Lions tour: Three Irish players picked for opening game as Gatland lays down marker

Warren Gatland’s opening Lions selection of the 2015 tour for Saturday’s meeting with the New Zealand Provincial Barbarians ticks a significant number of boxes, notably the presence of three national captains in a blend of experience and fresher faced Lions, all liberally sprinkled with representation from all four home unions.

Gatland has played down the relative importance of results outside the test series and with good reason. Who remembers that the much derided Lions of 2005 down here actually won all seven games against provincial opponents? But given Saturday’s opponents should be the weakest the Lions will face in their 10 matches, it’s clear that their head coach wants the tourists to lay down a marker.

With limited preparation time, the opening matchday squad is drawn largely from the two camps which have been held in the Vale of Glamorgan and the Carton House prior to departure.

“You’re always excited about the first game on tour, and a bit apprehensive,” admitted Gatland, “but it’s a great opportunity, particularly for that starting XV, and the 23, to lay down a marker in terms of hopefully getting the tour off to a good start.”

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"The advantage of the team that was selected was obviously that the players were together in that first week in Wales and then we had another group that came in for that week in Dublin as well, so it's an opportunity for a few combinations that have worked together for a couple of weeks and to prepare for that first game."

The team features the resident captains of Ireland, Wales and Scotland, as well as the Lions captain himself, Sam Warburton.

"There's some real experience there with Rory Best, Alun Wyn Jones, Greig Laidlaw and Johnny Sexton, and then Sam Warburton as captain. There's a big responsibility on a lot of the experienced players and also the younger players to go out there and get the tour off to a good start, to start well and perform and get us off to a winning start."

In addition to Best and Sexton, Iain Henderson starts in the secondrow while Tadhg Furlong and Jared Payne are on the bench. Along with the three Irish players, there are five English, four Welsh and three Scottish players.

Much will be made in the home media about two New Zealand born players being in the Lions' matchday squad, with the Auckland-born, ex-Leinster and England centre Ben Te'o starting in midfield, while Payne – who began his provincial career with Northland – is thus in line to play on his former home ground in Whangarei.

In addition to Best, Jones, Warburton and Sexton, there are two other survivors from the 2013 Lions tour to Australia in the starting XV, namely Taulupe Faletau and Stuart Hogg, as well as a further three on the bench – Mako Vunipola, Justin Tipuric and Owen Farrell.

Faletau is part of an all-Welsh back-row alongside Warburton and Ross Moriarty, while Best packs down between two English props, Joe Marler and Kyle Sinckler. Meanwhile, opportunity knocks for Henderson alongside Jones in the ultra competitive secondrow equation.

With this opportunity comes a huge pressure to perform as well, especially bearing in mind Gatland’s commitment to giving all 41 players a start in the opening three games. Conceivably therefore, another chance might not come along in the ensuing games against the Auckland Blues next Wednesday, and the unbeaten Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday week.

Te'o will start alongside England teammate Jonathan Joseph at centre in a nicely balanced midfield, while adding to the pace and footwork of Joseph is more of the same in a very potent looking outside three featuring Tommy Seymour, Hogg and Anthony Watson.

As well as the balance of nationalities and blend of experience and youth, there’s also plenty of ball-carrying ballast in the shape of Henderson, Moriarty, Faletau and Te’o, while there should be tries in those outside backs.

The result will most probably be a footnote in history, akin to the Lions’ 59-8 win over the Barbarians in a swelteringly hot and humid Hong Kong stopover four years ago.

Faletau, a survivor from that day too, can only remember “just how bloody hot it was,” adding: “That was probably the hardest conditions I’ve ever played with, out there in Hong Kong.”

Looking ahead to the cooler climes of Whangarei, Faletau said: “Within the squad we believe is a good team capable of winning out here, whether it’s the warm-up games or the series we believe that. Each game is important. We want to get a good performance in. It’s good preparation for the Test matches towards the end.

“The training we did in the camps definitely felt meaningful. For the first one the numbers weren’t great but I personally got a lot out of it. Being able to learn some systems the coaches had brought in. To be amongst the boys was even better.”

“There’s quite a lot to get our heads around so whenever we can there’s plenty of ‘walk-throughs’ to get the boys joining us late up to speed – and to keep reminding the rest of us of our roles.

British & Irish Lions: Stuart Hogg (Scotland); Anthony Watson (England), Jonathan Joseph (England), Ben Te'o (England), Tommy Seymour (Scotland); Johnny Sexton (Ireland), Greig Laidlaw (Scotland); Joe Marler (England), Rory Best (Ireland), Kyle Sinckler (England); Alun Wyn Jones (Wales), Iain Henderson (Ireland); Ross Moriarty (Wales), Sam Warburton (Wales), Taulupe Faletau (Wales).

Replacements: Jamie George (England), Mako Vunipola (England), Tadhg Furlong (Ireland), George Kruis (England), Justin Tipuric (Wales), Rhys Webb (Wales), Owen Farrell (England), Jared Payne (Ireland)