Jones Anwsers the possibility of Gatland Bias on the lions tour

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/17512373#

Adam Jones has refuted claims that gatland will show bias towards welsh players in seleting the 2013 lions tour...

and for me perhaps his most significant answer and also an indication of how the attitude of welsh players have moved on from ten years ago is..

"If I didn't get picked, I'd support whoever did get picked, but I've got to get picked for the tour first," said the 31-year-old, who made two Test appearances when the Lions lost 2-1 to South Africa in 2009.

"You've got to accept it and knuckle down and see if you can get the Test spot back."

this is why i dont believe Gatland will suffer from losing the dressing room in the same way henry did post 2001. The professional attitude of the welsh players means that they will take any knockback in selection with the right attitude and use it as a springboard to get that position back...not go off sulking to the media or amongst themselves...and gatland has history of not standing for such behaviour....just look at Tom James

Err, so what do the media expect Jones to say?

"I expect the Lions squad to contain 30 Welshmen because Gatland's got the job."

Non story and a slow day at the BBC rugby desk now that the 6N is over.

yes i agree its a non story, ive used it to prove a point about how the players attitude to dissapointment has changed since gatland has been in charge and is why i dont think hel lose the dressing room as soem have been suggesting

Ah it stinks Welsh bias already

GD - with Gatland having coached Ireland and Wales, and also having had a very successful spell at Wasps, I expect him to engender a tremendous amount of respect.

The dressing room won't be a problem. My only worry is that Oz is a long way from that Polish cryotherapy chamber!!

Gatland's proven himself a good coach. As Hound says, he's had two successfully (mostly) international stinits and a stormer at Wasps.

No problem at all with player respect

Provided he can continue to keep his foot out of his mouth

The reality is when a coach selects a team from a pool of 4 teams there will be more plaers selected from the best performing team.

It just works that way.

The springboks for example have for years now been having a core of bulls, then Stormers and then sharks players with a smidgeon of cheetah and Lion.

You would expect Wales be have the most players. It is standard practice.

Well they are the best team of the 4 'home' nations by a long way so they should supply the bulk of the squad - bit of a no brainer really

By a long way?

Really?

Seriously, that doesn't hold water. Are they the best at the moment? - Yes, demonstrably. Did they convincingly defeat all the other home nations? - No, demonstrably.

Do try to keep the hyperbole to a minimum

Yes wasp appreciate that and that there is a year to go but if selected now Wales would supply most of the players (and the coach)!

OK - not sure I would argue with that

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:Yes wasp appreciate that and that there is a year to go but if selected now Wales would supply most of the players (and the coach)!

Yes a year to go...lots can happen in a year...especially in rugby.

biltongbek wrote:The reality is when a coach selects a team from a pool of 4 teams there will be more plaers selected from the best performing team.

It just works that way.

The springboks for example have for years now been having a core of bulls, then Stormers and then sharks players with a smidgeon of cheetah and Lion.

You would expect Wales be have the most players. It is standard practice.

After the 6 Nations that preceded Woodwards Lions tour (worst in history) he stated "If I was picking the British Lions team for the first test today it would be made up of mainly welsh and Irish players with perhaps 2-3 english and scottish" - He then completely changed his mind (I didn't believe him anyways) and picked the core of his ageing 2003 team - The rest is history. Therefore, it is not standard practice as Biltong alludes to to choose the best team. Henry did something similar and both tours were poor with Woodwards exceeding even my expectations - To top it off the great Sir Clive quoted afterwards stating, "it was a successful tour in many respects" Can I have some of what he was drinking and can we not take that great rugby ambassador Alastair Cambell next year

RubyGuby wrote:

biltongbek wrote:The reality is when a coach selects a team from a pool of 4 teams there will be more plaers selected from the best performing team.

It just works that way.

The springboks for example have for years now been having a core of bulls, then Stormers and then sharks players with a smidgeon of cheetah and Lion.

You would expect Wales be have the most players. It is standard practice.

After the 6 Nations that preceded Woodwards Lions tour (worst in history) he stated "If I was picking the British Lions team for the first test today it would be made up of mainly welsh and Irish players with perhaps 2-3 english and scottish" - He then completely changed his mind (I didn't believe him anyways) and picked the core of his ageing 2003 team - The rest is history. Therefore, it is not standard practice as Biltong alludes to to choose the best team. Henry did something similar and both tours were poor with Woodwards exceeding even my expectations - To top it off the great Sir Clive quoted afterwards stating, "it was a successful tour in many respects" Can I have some of what he was drinking and can we not take that great rugby ambassador Alastair Cambell next year

It would be standard practice unless the coach or selectors are biased, yes.

Human nature Biltong. You tend to stick to what you know. I don't think it's deliberate bias, if that makes you feel better.