Sam Warburton is all set to become the 800th player to wear the British & Irish Lions jersey in a competitive fixture when he finally makes his debut on the 2013 tour against the Reds at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
The Cardiff Blues and Wales flank will become the last of the original squad who left London on 27 May to make his Lions debut and to add to the sense of occasion he will be leading the side for the first time as well.
Sport24
Three times tourist Gethin Jenkins will join Warburton in making his first appearance on the 2013 tour, while lock Geoff Parling, prop Matt Stevens, hooker Tom Youngs and his brother and scrum-half Ben Youngs will all make their run-on debuts for the Lions.
“Two games and two victories is great, but those two matches are building blocks as we head towards the Test series. We always said we would give every player a start in the first three matches and this team reflects that. It also provides us with the opportunity to continue to look at different combinations,” said head coach Warren Gatland.
“For the Reds match this includes a new centre pairing and a different front five. At the same time we have several players playing their second matches on tour and some proven combinations starting the match – Ben Youngs and Owen Farrell are the incumbent England halfbacks and we have an all-Welsh backrow.”
Warburton has fully recovered from the knee ligament strain he suffered in training and will form an all Wales 2013 Grand Slam back row unit with Dan Lydiate and Toby Faletau, who will be seeing action for the third game in a row.
Tour Manager Andy Irvine said: “We have played two matches so far and done very well but the stakes get higher on Saturday against the Reds, who are a leading Super Rugby side. It is the type of game we require at this point in the tour and it will be a measure of how we are progressing on the field.
“Tour captain Sam Warburton is the last of the 2013 tourists that has yet to pull on the famous red jersey. He is now fit and raring to play and it is great that he marks the occasion by becoming the 800th British & Irish Lion.”
The Reds, the 2011 Super Rugby champions, were the last Australian state team to beat the Lions way back in 1971 – their second triumph over the tourists to go with their first in 1899. Their matchday 23, announced earlier in the day includes 12 Wallabies who hold 127 caps between them.
British and Irish Lions: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 Tommy Bowe, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Sam Warburton (Captain), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Matt Stevens, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Gethin Jenkins.
Replacements: 16-Richard Hibbard, 17-Mako Vunipola, 18-Adam Jones, 19-Paul O’Connell, 20-Justin Tipuric, 21-Conor Murray, 22-Jonny Sexton, 23-George North.
Looks like a good team, although think as in the previous game that Gatland has missed a trick in not pairing Ben Youngs and Sexton in the starting line up, it seems as if he is determined to go with established combinations that are already in place from the teams countries, this game its the English half back pair that start and the Irish pair that are on the bench while it was the other way round earlier this week. Mike Phillips seems to have been in very good form in the 1st game so maybe he has the inside track to starting test scrumhalf, but I would still like to see Youngs and Sexton get some game time together as I rate Sexton above Farrell and Youngs above Connor so think they could be a good combination but against the Force and now in remaining warm up games is the time for this to happen, not all of a sudden if there is necessity in a test.
Scotland’s Ryan Grant (loosehead prop) has been called up to join the B&I Lions in Australia as cover for Gethin Jenkins who seems to be struggling with a calf injury. Congratulations Ryan the Lion! 🙂 Will surely be missed by Scotland on tour in South Africa but it is a great thing for Grant to get the Lions call and there were those who thought before the squad was initially announced that he deserved to be in it anyway.
2 @ Bullscot:
Bullybeef,
I replied to your mail with a lot of info.
3 @ grootblousmile:
Brilliant thanks a lot ou pel, will go have a look in a bit, got to go pack quickly.
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