**The British and Irish Lions completed their warm-up programme by beating the Stormers 49-3 in Cape Town on Saturday.** Here we look at five things we learned from their last match before the series against South Africa begins. ## **Decisions, decisions** Possibly only two players are inked into the starting Test team – Maro Itoje and Josh Adams (Cardiff) – in the Lions’ most open selection race of the professional era. Coach Warren Gatland faces a host of tough decisions and this can be viewed in one of two ways. Either the competition is so fierce that it is hard to nail down a XV, or alternatively few players have done enough to demand selection. Whether the wide-open battle for places is a strength or weakness will become clearer on Saturday. ## **Provincial procession** The Lions have scored an average of 57.5 points across all four games against provincial opposition while there was a 17-13 defeat by a Test-strength South Africa ‘A’ side, which at least offered some idea of which players will be able to stand up to the Springboks in the cauldron of a three-game series.
