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As Warren Gatland prepares to name his squad for the upcoming British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, we take a look back at the last time the men in red ventured to the home of the All Blacks and ask – what the hell happened to them?
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11: Gareth Thomas
Fresh off the back of a Heineken Cup triumph with Toulouse, “Alfie” ended up replacing the injured Brian O’Driscoll as Lions captain for the better part of the tour, though a career high in 2005 was swiftly followed with a personal low after a conviction for assault. When his (at the time) impressively lucrative contract with the French side came to an end, Thomas returned to Wales to line up for Cardiff Blues where he picked up the Anglo-Welsh Cup. Making headlines after coming out as gay in 2009, Thomas then turned his hand to Rugby League, though was concussed seconds into his debut. Things picked up from there though, as he impressed enough to earn himself captaincy of Wales. An unfortunate injury curtailed his playing career in 2011, but Thomas has since launched a successful media career, becoming more of a TV omnipresence than Emeli Sandé circa 2012, offering rugby analysis for ITV and competing on various reality shows. A heavily rumoured movie of his life starring Mickey Rourke and/or Tom Hardy seems to have gone cold for now though.
10: Stephen Jones
Jones was unceremoniously dropped for the second test in New Zealand though returned to the starting line-up for the third encounter with the All Blacks. After being named in the French Top 14 Team of the Season after some stellar performances for Clermont Auvergne, Jones returned to Llanelli in 2006 to don the Scarlets jersey. He was also named Wales captain, but found himself in a battle for the 10 shirt with the emerging James Hook. A Six Nations Grand Slam followed in 2008, and by the time of the 2009 Lions tour, Jones had shaken off any pretenders and started all three tests against the Springboks. He moved to Wasps in 2012 on a two-year deal, though transitioned into coaching after only one year, retiring as Wales’ most capped player with 104 appearances. After doing his coaching apprenticeship under Dai Young, Jones returned to Scarlets as a backs coach. He now divides his time between coaching, running a restaurant in Llanelli, and fending off abuse on Twitter intended for the unrelated writer Stephen Jones, of Stephen Jones the Rugby Columnist is a dickhead Fan Page fame.
9: Dwayne Peel
The baby spice of the tour, Peel was just 24 when the Lions visited New Zealand, but he still managed to cement himself as the undisputed owner of the 9 jersey for the entire series. He briefly captained Wales in 2007, but a move to Sale Sharks in 2008 seemed to be the undoing of Peel’s international career. Despite Warren Gatland’s initial assurances that the move to Manchester wouldn’t affect his Wales chances, Peel found himself repeatedly left out in the cold despite strong form for the English side, only returning to the Welsh line up when injury necessitated it. He brought his six seasons at Sale Sharks to a close when he signed for Bristol in 2014, though a long-term shoulder injury saw him shifted from the playing field to the coaching set up in the middle of last season. Following this rather unceremonious retirement for a player seen as one of the best in the world early in his career, Peel spent this season attempting to inspire a struggling Bristol side, but despite relegation Peel impressed enough to be offered a coaching position by Ulster Director of Rugby Les Kiss for the 2017 campaign. And regardless of how results on the pitch turn out, I have high hopes for a 70s detective show I’m working on named Peel & Kiss: Belfast Beat.
Part 3 coming soon…
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