Lions 2005: Where are they now? Part 3
With Warren Gatland’s squad for the upcoming British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand announced, we look back at the last time the men in red ventured to the home of the All Blacks and ask – what happened to them? Let’s take a look at the men who started the first test in Christchurch, turning now to the forward pack:
1: Gethin Jenkins
Potentially the most welsh-named man in history, Jenkins is one of the few 2005 tourists yet to hang up his boots. Post-tour, Jenkins became one of the most in demand props around, though his appointment as Wales captain in 2007 was short-lived, with incoming coach Warren Gatland passing the armband onto Ryan Jones after just one game under Jenkins’ stewardship. Jenkins would however sporadically skipper the side over the next few years, becoming more of a fixture on the team sheet than my mum in Asda’s wine aisle.
After winning the Amlin Challenge Cup with Cardiff in 2010, Jenkins did the mandatory gap yah in the south of France, winning the Heineken Cup with Toulon before returning to the Blues. He toured with the Lions again in 2009, but withdrew from the 2013 tour through injury. After a few wilderness years, he had just about re-established himself in the Welsh team last year before injury struck and he missed the recent Six Nations. Having surpassed numerous international appearance records, Jenkins wouldn’t be the most surprising call up if injury necessitates a few old heads joining the Lions squad, but he’s facing stiff competition from a new wave of props coming through.
2: Shane Byrne
Selected ahead of England’s Steve Thompson for his more accurate line-out throwing, Byrne had a bit of a shocker on tour, throwing his darts with about as much accuracy as Captain Hook. Nonetheless Byrne played in two tests for the Lions, but after several years of toiling behind Keith Wood, (he famously was first named in an Ireland squad in 1993, but didn’t make his debut until 2001) his international career came to an end shortly after returning from New Zealand.
After 10 years with Leinster, Byrne moved to Saracens where he spent two seasons before retiring in 2007. He’s since served as a director for the family business, a waste disposal firm in Wicklow, though rumours he collects your rubbish singing The Garbage Man song from The Simpsons are sadly unsubstantiated. He briefly returned to his amateur roots playing GAA and has also built a respectable media and punditry career off the back of his famous mullet, appearing on several Irish TV shows. However, an appearance in Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie as a Russian heavy probably ranks as more of a career low than getting spanked by the All Blacks.
3: Julian White
A quick search for “Julian White Rugby” returns numerous list articles of rugby’s “hardest” players as well as several videos of White punching someone or other. With a face resembling a slightly more sophisticated kicked potato, White was the perfect player to take the fight to the All Blacks, starting all three tests. White racked up an impressive trophy collection with Leicester Tigers, winning two Premiership Finals and two Anglo-Welsh cups at Welford Road. He made himself unavailable for England shortly before the 2007 World Cup to spend more time with his family, but was named in first the Saxons and then the full England squad in 2009 after Matt Stevens’ ban.
White quietly ended his career as an unused substitute as Tigers beat Northampton in the 2012 LV Cup final, though in truth had begun transitioning to his current role as a full time farmer several years previously, apparently much to the frustration of perpetually-frustrated Tigers Director of Rugby Richard Cockerill. He now owns around 700 sheep, so there’s that.
4: Paul O’Connell
Picture Paul O’Connell in your head right now. He’s angry isn’t he? All pink in the face. Probably screaming. Little bits of spit flying all around. Back in 2005, when he first pulled on the iconic Lions jersey he was exactly the same, except he had hair. O’Connell was already firmly established in the Ireland side by the time of the Lions tour, having captained the team in Brian O’Driscoll’s absence in 2004, but in the following years would cement his place amongst the all-time greats of world rugby. He was shortlisted for the IRB player of the year in 2006, the same year he won the Heineken Cup with long-time club Munster and the Six Nations Triple Crown with Ireland. He followed that with another Heineken Cup in 2008 and a Celtic League in 2009, before being named as Lions captain for the ultimately unsuccessful tour of South Africa.
Several injuries would follow in the next few years, including one which kept him on the shelf for nine months. He again toured with the Lions in 2013, captaining the midweek side, but a fractured arm in the first test left him resigned to a coaching role for the rest of the series. Back-to-back Six Nations championships followed in 2014 and 2015, and an agreement was reached for O’Connell to hang up his green jersey after the 2015 World Cup, whereupon he would join Toulon. An injury suffered in the tournament meant he would never play for the French side, retiring from all forms of rugby in 2016 and joining Munster’s academy in an advisory role. He has since written an autobiography, and now spends his time as a pundit as well as absolutely smashing it on Question of Sport:
Part 4 coming soon…
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Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments