Waren Gatland Names Irish Star Who Is Likely To Get Lions Call Up

Warren Gatland is to draw up a standby list for his British and Irish Lions, but he will keep its contents private.

Gatland is expecting the usual attrition rate of six to 10 players being ruled out of the 10-match tour to New Zealand, which culminates in a three-Test series against the All Blacks. Once the domestic seasons have been completed in a fortnight, the head coach will identify 12 to 15 names who could be called upon when injury strikes.

The Lions boss did give us one name however, and that’s Leinster star Garry Ringrose. Gatland says he is the best example of someone who is was very unlucky to miss out on the original squad.

“We’re waiting for the club games to finish before we formalise a reserve list,” said Gatland

“For some positions, we’ve spoken about one or two players. We’ll let the players know they’re on standby and we’ll let their unions know, but we won’t publish a list.

“The reason we won’t publish a list is because we may want to change our minds – we don’t want to back ourselves into a corner with a player who is right at the moment but maybe isn’t later on.

“The best example of a player who was unlucky not to be picked in the original squad is Garry Ringrose, but if in the last week the weather forecast says it will be pelting it down, it could be that someone else comes in instead of him.

“In our minds we have players who we will notify for standby, but we also have to be flexible.”