Lions squad verdict: the backs

Leigh Halfpenny

The best full back in the northern hemisphere, the outstanding player of the Six Nations, safer than houses under the high ball and a deadly accurate goalkicker

Stuart Hogg

A superb talent – he is only 20 – with pace to burn, as his Six Nations try against Italy proved. Will be an exciting part of the Lions midweek team

Rob Kearney

Once the best Six Nations full back, he has watched Halfpenny consolidate his own claim to that crown. But Kearney is still too much of a safe pair of hands to leave behind

Tommy Bowe

Jonny Wilkinson for the Lions number 10 jersey

The Heineken Cup rolled back into town last weekend, bringing all the thrills and spills of the Six Nations with it.

I’m being cynical, but after a Six Nations marked by a dearth of tries, Sunday’s Heineken Cup quarter finals comprised a whopping 21 penalty goals, one drop goal and no tries.

The Stoop before kick off

I was at Harlequins’ 18-12 defeat to Munster at the Stoop, and although all the points came from the boots of Nick Evans and Ronan O’Gara, it was an entertaining, nervous game. The Irish province deserved their win after blitzing the hosts at the start of the second half, and Quins were far too predictable and one-dimensional ever to threaten the Munster tryline.

Sitting among the massed ranks of boisterous, delirious, flag-waving Munster fans was annoying for an adopted Quins supporter, although I did at least manage to have some fun winding them up when O’Gara missed a couple of straightforward goal kicks in the first half.

I can’t claim ever to have been O’Gara’s biggest fan, and not just because of his antics in the deciding Lions test in South Africa four years ago. After an impressive Irish career, his time is all but up, his abysmal decision-making in the Six Nations against Scotland proof enough of that.

The same cannot be said for Jonny Wilkinson, who demonstrated in the final quarter-final of the weekend his class – in all definitions of the word – remains very much integral to his play on the field and personality off it. He kicked all of Toulon’s points in their 21-15 win over the Leicester Tigers, including a late, wrong-footed drop goal, and his all-round play was equally good.

In typically modest style, he then said youngsters like Owen Farrell should be selected to tour Australia by Warren Gatland.

But why? Wilkinson simply has to be on the trip Down Under, and – though Jonny Sexton partisans may argue – Wilkinson deserves the chance to repeat his 2003 success.