Unusually for Sky we’re going to take a break and then back with the LIONS SQUAD
Lions’ former captains dinner last night. Itoje announced then. Itoje: “Last night was amazing. It is a brotherhood, a unique club.”
Maro Itoje walks on stage carrying BIL, the Lions’ lion mascot, which on tour will be looked after by the youngest member of the touring party in between games.
Itoje: “I found out on Tuesday. I got a call from an Irish number. I don’t have many Irish people calling me. (I thought it was Leinster: disclaimer I made that bit up).
THE LIONS CAPTAIN IS ENGLAND’S MARO ITOJE
Alun-Wyn Jones is the man who will hand over the captaincy from the last Tour. Here’s hoping we are getting closer to naming his successor.
Sky Sports are wringing every last ounce of schmaltz.
Paul O’Connell: “To captain the Lions that’s the ultimate.” It’s a collage of former captains taking a line each as they explain what it means to be a Lions’ captain.
Lions captain is a beacon, a leader, he cares for people, how he allows others to be a leader; it takes a special person. Look I’m not responsible for this. I’m just keeping you in the same suspense.
What makes the Lions so special? Andy Farrell: “It’s impossible to put into words.” Right let’s get on with naming the squad so. NO....we’re talking about sea of red, the supporters, the bond between players etc.
Ieuan Evans is nervous. And he’s got cue cards.
Street artist Nelly has been commissioned to paint a mural of the squad in East London. Andy Farrell is on stage.
Oh, great we’ve got a bit of “bants” first.
Heeeeeeerrrrrrrreeeee’s Andy.
Five minute warning.
Just listening to the hype train ahead the official squad announcement.
So one last retro snippet.
The first time that Flower of Scotland got an airing at a rugby Test was during the 1974 Lions tour to South Africa when some Scottish supporters belted out th4e anthem. Scot, Billy Steele, encouraged his teammates to join in the singing but it would be 16-years before the song, written by Roy Williamson in 1965, was officially adopted by the Scotland rugby team ahead of a Grand Slam win over England.
It’s like Christmas morning for Lions’ fans.
About 40-minutes to the confirmation of the squad. in the meantime........ a few words from the main man.
A bit of mood music
TALES FROM THE PAST 2
Arguably the toughest Lion of all was Newtownards finest Blair “Paddy” Mayne, a man who has every claim to being the hardest-drinking, free-swinging firebrand in the long history of the Lions. Mayne was an Ireland international secondrow, one-time university heavyweight boxing champion, and an original and decorated member of the SAS during World War 2.
He toured with the Lions in 1938, when his great running gag, the centre Harry McKibbin said, was to burst into his team-mates’ rooms in the middle of the night, knocking the doors off the hinges, and then systematically smash up all furniture, Keith Moon-style. “Until,” McKibbin said, “all the chairs and tables and things were just so much bits of kindling around us in the room while we were still in bed.”
The management despaired of Mayne, who used to run around with the Welsh hooker Bunner Travers. The two of them dressed up as sailors and snuck off to the Durban docks just so they could pick fights with the local longshoremen. When they got to Ellis Park, they found that the stands were being erected by a team of convicts from the local prison who were sleeping in a compound underneath the scaffolding.
Blair and Bunner befriended one of them, and asked him what he had done to merit a prison sentence. “Stealing chickens,” he said. “And I’ve been given a seven-year stretch.” Full of sympathy for their new companion, who they nicknamed “Rooster”, Blair and Bunner returned that night with a pair of bolt cutters and some spare clothes. They sprung Rooster, and set him free. When he was caught the next day, it turned out the jacket he was wearing still had Mayne’s name stitched inside the collar.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 2009 Wasps and England centre Riki Flutey became the third New Zealand-born player to tour with the Lions.
Back in 1904, Pat McEvedy and Arthur O’Brien were among five Guy’s Hospital players picked to tour Australia and New Zealand with a British Isles team as it referred to. It was a return to home for the pair who came to England from their native New Zealand.
