Psychological XV

[Lizard]

I am convinced that a major part of the All Black's dominance over the Home Nations is psychological - the NH sides just didn't believe they could win (except occasionally for England). Hence no Scottish win ever, no Welsh win since 1953 and no Irish win until last year. That latter match has put the Lions in the rare position of being able to select a team all of whom have experienced a win against the All Blacks without just picking Englishmen. I doubt there were any survivors from the test win in 1993 still available in 2005. The last time was proabably in 1977 when I presume there were some non-English survivors from the two wins in 1971.

Anyway, here is my Lions-Who-Have-Beaten-the-All-Blacks-So-Are-Not-Mentally-Scarred XV:

1. Healy
2. Best
3. Cole
4. Lawes
5. Toner
6. Stander
7. Robshaw
8. Heaslip
9. Murray
10. Sexton
11. Brown
12. Joseph
13. Tuilagi
14. Ashton
15. Kearney

A list of qualified players is here if you want to have a go at improving: http://stats.espnscrum.com/statsguru/ru ... view=match

[Mikey Brown]

Lol. That back three will please the masses.

[kk67]

It's not a bad selection, even now. And the psychology point is well made.
That is a very focused bunch of Fellas who are all known for feeding off the determination of their teammates and vice-versa.
I'd find room for Launch and Tips at 7 but apart from that I don't have many arguments against the XV.

What Jimmy Gopperth said, sounded pretty accurate to me.

[Mikey Brown]

Tipuric???

[Lizard]

For comparison, here is a XV made up of the current NZ players with the most wins againt the Home Nations collectively:

Crockett
Coles
O Franks
Retallick
Whitelock
Kaino
Messam
K Read
A Smith
Cruden
Savea
Crotty
SBW (still under injury cloud. If not fit then Fekitoa comes in)
B Smith
Dagg

[kk67]

Tipuric???

I know he doesn't qualify,.....but the point of the thread was the top two inches. And Tips is all about the top two inches. So is Launch'.
Yourself isn't exactly lacking in the grey matter......despite your image.

[cashead]

No one from the 2009 Barbarians team?

[Lizard]

No one from the 2009 Barbarians team?

That wasn't a test match. Only Wales thinks matches against the Barbarians are worth capping.