Today the big questions will finally be answered

After months of speculation, the advancement of improbable bolters and the decline of one-time certainties, Warren Gatland will today reveal his British & Lions squad for Australia.

For as long as Gatland has been planning his touring party for this summer’s three-Test series, there have been others trying to second guess him, a game played after every weekend of action this season as forests-worth of notepads, cigarette packets and beer mats have been scribbled on in pursuit of the perfect mix of players to defeat the Wallabies.

One thing’s for sure. Nobody really knows what’s going on in Gatland’s mind with the Wales coach keeping his cards very close to his chest to the extent we are not really sure how many players he will name today.

Thirty-nine toured South Africa in 2009, and more than 40 formed a bloated and ultimately doomed squad in New Zealand four years prior to that on Clive Woodward’s watch.

Gatland may plump for 37 or a number either side of that and it was with this in mind we pick a list of probables, possibles and longshots for perusal.

Gatland convened a final selection meeting yesterday with his assistant coaches Andy Farrell, Graham Rowntree and Rob Howley, at which Jonny Wilkinson’s name is bound to have been raised once again given his one-man kicking demolition of Saracens for Toulon in Sunday’s Heineken Cup semi-final. The 33-year-old former England fly-half would be a popular inclusion but as he is likely to miss the start of the tour due to his commitments to Toulon’s quest for Top-14 success running into early June it means he remains a longshot.

Don’t hold us to it, now, but this is a mix this writer thinks should be in the frame to give the Lions its best chance of winning a series since Ian McGeechan coached the 1997 Lions to triumph in South Africa.

It would also be good to see one of two Irishmen resume the captaincy, Paul O’Connell from that near miss in 2009 or Brian O’Driscoll reprising his short-lived spell as captain in 2005 before the fates, Tama Umaga and Keven Mealamu intervened a couple of minutes into the first Test in Christchurch. Alas, the bookies stopped taking bets last week that Wales’ Sam Warburton is set to get the nod.

As always, it is all speculation and there will be surprises. Just a few more hours and we will all be put out of our misery.