THE Lions squad for the final test has been announced and, on reading it, I will be placing a small wager on Australia winning. This goes very much against the grain, however, for the third Lions series in a row, an Anglo-Welsh coach (even if he was born a Kiwi) has failed to differentiate between British and English-Welsh.
Sure, the Irish are there, they are always there, but, the lack of Scottish representation in this test, as it has been in the two previous, is a disgraceful exhibition of narrow-minded inability to recognise talent.
By omitting all four Scottish Lions from the starting line-up, Warren Gatland has written Scott Johnston's pre-match speeches before the 2014 Six Nations and has perhaps, I hope, kick-started a Scottish 6N winning campaign.
In particular the treatment of Ryan Grant, both before and during the tour has been disgraceful; Gatland clearly doesn't know the man he is working with. Grantie will, I trust, be a one-man wrecking ball come the start of next year as he demonstrates just what the Lions missed out on in the tests.
With Messrs Gray, Hogg and Maitland also having huge points to make, and a team as a whole becoming comfortable with the off-loading game which the likes of Johnston and Townsend are promoting, we will be very competitive and, if we can get our leading number sevens fit and on the park, we could win the whole damned thing.
The four Lions now know, they are every bit as good as the players from elsewhere in these islands, they just don't have coaches favouring them - go get them boys in 2014.
THE minimal impact which the Scottish players have made with the Lions puts another Scottish icon in the firing line. Andy Irvine will have a lot of explaining to do around Scotland in the new season.
As Tour Captain, he has allowed his coaches too-much rope; I feel they will, once Australia wins on Saturday, have hanged themselves. Maybe, if Andy had read the riot act, their mistakes in selection and tactics, could have been avoided.
I feel gutted for Brian O'Driscoll, dropped from the final test, however, he's not the first and will not be the last, international icon to be shabbily disposed of.
BOD on tour was not the BOD of old, but, he remains a class act. He's out, but the Welshman and the Englishmen who, more than most, contributed to the second test loss, have retained their places - explain, for I cannot.
I FINALLY, in the aftermath of the IRB appeal, got around to looking at the You Tube footage of James Horwill's stamp on AWJ in the first test.
It seemed a clear-cut stamp to me; if it had been, as Horwill argued, a case of being caught off-balance, then he'd have been forced to put down his other leg in an effort to maintain his balance.
Nope, to me, a veteran of some 20-years in the front five, back when "kick a head, any head" was the front five's doctrine - this was a stamp. He got away with it, move on.
MANAGEMENT, who is quite happy to accompany me to away matches, so long as our destination has a good shopping centre, is making waves about the 2013-14 British & Irish Cup.
Once I announced Ayr had been drawn to face Jersey, she told me: "You know, I've always wanted to visit that island".
Well, back to the computer, looking for cheap holidays in Jersey.
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