Waratahs 17-47 Lions

The game has been somewhat overshadowed by the news that Welsh legend Shane Williams has been drafted into the Lions squad.

But there was a game yesterday as well, and in what was an excellent and thoroughly entertaining encounter between the Waratahs and the Lions in Sydney, the visitors emerged 47-17 winners.

The Lions thrashed the NSW Waratahs at the Sydney Football Stadium

But the main outcome of the game has been to throw up a number of selection dilemmas, with many of those on the cusp of a test place performing outstandingly.

Players’ verdict:

15: Leigh Halfpenny – another exemplary kicking performance and two tries. Another quite superb performance, and you wonder if there is anyone outside the Kearney household who still doubts the Welshman is a country mile clear of any competitors for the title of Europe’s best fullback…9/10

Reds 12-22 Lions

The Lions ground out a tough 22-12 win over the Queensland Reds in Brisbane in what was quite an assignment for the tourists. The Reds played with such a high tempo and apparent freedom, typified by the excellent Quade Cooper. Still, in the east coast rain, Warren Gatland will be generally content with the shift his team put in.

Players’ verdict:

15: Stuart Hogg – lively, generally assured, although he’s not in contention to start against the Wallabies…7/10
14: Alex Cuthbert – looked laboured and slow in the first half when he was trumped in attack and defence by opposite number Luke Morahan. Blow to his prospects of starting the first test…5

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.

Vote for your player of the Six Nations

Dan Lydiate was the player of the Six Nations last season according both to a poll here and also on the Six Nations’ official site.

It was a disastrous tournament for the French, but they have two representatives on the shortlist of 12 (two more than Ireland)

But with the Wales flanker absent this year through injury, who has been the stand-out performer in this year’s tournament?

The shortlist of 12 is my own, so apologies in advance… but you can always suggest someone else if you feel they deserve it.Note to English fans: votes for Steve Walsh won’t be counted.

Of the dozen on my list, there are four Welshmen – bear in mind I am Welsh – three Englishmen, two each from France and Scotland and an Italian.

No Irish players unfortunately, although Simon Zebo looked like he might well have made the list had he played more than one single game (what a performance it was by the winger in Ireland’s solitary win, on the opening weekend against Wales).