Brian O'Driscoll's Lions team for first Test: Henry Pollock to start at No 8
We are in Whitechapel, east London, and the artist, Nelly, is hard at work, painting the names of the 2025 Lions squad on the side of a building in gigantic fashion.
Huddled beneath are some of the great and good of Lions alumni. Jamie Roberts chats to dignitaries; Gavin Hastings does a piece to camera before looking over his shoulder at the artist's progress, just a stone's throw from where Ieuan Evans – his former Lions team-mate – named Andy Farrell's squad, at the 02.
From behind them emerges Brian O'Driscoll, the former Irish centre who experienced four Lions tours, and is one of the greatest exponents to have ever played the game. So, what would be his team for the first Test?
'This is based on current form; as if the first Test were tomorrow,' O'Driscoll says. 'There were not too many shocks in that selection, in fairness. Of course, there will always be 50/50 calls and one or two contentious decisions but even the likes of Henry Pollock to me is not a bolter any more. I think he was a shoo-in.
'But, as ever, someone who might have been perceived to have limped into the squad will end up a Test player – or someone who was not even named today will feature in a Test. That is almost always the case. There will be someone who we do not anticipate who really excels and delivers in the key moments of big games.'
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