals in 2006-07.
Montpellier are enduring a troubled season and occupy a lowly 12th place in the French Top 14, forcing them to battle to avoid a relegation play-off match.
“What’s important is that there is a real desire for the group to win a trophy for themselves,” Bath boss Stuart Hooper said.
“With that comes the history, but more importantly it’s a motivation about what they can achieve together.”
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Latest Comments
If Pollock is in the squad, who gets left out?
"I think the Eddie Jones style development player approach is whats called for"
(i) Why?
(ii) The churn of players under Eddie Jones was generally considered to be quite a bad thing. Do you want Guy Pepper, Ted Hill, Ben Curry, etc. to give up and go to France like Marchant did?
(iii) England already have a really young squad, and especially a young back row. If they do badly in the six nations Borthwick will probably lose his job, so shouldn't they prioritise winning in the short term and developing the players already in the squad, rather than bringing in newer, younger, guys?
(iv) England have a development tour in June. If you really want Pollock to be in the squad prior to graduating the u20s, why not wait until the summer?
Go to commentsWhen England's defence was able to get into shape it could be dominant though (especially in the game against NZ). Is the number of tackles really the main issue?
I get that making loads of tackles is tiring, but so is building multi-phase attacks. I'm just worried England would get tired out from attacking, then struggle to get set when they're subjected to counter attacks.
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