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The Sun
2 hours ago
- Sport
- The Sun
British & Irish Lions 2025: Schedule, full squad, tickets, TV channel and live stream as side for tour in Australia
THE British & Irish Lions return for the first time since 2021. Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will take charge of the tour, after guiding the Men in Green to consecutive Six Nations titles. 4 4 4 His 38-man squad is reflected as such, with Ireland represented the most, having 15 players in the squad. England have 12, Scotland have eight, while Wales have just TWO Lions, Tomos Williams at scrum-half and Jac Morgan in the back row. The side kick-off the summer at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, as they take on Argentina on June 20, and round off the tour against Australia on August 2. Andy Farrell's side will play 10 matches in totals, including a three game test against Joseph Sua'ali'i and Australia, who got the better of England last autumn. British & Irish Lions full schedule The Lions will play 10 matches in total in 2025, with the first on June 20, and the final game on August 2. All the fixtures will be at 11am BST, apart from the clash against Argentina in Dublin. The fixtures are as follows: vs Argentina, June 20 (8pm BST) vs Western Force, June 28 vs Queensland Reds, July 2 vs NSW Waratahs, July 5 vs ACT Brumbies, July 9 vs Invitational Australia & New Zealand, July 12 vs First Nations & Pasifika XV, July 22 The three tests vs Australia will be at 11am BST on these dates: First test: July 19 Second test: July 26 Third test: August 2 4 British & Irish Lions squad Andy Farrell picked a squad of 38 players, consisting of 21 forwards and 17 backs. Leinster are the most represented club, with 12, while Northampton Saints and Glasgow Warriors have four each, and are joint second as the most represented. Forwards: Finlay Bealham * - prop - Ireland Tadhg Beirne - lock - Ireland Ollie Chessum - lock - England Jack Conan - back row - Ireland Luke Cowan-Dickie - hooker - England Scott Cummings - lock - Scotland Tom Curry - back row - England Ben Earl - back row - England Tadhg Furlong - prop - Ireland Ellis Genge - prop - England Maro Itoje - captain - lock - England Ronan Kelleher - hooker - Ireland Joe McCarthy - lock - Ireland Jac Morgan - back row - Wales Henry Pollock - back row - England Andrew Porter - prop - Ireland James Ryan - lock - Ireland Dan Sheehan - hooker - Ireland Pierre Schoeman - prop - Scotland Will Stuart - prop - England Josh van der Flier - back row - Ireland *Bealham was added to the squad late after Scotland's Zander Fagerson pulled out through injury. Backs: Bundee Aki - centre - Ireland Elliot Daly - centre/back 3- England Tommy Freeman - wing - England Jamison Gibson-Park - scrum-half - Ireland Mack Hansen - winger - Ireland Huw Jones - centre - Scotland Hugo Keenan - full-back - Ireland Blair Kinghorn - full-back - Scotland James Lowe - wing - Ireland Alex Mitchell - scrum-half - England Garry Ringrose - centre - Ireland Finn Russell - fly-half - Scotland Fin Smith - fly-half - England Marcus Smith - fly-half - England Sione Tuipulotu - centre - Scotland Duhan van der Merwe - wing - Scotland Tomos Williams - scrum-half - Wales How to watch the British & Irish Lions tour and is there a live stream? Sky Sports retains the rights for the British & Irish Lions, and will remain the home of the tour. The matches will be shown on Sky Sports, and will be available for stream on NOW TV, the Sky Sports app and Sky Go. Also, there are reports that English channels are trying to find a free-to-air solution, with the tour also being shown on S4C, with Welsh commentary. As a result, fans will be able to stream the games on the BBC iPlayer.
