1
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?
ADVERTISEMENT
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…
Watch every game of the Lions Tour of NZ streaming live on rugbypass.com, home of the best online rugby coverage including news, highlights, previews & reviews, live scores, and more!
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
28 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments