British & Irish Lions: Your selection for 1st Test vs All Blacks
Tuesday 21 April 2020 11:23, UK
Since Warren Gatland first announced his 2017 squad of Lions to tour New Zealand, you have been selecting your XV to face the All Blacks.
And it's all part of the Lions experience. In a Lions year we love few things more than to discuss the finer points of the second row selection or the centre combos while England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales battle it out in the 6 Nations.
Over the past weeks and months that side has changed. In fact, before Gatland even announced his squad, many of you were picking a combination of Joe Launchbury and Richie Gray to pack down in the engine room. Neither made the plane.
Live British and Irish Lions Tour
And when that plane landed in Auckland just over three weeks ago, Jonny Sexton was the most popular fly-half selection but with Owen Farrell at inside centre and Ben T'eo nowhere near most of your 15s.
When Billy Vunipola was ruled out of the tour, the No.8 spot became a big talking point. Ireland's CJ Stander became the front-runner for Eden Park.
But as always on a Lions tour a different story emerges and since the final whistle on the Lions 34-6 win over the Chiefs on Tuesday, we've been tracking your selections.
So here it is... Your British & Irish Lions for the first Test vs. All Blacks:
And it seems that the Lions might have good reason to sweep the rooms for bugs because your XV is the one that many pundits are predicting will start on Saturday morning.
The most popular selection is at prop where Mako Vunipola has received an 87 per cent majority vote for the loosehead spot. He's joined by Jamie George and Tadgh Furlong in the front row.
The competitive second row slots go to the two Saracens, George Kruis and Maro Itoje, with Sean O'Brien keeping the Lions tour captain Sam Warburton, who received only 17 per cent of your votes, out of the side at openside.
Munsterman Peter O'Mahony, expected to captain the side, is overwhelmingly your blindside flanker, and Taulupe Falatau comfortably saw off CJ Stander at No.8 with more than 70 per cent of the vote.
The second most popular selection is Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray, with 82 per cent of the vote. The closest vote was at fly-half where Jonny Sexton took 32 per cent of the vote with 64 per cent going for Farrell.
Ben T'eo and Jonathan Davies are the Anglo-Welsh combo in the centres. Jonathan Joseph received a quarter of the votes for outside centre but Jonathan Davies had 50 per cent for that position.
Perhaps most surprisingly is your third most popular selection, where Wales' Leigh Halfpenny - player of the series in Australia four years ago but having not quite repeated that form yet in New Zealand - has 80 per cent of the vote.
Despite eye-catching performances from Jack Nowell and Elliot Daly against the Chiefs, George North - another star from Australia - takes the left wing berth with Anthony Watson completing the back three.
Re-join us at 8pm tonight to or tune in to Sky Sports News to see if Warren Gatland picks the same team as you for the first Test match on Saturday morning in Auckland.
