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Nine Irish make columnist's first Test British and Irish Lions XV

Tadhg Furlong in action for the 2021 British and Irish Lions (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Rugby columnist Paul Williams has ignited debate on X by naming a 2025 British and Irish Lions Test team containing nine Ireland players, three from England, two from Scotland and just one Wales player. It will be July 19 next year, following warm-up matches versus Argentina, Western Force, the Reds, the Waratahs, the Brumbies, and an invitational Australian/New Zealand team, when Andy Farrell will send his Lions into their first Test encounter versus the Wallabies in Brisbane.

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The 2023/24 season recently finished with Ireland scoring a one-all series draw away to South Africa. England and Wales, meanwhile, lost out zero-two in their respective series in New Zealand and Australia while Scotland enjoyed a four-game winning streak on their North/South American tour.

With the dust now well settled on those trips, Williams, a Rugby World magazine contributor, has put his head above the parapet and selected the team he wants to see run out at Suncorp Stadium in 48 weeks.

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Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt gets brutally honest about the aspects of the game his team must work on

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Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt gets brutally honest about the aspects of the game his team must work on

It includes an all-Irish front row consisting of Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong. Packing down behind them, Williams has chosen a second row pair of Ireland’s Joe McCarthy and England’s George Martin, while his preferred back row combination features Irish duo Tadhg Beirne and Caelan Doris at blindside and No8 respectively with Wales’ sole selection, Jac Morgan, pencilled in at openside.

Switching to the backline, Williams has selected another Anglo-Irish combination, this one consisting of Ireland’s Jamison Gibson-Park at scrum-half and England’s Marcus Smith at out-half. Scotland’s Sione Tuipulotu and Ireland’s Robbie Henshaw are the midfield picks, with Scotland’s Duhan van der Merwe, England’s Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and Ireland’s Hugo Keenan chosen as the back three.

Explaining his choices, Williams wrote on the Rugby World website: “There’s only one job tougher than selecting the actual British and Irish Lions team. And that’s picking your own British and Irish Lions team and publishing it on social media. It many ways it’s worse, as you don’t get the perks of Andy Farrell.

“You don’t get the salary, the car, the expense account, any of the praise should you win the series – or any of that glorious kit stash. As a columnist, all you get for selecting your potential Lions’ squad get is a digital witch trial. So, without further ado, let’s spark up the dry kindling and get burning…”

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After sizing up at length the level of opposition Australia will provide, Williams then gave his reasons for his British and Irish Lions player choices before concluding: “Before you all embark on a journey to Cardiff, to set fire to my possessions, remember one thing. The Lions is a magnificent spectacle and a true gem in the rugby calendar. Most tours are dominated by the lead nation in that cycle, and it has always been that way.

“There have been squads where England have dominated, Wales etc. This time round it’s Ireland’s turn – and they deserve it. They are the best team of the home nations by some distance, and have proven that over multiple seasons. I can’t wait for the tour to start. Please don’t burn my house down.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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