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Six fly-in Lions heroes that made their mark despite missing the plane
By Josh Raisey
The rugby world has been picking the bones of Warren Gatland’s 37-man British and Irish Lions squad for almost two months now. But the reality is the squad that flies to South Africa will look different to the one that flies back.
Injuries and suspensions before and during the tour are inevitable, meaning there is still hope for plenty of players who missed out. What’s even more promising is the fact that many replacements have gone on to cement their name in Lions folklore. Here are some of them:
JEREMY GUSCOTT
Jeremy Guscott is a legendary name in Lions history, and while he is best remembered for his 1997 exploits, he scored the decisive try against Australia in the 1989 second Test before starting in the series-clinching third Test. The most impressive thing is the 23-year-old only had one cap prior to this, against Romania, and was called up to replace Will Carling.
MARTIN JOHNSON
The Lions’ captain in both 1997 and 2001 Martin Johnson was not originally selected for the 1993 tour. But after replacing Wade Dooley in New Zealand, the one-cap Johnson started the final two Tests against the All Blacks and his career blossomed from there.
PAUL WALLACE
An injury to Peter Clohessy before the Lions had embarked for South Africa in 1997 opened the door for Ireland’s Paul Wallace, and he took his opportunity with both hands. The prop started all three Tests in the iconic 2-1 series win.
RYAN JONES
Wales’ eight-cap 24-year-old flanker Ryan Jones went from missing out on being selected on an extensive 44-man squad to producing a man of the match performance against Otago and playing in all three Tests against the All Blacks in 2005.
TOM CROFT
Tom Croft was unlucky to miss out on the 2009 tour after his late surge with Leicester Tigers, but a suspension to Munster’s Alan Quinlan before the tour meant the Englishman made the squad, and scored two tries in the first Test against the Springboks.
ALEX CORBISIERO
Injuries to both Gethin Jenkins and Cian Healy during the 2013 tour against Australia meant Warren Gatland summoned Alex Corbisiero, who was in Argentina at the time with England. The loosehead started the first and third Tests, scoring the opening try in the series decider.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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