Rugby | Lions stick to selection plan for tour match vs Crusaders

Canterbury Crusaders and All Black prop forward Joe Moody at a press conference

British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland hasn’t allowed selection plans to be derailed by this week loss to the Auckland-based Blues, picking a lineup below test strength for tomorrow’s match with the Crusaders at Christchurch.

Gatland said he would give all 41 members of his touring squad a chance to play in the first three matches of the Lions’ New Zealand tour and would not reveal his test lineup until the fifth tour match against the New Zealand Maori, a week before the first test.

He held to that course yesterday in selecting his squad to take on a Crusaders team which is unbeaten in 14 Super Rugby matches this season and will be the toughest opponent the Lions will have faced on the tour to date.

Some commentators have called on Gatland to abandon his rotational plans and to name his test side early, to prevent a loss to the Crusaders which might further undermine confidence of his players ahead of the three-test series against the world champion All Blacks.

Gatland has picked a strong but still experimental lineup, though, to meet a Crusaders team which contains nine All Blacks.

The four members of the Lions touring squad who did not play against the Blues or the Provincial Barbarians — flanker Sean O’Brien, scrumhalf Conor Murray, center Jonathan Davies and winger George North — will get their first outings.

England flyhalf Owen Farrell will be in the starting lineup for the first time on tour after coming off the bench to steady the Lions in a 13-7 win over the Barbarians. In that short cameo Farrell appeared to be more polished than Ireland’s Jonathan Sexton and Wales’ Dan Biggar who have started in the first two games.

His combination with Murray is the one Gatland could choose for the first test and for that reason the pair need to demonstrate an ability to control a game to a much greater degree than the Lions have shown so far on tour.

Alun Wyn Jones — on his third Lions tour — will lead the Lions from lock while New Zealand-born center Ben Te’o will get another chance to impress selectors. AP