On 8 May, the moment that British and Irish rugby fans had been keenly anticipating ever since the conclusion of the Six Nations came to pass. As two thousand fans in London’s O2 arena and millions more in the UK and Ireland waited with keen anticipation, Ieuan Evans, the Chairman of the British & Irish Lions, announced the squad that coach Andy Farrell will be touring Australia with this summer. The exact composition of the squad had been fiercely debated and closely analysed by rugby pundits on television, in the press, and on podcasts. Even prominent rugby YouTuber SquidgeRugby released a video predicting which players were on Lions coach Andy Farrell’s supposed 75 man shortlist. The squad that Farrell and his supporting staff picked was a fairly safe selection, but still contained its share of surprises.
In the preceding weeks and months, rugby media seemed to become obsessed with the concept of Lions “bolters” – a term borrowed from Australian English meaning an unexpected selection for a test squad. The names of potential “bolters” mentioned in the media were numerous and varied – ranging from strong contenders for selection like flanker Jack Willis, who is unable to play for England as he plays his club rugby in France, to outside shots like Welsh prop Nicky Smith. BBC Sport speculated about nine potential “bolters”, from which only two were ultimately selected – English flanker Henry Pollock and Scottish lock Scott Cummings. Pollock is an intriguing selection because he has played only half an hour of test rugby, albeit scoring two tries in England’s thrashing of Wales in March. Instead, he has been selected off the back of his standout performances for Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup, rugby’s equivalent of the Champions League. The weekend before the Lions selection, Pollock was a standout performer in Northampton’s shock 37-34 win over Leinster, considered the best club side in the Northern Hemisphere. It is possible that this performance is what gave Pollock the edge against other strong contenders for his position like Willis and Scotland’s Jamie Ritchie. Scott Cummings was considered a surprising choice, as Farrell picked him over his teammate Grant Gilchrist and Wales’s Dafydd Jenkins, but Cummings is viewed as very strong in the lineout, which gave him an edge for selection.
One of the most intense positional debates among fans and pundits prior to the announcement was over the fly-half position. The fly-half is arguably the most important player on the rugby pitch, as he is in charge of directing the attack and is also usually the goal kicker. There were four strong contenders for three spots in the squad – Scotland’s Finn Russell, English duo Fin Smith and Marcus Smith, and the young Irishman Sam Prendergast. Russell, who co-captains Scotland and toured in 2017 and 2021, and Fin Smith, who had a very strong Six Nations campaign, were considered virtually guaranteed selections, so the debate was between Marcus Smith and Sam Prendergast. Smith, who was an injury replacement on the 2021 Lions tour, is an exciting and dynamic player but has been criticised for being a weak defender and his mixed performances when his position was changed to full-back in the Six Nations. Prendergast is young and inexperienced, having only secured the Irish starting job in Autumn 2024, and has also been criticised for his poor defending and inconsistent kicking. However, he does play in Andy Farrell’s system for Ireland, which was considered by some to give him an advantage for selection, and yet he had a poor showing in Leinster’s defeat to Northampton and ended up missing out on the Lions squad. Farrell’s selection of Russell, Smith, and Smith was praised by commentators and fans alike. Prendergast is only 22 and will have other opportunities to tour with the Lions.
In addition to Pollock and Cummings, a few other picks were considered surprising or unorthodox. By far the most questioned selection was Ireland’s Australia-born winger Mack Hansen over Scotland’s Darcy Graham. Both players had an injury-ridden Six Nations campaign, but Graham is a fast and skilled try-scorer while Hansen is less of a stand-out player in a star-studded Ireland team. However, Hansen’s familiarity with Farrell’s system may have won him a spot, as the common practice of hiring national coaches as Lions coaches many fifty-fifty decisions go the way of players who belong to the coach’s national team – former Wales coach Warren Gatland, who coached the Lions in 2013, 2017, and 2021, was especially criticised for this. Another selection dilemma surrounding the position of hooker was resolved in an unexpected way. Ireland’s Dan Sheehan, who is one of the best players in the world – in any position – was considered a nailed-on selection, with two more players to be chosen out of Ireland’s Ronan Kelleher, Welsh co-captain Dewi Lake, and English duo Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie. Kelleher was selected, which was not surprising due to Farrell’s familiarity with him, but fellow 2021 tourist Cowan-Dickie was selected over two-time Lion and former England captain George. Many assumed that George would be selected for his experience and potential as a captain for the mid-week games the Lions play against Australian club sides, but he currently struggles to play more than fifty minutes of a match – which is why he was replaced as England captain by Maro Itoje and that may be why Cowan-Dickie got the nod over him.
In recent years, all the Home Nations (but especially Scotland and Ireland) have benefitted from players who were born abroad, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, and qualified by living in the country for three years. This has created situations such as that of Ireland’s winger James Lowe, who was called up for the 2025 Lions squad but has also played against the Lions for the Maori All Blacks in 2017. Legendary former Lions captain Willie John McBride has publicly criticised this practice, claiming that taking so many foreign-born players “bothered” him. However, these players have lived in their adopted countries for many years, with several actually qualifying to play for them through ancestry and not just residency, so this line of criticism is quite unfair and exclusionary.
Despite a few surprises, the squad that Andy Farrell picked was largely expected. It is certain that the exact make-up of the squad will change between now and the first test match in Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on 19 July. This is because players will get injured in the remainder of the club season, training, the warm-up game against Argentina in Dublin, or the matches against Australia’s Super Rugby club sides. As ever, media speculation about the first names to be called up in the case of injury has already begun. Since the Lions last toured Australia in 2013, the Wallabies have had a tumultuous time, with heights such as making the 2015 Rugby World Cup final. Since then, they have also experienced lows such as when they sunk to their worst ever world ranking (10th) in 2023. However, under the direction of former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, Australia is now on the ascendancy, and this tour promises to be tougher and more closely-fought and tougher than many more complacent British and Irish pundits might propound. Nonetheless, the squad that Andy Farrell has selected is strong, balanced, and probably contains too much quality in depth for Australia to overcome but any sports fan knows it is foolish to count the Australians out until they are beaten.