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Tuilagi named in Scrum V's 36-man Lions squad

(Photo by David Rogers/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

England’s Manu Tuilagi has made Scrum V’s 36-man British and Irish Lions squad despite still being out with an Achilles injury.

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The 2013 tourist has been out of action since September, but made the squad on the BBC Scrum V Rugby podcast selected by 2009 and 2013 tourists Tommy Bowe and Adam Jones, as well as former Wales fly-half Nick Robinson and presenters Gareth Rhys Owen and Lauren Jenkins.

Bowe and Jones are best remembered for their exploits on the 2009 Lions tour in South Africa, where the Irishman was one of the standout players on the tour and the Welshman was tasked with repressing Tendai ‘The Beast’ Mtawarira. However, they both played alongside Tuilagi four years later in Australia.

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In the absence of George North in the centres, who recently sustained an ACL injury, there will be no lessening of physicality in the midfield with the addition of the Sale Sharks man. Though he is still yet to return, he is expected to be fit for the Lions tour and has proved over his ten-year Test career how devastating he can be when fully fit.

Elsewhere in the back line, there is no room for Finn Russell, who misses out on Scrum V’s squad, with Owen Farrell, Johnny Sexton and Dan Biggar being picked ahead of the Scot.

Though Farrell can be deployed in the centres, the reality is that one of these No10s could miss out in this slimline squad being selected by Warren Gatland, and it is Russell in this situation.
The squad is set to be announced next Thursday.

Scrum V’s Lions squad:
Forwards: Ken Owens, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jamie George, Rory Sutherland, Wyn Jones, Mako Vunipola, Tadhg Furlong, Kyle Sinckler, Tomas Francis, Alun Wyn Jones, Maro Itoje, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Iain Henderson, Tom Curry, Justin Tipuric, Hamish Watson, CJ Stander, Taulupe Faletau, Billy Vunipola.

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Backs: Conor Murray, Gareth Davies, Tomos Williams, Dan Biggar, Owen Farrell, Johnny Sexton, Robbie Henshaw, Jonathan Davies, Garry Ringrose, Manu Tuilagi, Josh Adams, Anthony Watson, Duhan van der Merwe, Louis Rees-Zammit, Stuart Hogg, Liam Williams.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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