Gatland Making a huge Mistake against Combined Queensland/NSW Country??

Comfort wrote:Look at the back 5 of that Lions pack;
Look at the 9 and midfield around Hogg;
Look at the opposition;

maestegmafia wrote:

belovedfrosties wrote:

Notch wrote:

123456789 wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

123456789 wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

123456789 wrote:What if Hogg is superb, scores a hat trick from 10, kicks all his goals and assists several tries? It's important to asses all possible options no matter how bizarre they are.

Should that happen, and i certainly do not discount it as he looks like he would be a great flyhalf, I think the press and fans will go nuts and demand Hogg to start the tests at ten...

To be honest, as is said above, Hook would have been a better option than one of the squads back three players, and we wouldn't worry so much about Sexton being injured if we had some decent back up for flyhalf.

I think you're being unfair on Farrell, who is a far better player than Hook, and Hook hasn't played well internationally for a number of years also Gatland clearly doesn't rate him and was never going to be called. After that who are the options? Biggar, Flood and both Jacksons are inferior players, Ford, Patchell. Burns, Heathcote and Madigan don't have enough international experience, Weir was injured (although, surprisingly, I got the impression from a comment the Lions twitter page made after his injury that he was very much in contention, though I may be wrong) and doesn't have much international experience.
Perhaps the Lions thought it would devalue the shirt to pick a third choice fly-half for the sake of it and we don't know the conversation between Hogg and Gatland, perhaps Hogg gave Gatland the impression he was very comfortable there. Why don't we reserve judgement on whether or not Gatland's made the right decisions regarding fly-halves until Tuesday and if Hogg has a howler I'll be the first to criticise Gatland and if he does well (which he will do in all probability, because he has all the right attributes and a good temperament) then maybe Gatland is the genius that many, not I, think he is

Hook is a better player than Farrell in my opinion, in fact I would say that all the flyhalf options you mentioned are better than Farrell. He has done nothing to impress at club, England or Lions level to show he deserves his inclusion, I have said that from the start and no one, least of all Farrell has given a good reason as to why he is number two ten on tour...

I would seriously value anyone pointing out why Farrell is the best option out of all qualified and available players? I would personally rather his club colleague, who I think even Sarries fans would agree, is a better player at ten.

I think this is mainly a dislike of Farrell rather than his playing ability, he isn't a creative ten but Sexton is and there's no point having two identical players, he can kick, pass and tackle.

He can pass- but is prone to errors in his passing game. He can kick- but only from the tee, his kicking game from hand has been inconsistent and ineffective on this tour. He can tackle well to be fair.

But can he think his way through a game? Can he make the right decisions at the right time, think clearly under pressure, identify what needs to be done and execute the appropriate skill? It really looks like he can't. He may the best of a bad bunch but he's shown some very poor form on this tour so far.

I'm not saying that Farrell is the best player ever, i was aware of his weaknesses before the tour and was skeptical about how well he would perform. The first game against the Baa baas seemed to confirm my worries but since that game he has been very good. In those 2 games he has made very few errors (his kicking game from hand hasn't been great that is true) but other than that he has looked every bit a Lions fly half.

His passing has been very good since the Hong kong game, where everyones passing was poor and the service he was getting from Phillips was terrible at times. I'm also not sure what to make of the stuff that i've highlighted, the guy is 21 yrs old, has shown that he can change his game to suit situations and learns from his errors (Gats has come out and said exactly this). You only need to look at the last 2 games he's played since the Baa baas to see that this is true. Frankly the last half of your final sentence is just not true at all, he was close to MOTM against the Reds the other day which was the hardest game the Lions have had.

I agree, and i said so on another thread, that his passing was good and he made some good breaks, other than that though I am not happy with him on tour and think we need another option out there ASAP.