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
The first Lions match is about laying down a marker – but Pumas bring range of threats
Every single member of the British & Irish Lions squad is in the perfect sweet spot at the moment. Blair Kinghorn aside, they all arrived into camp with a spring in their step and a smile on their face because their dreams have been realised. Speaking from experience, it is amazing how quickly you can leave national allegiances at the door. At this stage, there is no sense of what the Test team will be, no division, or feeling that you have to make do with being a midweek dirt-tracker – the thing you are probably most nervous about is who your roommate will be. You know it will be someone from a different country and my first roommate was Keith Earls. As the youngest member of the 2009 squad, he was responsible for looking after the Lions mascot and I felt like I needed to mind him. I soon realised there are few as competitive as Keith and he did not need minding at all. You can arrive into camp with preconceived ideas of what certain people will be like. Whenever I had played against Ronan O'Gara I had to be so mentally switched on because he was such a fierce competitor with incredible drive and had this uncanny ability to catch you out of position with a spiral kick. He was pretty chirpy on the pitch too, but he is someone I am still in touch with to this day. There were quite a few players about whom I was thinking: 'I'm not quite sure about you, I may not even like you.' But you then meet them and spend time in their company and you switch to: 'This is my teammate,' and feeling: 'This means everything,' really quickly. I'm sure the current bunch have already had a few good nights out and they need that. They will learn more about each other from 30 minutes in the pub than they ever would in the gym or on the training ground. Friday's match against Argentina is a first hit-out but, at the same time, it is probably the hardest game they will play before the Test series. If Argentina were playing against Australia on Friday, I'm not sure who my money would be on. It's a daunting fixture but the Lions have to embrace it. They can't worry themselves about underdogs tags – this is the best of the best from the four nations and there can be no excuses. I don't expect them to be perfect against the Pumas but the minimum I want to see is evidence of what they are trying to do in attack and defence. Make no mistake, everyone wants to play in the first match. Even all the Leinster players who were in action against the Bulls last Saturday, even Finn Russell after his topless celebrations during Bath's open-top bus parade on Sunday. That said, as much as there can be a sense of Fomo for all those not involved, there can be some Romo – relief at missing out – too. In 2009, I was desperate to play in the first match of the tour against the Royal XV and gutted to be overlooked. As it turned out, those who were selected didn't cover themselves in glory, needed a late comeback to avoid defeat and those players suddenly had some catching up to do. It's amazing how your currency can rise when you're not involved. The team Andy Farrell has selected is largely as you'd expect, all players who were at the Portugal camp, but I'm delighted Marcus Smith gets an early opportunity to show what he's all about. During the Six Nations he just got on with the job, having last year been England's most dominant player only to find himself out of favour or playing in a position that isn't his most preferred. Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion As it has turned out, that versatility has worked to his advantage and when I look at this Lions backline, I see a lot of muscle, a lot of physical specimens, and the need for a second pair of playmaking hands becomes clear. You would still say Kinghorn is the favourite to fill that role, but given he is still involved with Toulouse, Smith has the chance to lay down a marker. And he must stay true to himself to do that. He is an incredible individual talent but he's also a selfless player. Everything he does is with an eye on creating space for his teammates and Farrell will be aware of the threat he poses if Duhan van der Merwe, Bundee Aki, Sione Tuipulotu and Tommy Freeman can deliver front-foot ball. Smith will have to be mindful of the aerial threat Argentina pose. He will be only too familiar with how strong Rodrigo Isgró is in the air given they are teammates at Harlequins. Smith constantly looks to Isgró with the boot to win the ball back, so effective is the winger in that regard. But Argentina have threats all over the park. It is a mighty challenge for the Lions first up, but the XV selected have got the ability to deal with it.
Times
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Times
Lions legend with calves the size of footballs who sold jeans to KGB
There are two spaces, about 450 miles apart, where Maurice Colclough persists. The first is at Stade Chanzy, where Angoulême reveres her former England lock; a small espace in his name where supporters can congregate on match day. The second is at 32 Broad Street in Blaenavon, at Welsh General Store. He never stepped foot in the latter, yet his memory is here. Colclough was, on paper, a great rugby man: a grand-slam champion with England, and a starter in eight consecutive British & Irish Lions Tests in 1980 and 1983. Yet his legacy is almost rugby adjacent, different from the fruits of Willie John McBride, Martin Johnson or Bill Beaumont (Colclough called Billy, his second-row partner, 'head boy'). Mountainous in stature and will, yet his family laugh at how ungainly he could be. Rugby was not his raison d'être, merely the vehicle by which he lived and which gives cause to remember him. Early one Friday, Colclough's wife, Annie, sits at a table at the back of Welsh General Store with her four daughters: Fen, from her first marriage; Morgane; and the twins, Brogane and Freya. It is a riotous morning of storytelling, punctuated by light dabbing of eye, for a