Willie John McBride, widely considered the greatest British & Irish Lions player of all time, has hit out at the number of players in Andy Farrell’s squad who were not born in Great Britain or the Republic of Ireland. Seven players are not considered “native” by McBride, who captained the undefeated 1974 visit to South Africa and was a part of five tours, as he blasted how groups are no longer exclusive to players born on British and Irish soil.
Farrell included New Zealand-born Jamison Gibson-Park, Bundee Aki, and James Lowe in addition to two players originally from Australia (Mack Hansen and Sione Tuipulotu) and South Africa (Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman). This year’s tour to Australia is not the first to feature foreign-born players, though McBride slammed the idea of including adopted British and Irish players this year.
“One thing that does bother me is that eight [sic] members of the squad are not born in Britain or Ireland,” McBride told Rapport. “That’s how things have changed over the past 60 years. In my day, the team consisted only of native players.”
Modern-day society is far more tolerant of multicultural and multinational families than when McBride starred for the Lions, having made 70 appearances for the team between 1962 and 1974.
Only the Australian-born players, Tuipulotu and Hansen, qualify through family connections rather than residency, and such players appear to have been welcomed with open arms after featuring heavily for their countries in recent years.
Nine Lions in total were born outside of Britain and Ireland, including Marcus Smith, who originally hailed from the Philippines. But there is little furore surrounding the England playmaker as opposed to other members of the squad.
Scotland captain Tuipulotu has already hit back at the suggestion he is not “all in” with the Lions. His chances of a call-up suffered a blow as a result of a pectoral injury in January, but his commitment remains unquestionable.
“I wanted to be in control of whether I got selected or not,” Tuipulotu said. “I believed I was doing that. When you get injury, the chance to influence the situation is taken away from you.
“I couldn’t help but doubt the situation. I just felt it was over for me. I put so much on myself that I really wanted to be a Lion because I know how much it means to people over here, and I had gone all in with the stuff with Scotland.
“I just felt like, ‘What better way to prove my allegiance or whatever to Scotland, and go all in and try and make the Lions’, and that’s why it meant so much to me.
“It was keeping me up at night. Genuinely, and I’m not embarrassed to say that. I was emotional. I’d been playing the best rugby of my life up until that point and you feel like it’s all gone.”
Lowe qualified for Ireland under the three-year residency rule that has now been altered to five years.
He and his wife became Irish citizens this year after growing up in New Zealand and playing six times for the Maori All Blacks. But he firmly believes that his Irish nationality is just and that a person is not defined by the country they were born in.
“It’s no fault of your own being from New Zealand,” Lowe added. “Obviously when you don’t have the blood running through your veins, there is a little bit of that. When I was first selected for Ireland, all the people come out of the woodwork saying, ‘How is this person representing Ireland?’
“I’ve been fortunate to represent Ireland 40-odd times and I still pinch myself every time I get to wear that jersey. To be recognised and rewarded and be picked is surreal.
“My two kids were born in Ireland. My wife and I are super happy with everything Ireland has given us and we don’t see ourselves moving. We’ve got our residency and I don’t think you are going to get rid of us any time soon.”