McEvedy, who was born in Taumutu, went on a second tour of his homeland in 1908 and actually became president of both the Wellington Union and the New Zealand Rugby Union in later life.
O’Brien, who was born in Westport in Ireland, also became a Test player against the country in which he was born.
Flutey, who played against the Lions in 2005 as a replacement for Wellington, was born in Wairarapa and became only the second player at that time to play for and against the British and Irish tourists.
The first player to achieve that feat was Limerick man Tom Reid, who played for Garryowen, Munster and won 13 caps for Ireland. The secondrow cum number eight played for the 1955 Lions, including in two Tests, before emigrating to Canada, where he played for Eastern Canada against the 1959 Lions tourists.
Tales of Yesteryear Part 2
The first British & Irish journalists to travel with the touring Lions, did so to South Africa in 1955, Viv Jenkins of the Sunday Times and Bryn Thomas for the Western Mail. The Lions won the first Test 23-22 against the Springboks before 95,000 people at Ellis Park. Thomas wrote: “From the first whistle to last the match produced an atmosphere of intense excitement with swift moving play of exceptionally high standard. Such a match comes but once in a generation.
As a postscript, Dobson, 35 was tragically killed by Nyasaland in the summer of 1916 by a charging rhinoceros.
Tales of Yesteryear Part 1
Denys Dobson became the first British & Irish player to be sent off while playing for a British Isles touring team as it was called then in a 17-3 victory over Northern Districts on July 6th, 1904.
Referee Harry Dolan awarded the home side a freekick to which Dobson took umbrage and was alleged to have let loose verbally. Dolan sent Dobson from the pitch the touring captain Darkie Bedell-Sivright led his team off the pitch in protest.
They returned to the pitch 20-minutes later. The New South Wales conducted a post game review. The inquiry exonerated Dobson in that “the indecent expression reported by the referee was not used by Mr Dobson,” downgrading the initial report from “indecent language” to using an “improper expression.”
Who would be in your Lions squad?
On the basis it’s a rugby blog, we will deviate briefly to bring you the teams and details of Friday night’s URC clash between Munster and Ulster at Thomond Park. Two strong teams with Peter O’Mahony and Iain Henderson back after their respective injury issues.
Munster v Ulster
Thomond Park, Limerick – KO 19.35
Referee: Adam Jones (WRU, 44th league game)
AR 1: Andrew Cole (IRFU) AR 2: Andrew Fogarty (IRFU)
TMO: Keith David (WRU)
Live on: RTÉ, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv
Munster: Thaakir Abrahams; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Diarmuid Kilgallen; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Michael Milne, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (CAPT); Peter O’Mahony, John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes. Replacements: Lee Barron, Josh Wycherley, John Ryan, Fineen Wycherley, Tom Ahern, Conor Murray, Seán O’Brien, Alex Kendellen
Ulster: Michael Lowry, Rob Baloucoune, Jude Postlethwaite, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Scott Wilson; Iain Henderson (CAPT), Cormac Izuchukwu; Matty Rea, Nick Timoney, James McNabney. Replacements: Tom Stewart, Callum Reid, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, David McCann, Dave Shanahan, Stewart Moore, Werner Kok.
Sexton said: “I am hugely excited to continue the next chapter in my coaching journey with the British and Irish Lions and I would like to thank Andy for this incredible opportunity.
“It promises to be an exciting tour to Australia, and I know from experience the challenges that await us. Playing for the Lions was a huge ambition of mine during my playing career and my memories of those Tours to Australia and New Zealand will stay with me forever. I would like to thank the IRFU and David (Humphreys) for supporting me with this opportunity.”
Goodman said: “When Andy phoned up, I was silent for about 30 seconds, and he even asked if I was still there. I was shocked. . .excited – all the emotions. It was pretty special calling my family back home in New Zealand.
