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Wales and Ireland make up just 4 picks in Will Greenwood's 2021 Lions XV
By Ian Cameron
England players dominate Will Greenwood's latest Lions team to tour South Africa in 2021 - if they were to play tomorrow.
The Sky Sport's pundit does however find room for a relatively even spread of Scots, Irish and Welsh players.
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His selection includes eight Englishmen, three Scots, two Welsh and two Irish players - in a form theoretical fifteen for the 2021 Lions tour.
Maybe the most controversial selection is that of Welsh centre Hadleigh Parkes at 12. Last week Greenwood tipped Nick Tompkins to make the team, but the Saracens' centre have apparently fallen out of the running, to be replaced by the durable Parkes, with Manu Tuilagi outside him.
In the pack there is no room for Welsh skipper Alun Wyn Jones, with England's Maro Itoje and Ireland's James Ryan lining out together in one of the most eagerly anticipated British and Irish Lions engine room partnerships for some years.
Glasgow's Ali Price and Saracens' Owen Farrell make up the halfback pairing, with Exeter Chief Stuart Hogg, Leicester's Jonny May and Saracen Elliot Daly forming a fast-paced back three combination.
The front row sees in form Rory Sutherland join England's Jamie George and Kyle Sinckler. Greenwood plumped for Sale Shark Tom Curry at blindside, Osprey's Justin Tipuric at openside and Munster's CJ Stander at No.8.
WILL GREENWOOD'S 2021 LIONS XV:
Stuart Hogg
Jonny May
Manu Tuilagi
Hadleigh Parkes
Elliot Daly
Owen Farrell
Ali Price
Rory Sutherland
Jamie George
Kyle Sinckler
Maro Itoje
James Ryan
Tom Curry
Justin Tipuric
CJ Stander
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Latest Comments
Everyone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
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