British and Irish Lions Rugby Squad 2009
The 2009 Squad for the Lions Tour South Africa in June Announced
Paul O’Connell was announced as Lions' captain. Second row for the Irish team who won the Grand Slam, O’Connell won the job over his national captain Brian O’Driscoll, skipper of the last Lions tour to New Zealand.
O’Connell becomes the tenth Irishman to lead the Lions, although the Lions have only returned a positive record in test matches once under Irish stewardship. As a second row O'Connell follows in the inspirational footsteps of Martin Johnson and Willie John McBride, who both captained the Lions to success in South Africa.
As is always the case, the Lions selection threw up some surprises, here are some of the winners and losers.
Lions Selection Winners
England’s Joe Worsley finally makes the team after missing out on the last two Lions tours. Worsley was brought back into the England team for the Six Nations match against Wales and took his chance with both hands.
Welsh tyro Lee Halfpenny is rewarded for his meteoric rise with Cardiff and Wales with a Lions tour place in his first full season of senior rugby. His Cardiff colleague Andy Powell joins him on the tour after a muscular season.
Simon Shaw, England’s veteran lock also makes the party. He is the only player who was on the last tour to South Africa in 1997
Munster’s back row forward Quinlan tours on the back of his strong performances for the Irish province, despite not being a part of the Irish team in this year’s Grand Slam.
Lions Selection Losers
Three of the four Home Nations captains were not selected, Ryan Jones, Mike Blair and Steven Borthwick will all be left behind.
British rugby’s two glamour boys Henson and Cipriani both miss out. Henson’s achilles injury ruled him out, while Cipriani has not fully recovered his form after his horrific ankle break last season
McGeechan has only selected two specialist outside halves, so there’s no room for Johnny Wilkinson. England centre Ricky Flutey will cover the 10 shirt and Lee Halfpenny’s place kicking will come in useful.
Squad Breakdown
As expected, the largest representation comes from Grand Slam winners Ireland and last year’s Slammers Wales. England supply a bigger contingent than was expected at the start of the year, thanks to a good performance in the 2009 Six Nations while Scotland supplies only 2 players, with their captain Mike Blair missing out.
The original 37 man squad side is made up of the following national split
England 8 players
Ireland 14 players
Scotland 2 players
Wales 13 players
The Munster region provides as many players to the squad as England.
2009 British and Irish Lions Squad
Lions Backs
L. Byrne (Wal)
B. Kearney (Ire)
S. Williams (Wal)
L. Halfpenny (Wal) Thigh injury will miss 1st 2 weeks of the tour, James Hook (Wal) added to party
U. Monye (Eng)
L. Fitzgerald (Ire)
T. Bowe (Ire)
T. Shanklin (Wal) Ruled out of the tour due to dislocated shoulder. No replacement will be taken
J. Roberts (Wal)
B. O’Driscoll (Ire)
K. Earls (Ire)
R. Flutey (Eng)
R. O’Gara (Ire)
S. Jones (Wal)
M. Phillips (Wal)
H. Ellis (Eng)
T. O’Leary (Ire) Ruled out of the tour due to broken ankle. Replaced by Ben Blair (Sco).
Lions Forwards
J. Heaslip (Ire)
A. Powell (Wal)
D. Wallace (Ire)
S. Ferris (Ire)
A. Quinlan (Ire) Banned for 12 weeks. Replaced by Tom Croft (Eng)
J. Worsley (Eng)
M. Williams (Wal)
Alun-Wyn Jones (Wal)
P. O’Connell (Cap) (Ire)
D. O’Callaghan (Ire)
S. Shaw (Eng)
N. Hines (Sco)
G. Jenkins (Wal)
A. Jones (Wal)
A. Sheridan (Eng)
P. Vickery (Eng)
E. Murray (Sco)
J. Flannery (Ire) Broken Arm, Replacement to be announced
L. Mears (Eng)
M. Rees (Wal)
The big challenge facing the Lions is to take the talent from four nations and blend it into a single unit in a short space of time. McGeechan has gone a long way towards this by selecting large contingents from Wales and Ireland with a very strong nucleus from European Champions Munster.
Whether this will be enough to defeat the World Champions on their own patch remains to be seen. South Africa to win the series 2-1
British Lions 2009
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