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'Pretty stupid... This isn’t just him; this is Jamo, this is Bundee, Finlay. This is me'
By Ian Cameron reporting from Brisbane
Lions wing Mack Hansen has little time for those who poke fun at the number of Southern Hemisphere players featuring in the 2025 tour Down Under.
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Hansen isn’t involved in the first Test against the Wallabies, having sustained a foot injury in last weekend’s 48–0 thumping of an AUNZ Invitational XV. He was unable to take part in the squad’s first full-bore training session of the week on Tuesday and was out of selection contention as a result.
While Hansen is not involved in the first Test, four Southern Hemisphere-born players – James Lowe, Sione Tuipulotu, Bundee Aki and Jamison Gibson-Park – feature in the first Test 23.
Jibes at the number of Southern Hemisphere players involved in the 2025 Lions vintage have been a near-constant refrain all tour. And it’s not just been the Aussie press pack. Lions great Willie John McBride said it “bothered” him and suggested renaming the Lions, while England halfback turned podcaster Danny Care said that “it doesn’t sit that well with me”.
Players have politely batted back questions on the subject all tour, but it’s by no means the first time that many of them have faced this line of questioning.
Hansen was asked last year about his thoughts after a UK broadsheet columnist ridiculed rugby’s eligibility laws and questioned the Irishness of Ireland’s Southern Hemisphere contingent.
“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion,” Hansen told RugbyPass, “but I thought it was just a pretty stupid comment. Like, to say James Lowe is as Irish as a Shamrock Shake? Lowey has lived for a good amount of years here. He’s had a kid here, and has done so much.
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“This isn’t just him – this is Jamo (Gibson-Park), this is Bundee, Finlay (Bealham). This is me, it’s everyone… I’m sure it’s the same in all the other places. They give absolutely everything to this country, on the field, but also off the field, as well. A lot of those guys are doing plenty of stuff with charities and helping around.
“I think that’s why people have taken to them as well, because they’re not only good people on the field but off the field. Everyone’s just really bought into it themselves.
“It was a stupid comment,” Hansen added, “when [the journalist] obviously has no idea on the amount of pleasure these guys bring to this country and what they do for it.”
It’s a sentiment that was echoed by South African-born prop Pierre Schoeman, who made five appearances for the Junior Boks in 2014.
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“If you’re good enough to play for your country, you’re good enough to play for the Lions and you’re selected, then obviously you’re going to do that,” said Schoeman.
“Playing for the Lions is massive. Scotland is home for us, my wife and myself. I know that’s for the other players as well, like Mack Hansen has made Ireland home.
“You embrace that. You fully take that on. It’s like the series Outlander – you move to a different country and now that’s your house. You live there.
“If you work for one of the big four in finance, you get the opportunity, you’re going to go for it. And you can really make that home.
“But this is much different. To represent the British and Irish Lions, you fully buy into that and its culture. You fully submerge into that. Nothing else matters. Not your past, not the future. It’s about the now.
“Yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow might never come, now is the time to live. That’s what we do as Lions. It’s about the now, this tour. This is what really matters.”