A version of this article was published in the Irish Examiner on Saturday, June 15th 2013

Lions coach Warren Gatland ruffled many feathers in Ireland, particularly on her Northern shores, when he omitted Ulster hooker Rory Best from his original tour squad. It took a moment of madness from Dylan Hartley to get Ireland’s first choice man a ticket to Australia and with just 89 minutes of action so far he’s now been left out of the squad to face the Waratahs today.

Hibbard is in the squad for the crucial final weekend match before the first test and will be throwing to Munster’s Paul O’Connell with the Munster legend proving in his end of season cameo that his command of the skies is still alive and well. The Lions hooker jersey looks a near certainty to go to the Welshman, but should it be so clear-cut?

Best’s original omission was put down by many to be due to throwing issues. These days as scrum halves hurl the ball without fear of sanction directly into the second rows’ feet the art of “hooking” itself is a dormant one so a team’s number two can be very much seen as either a third prop or an extra flanker who can throw a decent dart.

Around the field Best has had the beating of the other two this year. With ball in hand Best rattled around at 2.1m per carry compared to Richard Hibbard’s 1.1m and even beating Tom Youngs’ 1.7m with the latter particularly notable as the Leicester man is a converted centre.

Best was a turnover artist as well, averaging 1.2 turnovers won per 80 minutes play while conceding just 0.4 himself. Neither Hibbard nor Youngs were in the same stratosphere. His discipline too was excellent as the Ulsterman’s penalty count against him was barely one every two games, a third lower than Hibbard and half that of Youngs.

The perceived throwing woes of Rory Best can be rooted in a lineout that malfunctioned for Ireland at crucial times, most notably in attacking territory, and one that imploded during Ulster’s Heineken Cup run; in European games this season the Ulster lineout limped along at a 75% success rate, lowest in the competition. Between league, European and Six Nations play this season Richard Hibbard threw at an 88% success rate with Youngs at 84% and Best trailing with 80%.

At the highest level there was no wildly accurate standout as Hibbard threw at an 84% rate in the Six Nations with Best at 81% and Youngs at 77%. But all lost throws are not created equal. When a hooker throws his dart, he needs a fellow in a similarly-coloured jersey to catch it.

Opta’s stats-gatherers adjudged Rory Best to have lost four throws to slippery-handed colleagues in the 2013 Six Nations with Tom Youngs losing three. Of the 16% of throws lost by Hibbard in the 2013 Six Nations not a single one was down to a handling error by his Welsh team mates. In fact if one looks only at throws that were not straight, overthrown or lost clean to an opponent Hibbard was the worst of the three hookers with the best actually being Youngs despite his overall low percentage on the surface.

The Welshman might seem a dead cert for that Lions test number two shirt but if the Six Nations throwing stats are anything to go by it’s just possible that Rory Best is getting dealt a bad hand.

Credit: all player stats are from Opta.