“And it’s been exciting to meet some new faces in John and Richard and there is that continuity, too, with the guys I have worked with over the last period. It is an exciting mix and there will be a different dynamic of a big Tour. The key is making sure everyone is connected and they have great craic off the field too.”
Wigglesworth said: “I am absolutely delighted to be part of the Lions. Proud is probably an understatement to how I am feeling right now. I never got to play with Andy, but he was my coach at Saracens and England so I know his calibre and I am thoroughly looking forward to working with him.
“When I got the call, I was in the back garden with my five-year-old daughter on dad duties and I had to quieten her down whilst I took it.”
More from the assistant coaches
Easterby said: “It’s incredible to be part of the Lions coaching team and this is a very proud day for me and my family. To Tour as a player and now as a coach, knowing the group of players that we have the potential of working with, is something that I can’t wait to get stuck into. A Lions Tour also gives you the opportunity to work with people you haven’t before.”
Fogarty said: “I didn’t believe Andy when he called me. This is a dream come true, and I am so proud and thankful to Andy and everyone at the Lions. “It’s a massive challenge and there is a huge opportunity to do something really special. I can’t wait to get going.”
Farrell will have six assistant coaches including four from the Ireland set-up Andrew Goodman, Simon Easterby, John Fogarty and Johnny Sexton along with Scotland’s John Dalziel and England’s Richard Wigglesworth.
Dalziel said: “It’s a huge honour and I am massively thankful for the opportunity. It’s a real pinch yourself moment. Even from our first meeting as coaches you could feel the energy in the room and it is hugely exciting to work with these guys.
“To get the chance to also work with players from other Unions that you see from afar will be a great challenge. And what a start we have to the Tour with the game against Argentina in Dublin – one of the form teams in the world right now. It will be a huge occasion with the Lions’ very first game in Ireland.”
Ireland’s last Lions tour captain was Paul O’Connell who will act as interim head coach of the national team for their two Test tour of Georgia and Portugal during the summer. The Limerick man was captain of the 2009 tour to South Africa under Scotland’s Ian McGeechan. The Lions lost the first two Tests in heartbreaking fashion but despite an injury crisis won the third, losing the series against the Springboks 2-1.
The last Irishman to captain the Lions was Peter O’Mahony who did so in the first Test against New Zealand in 2017 when the tour captain Sam Warburton was named amongst the replacements.
The British & Irish Lions squad for this summer’s tour to Australia is set to be announced at 2pm.
Lions chair Ieuan Evans will reveal head coach Andy Farrell’s selection as part of a live event being held at the O2 Arena in London.
Follow along for live updates of the squad announcement, as well as reaction and analysis from our writers.
Top reads
- Our rugby writers select their squads to face Australia
- Lions squad: All you need to know ahead of the squad announcement
- Andy Farrell faces Owen question as selection debates pile up
- Listen to the latest episode of The Counter Ruck podcast
Hello and welcome to the Irish Times blog for the announcement of the Lions touring party for the series in Australia during the summer. Head coach Andy Farrell will confirm the squad at a live event in London at 2.0pm. John O’Sullivan here and I will keep you up to date on events at the O2 Arena in London. The television coverage starts a 1.30pm. I’d stay tuned here though because there’s a lot of faff involved in the preamble and we are much more entertaining.
On a parochial note, how many Irish players will get the nod? Gordon D’Arcy plumped for 10 Gerry Thornley and Nathan Johns, 13 each. I misread the assignment and thought we had to try and predict how many Farrell would take and opted for 14. IT reminds me to pay more attention in school in the future.
Caelan Doris’s shoulder injury sustained against the Northampton Saints has a four-to-six-month recovery after he underwent surgery. The Leinster and Ireland number eight would have been a shoo-in for the touring party and in all probability at captain. That honour is no likely to go England secondrow Maro Itoje and few would quibble in the absence of the Irishman.
