2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia
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@MN5 said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@sparky said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
Zander Fagerson out of the Lions squad due to injury. Replaced by an Aussie who plays for Ireland.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c9q09ry8y21o
Shit, one of the few true blue Scots in the team gone. That's it, I'm off the bandwagon.
Go Australia!
Still not clear whether you are backing the Lions or the Wallabies....
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@KiwiMurph said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@MN5 said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@sparky said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
Zander Fagerson out of the Lions squad due to injury. Replaced by an Aussie who plays for Ireland.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c9q09ry8y21o
Shit, one of the few true blue Scots in the team gone. That's it, I'm off the bandwagon.
Go Australia!
Still not clear whether you are backing the Lions or the Wallabies....
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@Bovidae said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
NZR has been approached by RA to release some players for the Anzac XV. Robertson is open to allowing some fringe ABs to play in this fixture to give those players opportunities at near test level..
Ultimately, the Lions had to sign off on the team, which probably means there's a restriction on the number of capped internationals.
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@Windows97 said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
Are there more natural born kiwi's and Australian's in this Lions squad than Welsh players?
Yes
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@Mr-Fish said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@Bovidae said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
NZR has been approached by RA to release some players for the Anzac XV. Robertson is open to allowing some fringe ABs to play in this fixture to give those players opportunities at near test level..
Ultimately, the Lions had to sign off on the team, which probably means there's a restriction on the number of capped internationals.
What would be the reasoning for wanting less capped players in the opposition though?
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@Bones said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@Mr-Fish said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@Bovidae said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
NZR has been approached by RA to release some players for the Anzac XV. Robertson is open to allowing some fringe ABs to play in this fixture to give those players opportunities at near test level..
Ultimately, the Lions had to sign off on the team, which probably means there's a restriction on the number of capped internationals.
What would be the reasoning for wanting less capped players in the opposition though?
The warm-up games are only supposed to be a certain level of difficulty. Basically they don't want to be playing a whole extra Test midweek.
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@Mr-Fish said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@Bones said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@Mr-Fish said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
@Bovidae said in 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia:
NZR has been approached by RA to release some players for the Anzac XV. Robertson is open to allowing some fringe ABs to play in this fixture to give those players opportunities at near test level..
Ultimately, the Lions had to sign off on the team, which probably means there's a restriction on the number of capped internationals.
What would be the reasoning for wanting less capped players in the opposition though?
The warm-up games are only supposed to be a certain level of difficulty. Basically they don't want to be playing a whole extra Test midweek.
That's just you guessing though right? Or have they actually said that?
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@Bones my (not uneducated) understanding is that's how the tour is planned. I don't have absolute confirmation on that.
I'm guessing that when the replacement game was mooted by RA, one of the Lions' stipulations to ensure the level of challenge of the tour wasn't affected would have been limiting capped players (maybe a soft limit).
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From an article on The Roar from this weekend in reference to the ANZ side...
"Although Lions officials requested that an Australian A side be left off the heavy fixture list to ensure they aren’t playing effectively a ‘fourth’ Test, Kiss said his side weren’t approaching the match as a Barbarians clash and wanted to roughen up their opponents and set the tone for the series to come."
