"Scotland v Ireland is key to the whole shooting match"

Selection for the Lions four will hinge greatly on the Six Nations, says Stephen Jones. So who are the bolters who can force their way in?

- STEPHEN JONES

HERE IS a prospect to delight or dismay, depending on your nationality: Scotland to have the biggest representation on the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia.

With the greatest respect, Scottish players have been either peripheral or largely absent on most Lions tours of recent vintage. There have also been tours when their contingent hardly figured as Test contenders at all.

But let us look at the Six Nations to come, as always the proving ground. It's a plain truth in any Lions season that the prospective party changes after every weekend of the Six Nations, and it is also a must that current form must be massively taken into account, so the best team in the tournament should get a hefty representation.

Scotland have definitely been improving and this season they have three of their five games at home (Italy, Ireland and Wales), while a trip to Twickenham no longer holds the fear that it once did after Scotland's victories there on their previous two visits.

So there should be plenty of opportunities for Scottish individuals to show. On the evidence of their matches in the autumn and on the excellent form of Glasgow Warriors in the past year, here is a rough list of Scottish contenders who could become Lions tourists if they have a good season: Duhan van der Merwe, Darcy Graham, Cam Redpath, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Blair Kinghorn, Finn Russell, Pierre Schoeman, Scott Cummings, Zander Fagerson, Jamie Ritchie.

When you add some of the Scottish players who showed promise on their tour last summer, you have what could be termed the coming nation. And in terms of Lions selection, not to mention the destiny of the tournament itself, it is possible to see the upcoming Scotland-Ireland game at Murrayfield as the key to the whole shooting match.