Madness wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:18 pm With some idea of who is going it will be interesting to see what Jones does with the summer tour. Any standby possibilities will want to go to be in contention for the many likely replacements needed by the Lions.
For me
LH - Genge, Obano, Rodd
Hooker - Dunn, SIngleton ??
TH - Sinks, Stuart, Heyes/Painter
Lock - Ewels, Isiekwe, Ribbans, ??
Back row - Underhill, Earls, Dombrandt, Hill, ??
9 - Robson, Spencer, Randall
10 - Ford, Smith
Centres - Slade, Manu, Devoto, Lawrence
Back 3 - May, Nowell, Malins, Steward, Loader ??
While you don't necessarily want to go with all newbies, I don't see much value in picking Nowell and Manu. We know what they can do and with the amount of time they've spent injured they'll get more out of a full pre-season with their clubs than playing USA (definite) , Georgia and Romania (rumoured). The national team gets more value out of expanding our options for when they're inevitably injured again
For me
LH - Genge, Obano, Rodd
Hooker - Dunn, Ashman (if we can tempt him...),A.N.Other.
TH - Sinks, Stuart, Heyes/Painter
Lock - Ewels, Ribbans, A.N.Other x 2
Back row - Underhill, Earls, Dombrandt, Hill, B.Curry, T. Willis
9 - Robson, Randall, Mitchell/van Poortvliet
10 - Ford, Smith, Simmonds/Umaga
Centres - Slade, Lawrence, O'Connor, Odogwu
Back 3 - May, Malins, Steward, Loader, Hassell-Collins, Freeman/Furbank, Sleightholme, Parton
Can't take all those back three players, but what an embarassment of riches! Eddie seems to love this Ali Crossdale kid (included in the 6 Nations shadow squad for reasons only our head imp will know), so perhaps he takes a berth.
Lawrence could miss out to Marchant, though I'd be tempted to let Slade have the Summer off and bring both.
Don't think Eddie will take Spencer if he hasn't made use of him prior to now. Mitchell, on the other hand, could well go. I reckon Eddie might bring Ludlam back into the flanker pool. He might also be tempted to bring Barbeary along for squad experience. George Martin probably goes given that Eddie capped him during the 6 Nations, though I've yet to see him do much notable except get carded in the handful of Tigers' games I've seen him feature. For even more Saints I believe Moon and Coles have both been in England training squads at this point, which expands the lock pool a bit, but it really is pretty thin there for genuinely stand out young talent. I feel like I must be missing someone, but simply cannot come up with a decent young hooker.
