British & Irish Lions: The 5 biggest selection losers

British & Irish Lions tours always create heroes and heartbreak. While Andy Farrell’s squad produced several big winners, others will leave feeling like the summer slipped through their fingers.

Here are the five biggest selection losers from the 2025 series.

Marcus Smith
The Harlequins magician started the tour as maybe an outside contender for the 10 jersey and ended it with a solitary appearance on the bench in the first Test. Smith has slid from England’s first-choice fly-half at the start of last season to a utility option covering 10 and 15, and that categorisation followed him to Australia.

Although now a Test Lion, it’s been an up-and-down tour for a player once tipped as the future of Lions’ backlines.

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British & Irish Lions in collaboration with the RugbyPass App

World Rugby and the British & Irish Lions announce a groundbreaking strategic collaboration that will see the RugbyPass App become the designated home of the British & Irish Lions Tour to Australia in 2025.

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Appearances: 7

Minutes: 225

Henry Pollock
Few players arrived with more hype. At just 20, Pollock was billed as the “next superstar,” with George Gregan recently comparing him to his old teammate George Smith.

Unlike Smith, who started all three Tests in 2001 and featured again 12 years later in 2013, Pollock didn’t feature in a Test series matchday 23. Despite the buzz and flashes of class in the warm-ups, the England flanker was ultimately surplus to requirements in a stacked back row. His time will come – but it wasn’t this summer.

Appearances: 5

Minutes: 285

Josh van der Flier
The 2022 World Rugby Player of the Year and Leinster workhorse must feel cursed by timing. In scintillating form for his province, he never cracked the Test squad, with Tom Curry nailing down the seven jersey.

For a player of van der Flier’s pedigree to not get a single sniff of Test action underlines how brutal Lions selection can be.

Appearances: 5

Minutes: 268

Fin Smith
If ever there was a player squeezed out by circumstance, it was Fin Smith. The Northampton fly-half looked a strong candidate to start or at least back up Finn Russell, only for Owen Farrell’s late arrival to change the pecking order.

Farrell’s ability to cover centre, and his experience, trumped the younger Smith’s claims, leaving the Saints’ playmaker watching the series unfold from the sidelines as the man he replaced for England stepped up.

Appearances: 5

Minutes: 291

Duhan van der Merwe
A star of the 2021 series in South Africa, the Scotland winger endured a miserable tour this time around. His form dipped a little and the competition in the back three [such as it was, given it was an area of weakness for the Lions] proved too much. For a player once seen as near undroppable in Lions red, it must have been a brutal reality check.

It wasn’t all bad for the Dewie. He beat 18 defenders, made 8 breaks and scored 5 tries.

Appearances: 5

Minutes: 329