Sunday Times Pundits Pick Their British & Irish Lions XV’s

The Lions tour of New Zealand is still several months away but that hasn’t stopped us from looking forward to it already.

Coming off the back of a massive series win over Australia, absolutely smashing the Wallabies in the final test, the Lions face the daunting task of trying to take down the back to back world champions, New Zealand.

The 2017 tour includes the usual three test matches along with some huge midweek games against the likes of the Crusaders, the Chiefs and the Maori All Blacks. You can view the full schedule here.

Now that the Autumn Series is officially over with Eddie Jones’ capping off a brilliant year with a win over Australia, sealing an unbeaten year, it’s now time to turn our attention to the Six Nations and the 2017 Lions tour.

The Sunday Times’ pundits, including the likes of Stuart Barnes, Stephen Jones and Lawrence Dallaglio have all had a go today with naming their predicted Lions XV’s as things stands.

Jones has as usual gone with some very questionable decision with the likes of Rob Kearney at fullback and Toby Faletau ahead of Billy Vunipola and Jamie Heaslip. Interestingly three of the four pundits have gone with Irish sensation, Tadhg Furlong at tighthead following his meteoric rise in recent weeks.

Conor Murray is the choice at nine for all four pundits as is George North on the right wing. Ireland’s Johnny Sexton also starts at ten for three of the pundits with only Jones going with England’s Owen Farrell in the playmaker role.

What do you think of these selections? Who’s XV do you think will come closest come the summer of 2017?