Lion Hunting: Where are they now? Part 2
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?
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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Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments