The final composition of Andy Farrell’s British and Irish Lions squad to tour Australia is likely to come down to his view of several principles of conventional selection wisdom.
Whatever the final shake-out, there are a number of players whose fortunes are indelibly tied to the form of their teams in the recent Six Nations. This is likely to be a factor in marginal decisions and not good for the Welsh, and to a lesser extent, some of the Scottish players.
What we do know is that Farrell has made the point that his choices will depend on form and we will see how far that is carried when it comes to judging against the mantra that ‘form is temporary, class is permanent.