The 2018 summer tours ‘absent XV’: Seven Lions, Dylan Hartley and more...
Top 10s/ListsWednesday, 02 May 2018 at 10:22
As the end of season tours fastly approach, an ill-fortuned group of key players must come to terms with the prospect of watching their team-mates from the sidelines.
Other players will take some time off to recover ahead of the Rugby World Cup next year.
In light of this, here we propose our own Summer Tours’ ‘absent XV’:
Fullback: JARED PAYNE (Ireland)
The versatile Ireland international has not played since suffering migraine symptoms while on tour with the Lions in New Zealand. He now looks likely to also miss Ireland's summer tour to Australia.
Winger: VIRIMI VAKATAWA (France)
The powerful winger is facing groin surgery in June and will therefore miss les Bleus tour to New Zealand.
Centre: JONATHAN JOSEPH (England)
He will miss England’s end-of-season tour to South Africa as a result of the ankle injury he suffered during Bath’s 41-6 defeat at Saracens.
Centre: JONATHAN DAVIES (Wales)
The 29-year-old British and Irish Lions back was injured for six months with a foot injury in the closing stages of Wales' 29-21 loss to Australia in the Autumn. It's thought despite missing the Six Nations, he'll also be able to sit out the summer tour to recover.
Winger: ANTHONY WATSON (England)
The Bath Rugby and England full-back was injured after being tackled in the first half of England’s 24-15 Six Nations defeat to Ireland at Twickenham, suffering a ruptured Achilles' tendon.
Fly-half: CAMILLE LOPEZ (France)
Scrum-half: MAXIME MACHENAUD (France)
The scrum-half and placekicker suffered ruptured knee ligaments in his side’s 39-15 win Top 14 win away to Bordeaux Begles last weekend.
Prop: ALASDAIR DICKINSON (Scotland)
Hooker: DYLAN HARTLEY (England)
The England skipper will also be absent this summer after being told to take the summer off following the Northampton hooker’s latest concussion. The 32-year-old England captain has not played since taking a blow to the head in their final Six Nations match against Ireland at Twickenham.
Prop: LEON BROWN (Wales)
The 21-year-old tight-head was ruled out of contention for the Six Nations after being sidelined for more than two months with the concussion he suffered against New Zealand in November. And now, after just four games back with his region, he is crocked again and facing a lengthy lay-off with ligament damage.
Lock: GEORGE KRUIS (England)
Saracens boss Mark McCall, speaking after the 51-14 win over London Irish,said Kruis will miss June's three-Test series to have ankle surgery.
Lock: ALUN WYN JONES (Wales)
Jones is set to be rested for this summers tour. Gatland wants to ensure the 32-year-old is at his peak for the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
Flanker: SAM WARBURTON (Wales)
The flanker has encountered a number of injury problems that have left him unable to add to his 74 Wales caps since March last year. Warburton, Wales and the Cardiff Blues decided the flanker should have surgery while he was already sidelined with a neck problem. The move will mean he misses the rest of the season as well as the summer tour.
Flanker: HAMISH WATSON (Scotland)
He will miss the rest of the season and Scotland’s summer tour to the Americas after deciding to have surgery on a shoulder problem.
Number 8: LOUIS PICAMOLES (France)
The big No 8 requires surgery, though his French rugby bosses have yet to disclose the reason. Picamoles has 69 tests to his name and includes a rare win over the All Blacks on his record.
TRENDING
LATEST NEWS
LATEST COMMENTS
- Jordie Barrett over Damian de Allende is far from being correct. The hype around Dupont is also overreaching, he's probably 4th in the world and has been since the 2023 WC. He also avoids certain matchups which is strange. The rest of the list is pretty good apart from minor subjective biases.JasonMarlow16-09-2026
Loading