Dylan Hartley picks TWO England stars in his Lions front-row

Thursday, 03 June 2021 at 15:44

byRugby Rucker

Former England captain Dylan Hartley has picked two England internationals in his British and Irish Lions front-row to take on South Africa this summer.

Now retired, Hartley is tipping away in rugby punditry and is the latest brave soul to step up and name his Lions XV.

Hartley never made a British & Irish tour, although he was selected for the 2013 squad until some verbal abuse of Wayne Barnes saw him receive a lengthy ban.

On The Offload podcast, Hartley named his starting XV for the Lions Test Series and went against the current grain by selecting six English players.

DYLAN HARTLEY'S LIONS XV

BACK-THREE:

15. Stuart Hogg (Scotland)
14. Anthony Watson (England)
11. Duhan van de Merwe (Scotland)

CENTRES:

13. Henry Slade (England)
12. Robbie Henshaw (Ireland)

HALFBACKS:

10. Dan Biggar (Wales)
9. Gareth Davies (Wales)

FRONT-ROW:

1. Mako Vunipola (England)
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie (England)
3. Tadhg Furlong (Ireland)

SECOND-ROW:

4. Maro Itoje (England)
5. Tadhg Beirne (Ireland)

Hartley said: "“For everyone wondering where Alun Wyn Jones is, and he’s the back-up to Mr Maro Itoje. They’re both workhorses. They’re both annoyingly good workhorses. So if one of them gets injured or you want to bring a like-for-like on, they’re very similar grafting players.”