Two changes for Ireland for Six Nations trip to leaders England

1. Coughed up 3 pens

2. Won one scrum pen

3. 6 carries for 5 meters

4. Missed 2 tackles made 26. His only really “standout” stat, however, considering most tackles a prop makes are in tight, he should be missing very few, if any.

The only reason Furlong played in all 3 tests? TH position is the thinnest in the home nations. The best TH (Fagerson) getting injured was as a big loss to the Lions as losing Doris.

Plus his “contribution” in 2nd test, one daft pen when he got isolated, 3 tackles and then nearly getting isolated again (Morgan clean out) and almost costing Lions the game.

I honestly cannot recall a more overrated player (ok Owen Farrell comes close). Ryan is a milquetoast lock that if he weren’t playing for Leinster would likely be nowhere near the Irish squad, let alone Lions.

My mind is not made up on Kirifi. Was not impressed at all in his first two tests. He did not do much in first half of third test as a starter but played very well in second half as France’s big pack tired.

Kirifi may have value as a bench player but don’t think he has much to offer as a starting 7.

Sheehan, Bierne and Furlong were very good and Keenan wasn’t bad so its not all bad news for the Irish.

I am a proud Brit and therefore very pleased that you recognised this fact. Also I was commenting on the British

and Irish Lions, the clue is in the title.

Papalii is an excellent tackler and ruck cleaner. He very rarely makes a jackal, and stats show he is a mediocre ball carrier in term of number of carries and meters per carry.

Papailii, Blackadder, Jacobson- same player, different teams.

Time for All Blacks to move on from all three.

Love is competing with McKenzie for jersey 23.

No… Next topic…

At one point when I flicked over to the rugby, I caught the 30th minute scrum featured in this column, and my immediate thought was ‘gee, Taniela got away with scrumming on an angle there’.

What I’ll say about Skelton is that his presence and want to get stuck in physically in Melbourne and Sydney enabled the other players in the Wallabies side to believe they belonged on the same field as their opponents.

As a result of the Wallabies being ranked where they are and the Lions historical record of success here, the tourists needed to win the series 3-0 and dish out at least one hiding in the Tests to be considered great.