Warren Gatland impressed by British and Irish Lions competition for places in squad for South Africa tour
British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland speaks to media on Thursday ahead of their opening tour match in South Africa on Saturday, live on Sky Sports, against the Emirates Lions. Gatland discusses competition for places, intriguing combinations, preparations so far and Covid-19.
Thursday 1 July 2021 15:25, UK
British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland is impressed with the competition in the touring party ahead of trying intriguing combinations in search of his best team to take on South Africa in their three-match series.
The Lions beat Japan in Edinburgh in a warm-up before departing for South Africa where Gatland is making 14 changes for the opening tour game against the Emirates Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Action and Main Event from 4pm.
It is the first of five matches before the three-Test series.
Gatland has wasted no time in throwing together pairings as he looks for his best combinations. Putting the mercurial Finn Russell at fly-half and Owen Farrell at centre.
"The exciting thing from a coach's perspective is I don't know so much about the players, but [it's] just the amount of competition that we've got in the squad.
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"Owen's had a huge amount of experience. It's his third tour, he is captain of England and he is adding a lot to the environment.
"And then Finn has a slightly different way of playing but I think he's matured amazingly in the last few years in terms of the way he controls the game.
"It's pretty exciting to have a look at that back combination but we do want to look at Owen at No. 10 at some stage too."
Gatland's first priority is to give all the touring party game time in the opening matches, as the Kiwi coach admitted he was pleased with preparations so far.
"If we can build momentum and play well and gain confidence off that, then that's something we want to achieve," he added.
"It is also about creating some combinations as well as seeing how different combinations work out.
"The guys are starting to gel together. There were aspects of the Japan game that we were particularly happy with, especially the first half, and the boys have looked pretty sharp in the last couple of training days."
The players are also said to be coping well with the Covid-19 restrictions in South Africa's severe lockdown.
"The players are used to this, there's not a heck of a lot of difference from normal campaigns, except not having the freedom of being able to get out of the hotel and go and have a cup of coffee or a look around," Gatland said.
"The real challenge for the team is handling two games a week."
