Lions Squad 2021: thoughts by P+B brand ambassador and former Scottish rugby Captain Andy Nicol
The game is up. We now know who has made it into the Lions Squad and all the debates and competitions are over for another four years. I can safely say, there will be no one on this planet that will have got all 37 players correct. No one. When Jason Leonard read the names out in alphabetical order starting with the backs, I agreed with the first player being Josh Adams but the second player mentioned threw me so much I missed the next three players! Bundee Aki was as left-field as you could possibly get. I must have read 100s of potential Lions squads from pundits, players, journalists, you name it, and not one had Aki in their squads. What that selection said to me was that Warren Gatland was going for power and physicality and this was proven with some of the other selections.
I am delighted that Scotland have 8 players selected. I thought we were pretty sure of 6 and could have got as many as 10 but one player caught me by surprise and that was Ali Price. I think he is a great player but he didn’t have the best Six Nations getting charged down a few times which shouldn’t happen with the protection a scrum half gets these days. Now that he is selected, he could thrive in this environment as he has the game for hard grounds of South Africa and, although, he might start at 3rd choice, he could play himself in to the tests.
Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Hamish Watson were certainties to be selected simply because they are, in order, the best full back in Europe, the most talented stand-off in the world and the best player in the recent Six Nations. Simples.
I had both Rory Sutherland and Zander Fagerson in my squad but I was a bit worried for Fagerson that his self-enforced early departure from the Six Nations might have allowed other tighthead props to get in front of him. The Covid-delayed France game helped as he showed how good he was in that game; a game he would have missed through suspension if played when it was scheduled. Duhan van der Merve really did put his hand up for selection with his performances in the Six Nations and he has been a beneficiary of the strategy of going for power. Are Johnny May and Jack Nowell better rugby players than Duhan? Probably but they are not 6’5 and 17 ½ stone and can cause mayhem in opposition defences. The final Scot in the squad is Chris Harris who has been immense for Scotland for a few years now but not in the most obvious way that grabs headlines. His defence and work-rate have been outstanding and a big factor in why Scotland have improved so much in this area over the last two years.
When there are positives, there are always negatives and I feel for Jamie Ritchie and Jonny Gray who are victims to the selection strategy that Duhan benefited from. Gatland has selected bigger not better players than Ritchie and Gray but their day will come.
With getting 8 players in the squad, you can see the benefit of having Scottish coaches as part of the Lions coaching team. In a short tour like this, Gatland has to take players he has confidence in and can trust to deliver when the heat is turned up. When Gatland was considering someone like Price and Harris and Gregor Townsend or Steve Tandy give a personal opinion of how they operate under pressure or, even what they are like as people, he is going to listen.
Getting 8 players selected for the British and Irish Lions squad shows how far Scotland have improved over the last few years and is a fair reflection of how well they played in the Six Nations.
