Well put. I think that some of those guys listed above willmiss out due to injury/surgery/recovery – for example, I don't see Rob Kearney making it on tour, because he has been crippled by injury this season. When you chart his 2016-17 season, there's scarcely a month that went by where he didn't pick up a new injury or else have surgery on a previous injury: knee injury [@ Glasgow in Sep.], concussion [vs Australia in Nov], ankle injury [@ Northampton in Dec.], arm injury [vs France in February], knee injury and surgery [March 2017], bicep surgery [April 2017]. He has been absolutely crocked. The best thing for him is to get a good long break and rebuild with a full pre-season.cormac wrote:I'm not sure if all of them will go, but that will be down to their injury situation rather than Joe not wanting to pick them. Hopefully we'll see plenty of rotation amongs the squad for the three games.CiaranIrl wrote:There's no way players like Heaslip, Toner, Zebo, Earls, Healy, Kearney etc will be left behind. They will all be wanted as backups for the lions for when the inevitable injuries happen. They'll need to be match ready and sharp. Much as many of us might feel a bit disinterested in the Lions, it isn't separate from the IRFU. The 4 unions own it.
There are some other factors that come into play. Ulster have been poor and Connacht have been really poor this season. There are few players from either side who have done much to further their claims to an Irish spot. It's so much harder to get international recognition when you're playing in a poor or underperforming team – you really have to ignore the mistakes and the sh*t that's going on around you and concentrate on maintaining your own standards, while not playing like a mé féiner. That's a tight line to tread.