husband and father who died in 2006, aged 52. Through chemotherapy and disgusting broccoli smoothies, he survived with a brain tumour for almost four years when six months was expected. The invincible man who could drop a breeze block on his foot and hardly wince, carrying on building a wall, was cut down. Colclough was outsize, a bon viveur. A second row whose calves were described as footballs, so big they would rub together and wear holes in his socks, and who sat on a bench at Freya's parents' evening and broke it. Even if he were on the delicate seating at the back of the shop now, he would not have been telling the stories. Colclough left that to others — and everyone has a yarn about Maurice Colclough. It inspires a question: is the man also the myth?His wanderlust took him to France, where he was Marquis de Colclough, running cruises as Holiday Charente and keeping a bar in Soyaux called Liverpool. Angoumoisins such as Fabrice Landreau, the France hooker who spent time at Bristol and Neath, worshipped Colclough. He remains a prince in those parts. He also played for Swansea and conducted business in South Africa, returning his family to Wales after a car-jacking. 'He directed the hijackers,' Brogane says. 'He was actually really funny. 'Would you like my watch?' ' 'I arrived in this country with a rucksack over my shoulder and £25 in my pocket,' Colclough said in 1982, a rare example of him as narrator. Story time. The legend of Colclough's arrival is that he was kicked off a train, having paid the wrong fare, and hitchhiked with a man who happened to be the coach of Angoulême. Brogane retells this. 'Oh, I didn't know that,' Annie says. This is how two hours in Blaenavon unfold: a torrent of five sources providing collective memories, or individual offerings and details pieced together. Here is a flavour of some greatest Colclough hits. He toured the Soviet Union and sold jeans to the KGB. He performed perorations inspired by Churchill, Kipling and Shakespeare as captain. He swam naked across the Liffey in Dublin to waiting policemen. He locked out a team-mate on a window ledge in Canada. He beat Fen's South African rugby friends in arm-wrestling and so they had to do the family's gardening. He frequented a French all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant with such abandon that they had to change policy. A recent Rugby Journal essay recounted some of the tales. 'A couple of things in there we didn't know,' Freya says. Now for the most famous tale, of which variations exist. Colclough, in a post-match function, downed what appeared to be a bottle of aftershave. Colin Smart, the England prop matching his consumption, did so too, but Colclough, a prankster, had switched his liquid. Smart had not. Cue stomach pump. 'He'd gone in before, he'd tipped it out, he'd put white wine in,' Brogane says. 'What Dad said he thought would happen is he'd basically put it in and then spit it out.' At Brogane's wedding last year, every guest had a bottle of aftershave with limoncello in it. 'I actually think the one where he shot the bullet through the roof is better,' Brogane adds. That was on tour when a policeman came to quell rugby rowdiness and Colclough, thinking the safety was on, aimed at the ceiling. Maurice met Annie at Cardiff Arms Park and settled in south Wales. Both were entrepreneurial. He bought a trawler called the Picton Sea Eagle with plans to turn it into a floating restaurant. When in South Africa, he was involved in slot machines. 'I remember taking him to Cyril Ramaphosa's house,' Fen says. 'For business.' A week before this interview, Ramaphosa was at the White House as president of South Africa. In her father's image, Morgane opened Welsh General Store on St David's Day this year. It used to be a bookshop with 10,000 books — she points to the sagging roof — and, seeking a change from London, she bought it in an online auction. Annie ('the veg deliverer'), Fen and Morgane live nearby. Brogane has travelled from London, Freya from Manchester, to recollect. The quintet hammer home the sense of adventure he instilled. 'Excess is best' was his motto, giving one's all but having fun. 'Life was about risk,' Freya says. When Colclough had a boat that needed to sail from Spain to South Africa, via Brazil, he enlisted a 17-year-old Fen. 'That was my choice, but I would never have made it had he not brought me up,' she says. 'I did sail with him across Biscay, so we did sail on the boat together. He bought a boat off a Russian spy, basically, and it still had all the spy stuff on it.' That included a 'spy pen' that exploded. The travelling companion fainted, and Colclough carried on sailing solo with a damaged finger. Theirs was an active childhood, with rugby as part of it. Twenty years ago the family featured in The Times as Morgane and the twins played sevens for Llandovery College (Maurice was in Vienna, having been told the wrong week). At a memorial match in France after his death, Morgane was asked to begin proceedings. 'It says she did a drop-kick in that article,' Freya says. 'She did not do a drop-kick.' Morgane adds: 'They had to restart the match. It went about two metres.' For Colclough, it was all a game, a fraction of life. The sisters chortle at his love of sports day, once sending a camera crew when he was unavailable, and training the twins for the three-legged race so well that they were almost banned. 'The head teacher was like, 'Sorry girls, you can't compete together in the three-legged race, it's not fair,' ' Brogane says. 'Dad has never gone to see a head teacher before. Ever. He turned up in the school. He must have been in the office for 30 seconds. He came out, he's like, 'It's fine.' ' No one gets in the way of a Colclough and sports day. Such activities were far more important to Colclough than publicity. 'Head boy' Billy was captain on A Question of Sport and until recently chairman of World Rugby. Colclough was a player first and last, and the family agree that he would have known no trivia. 'He didn't have any real interest in celebrity,' Brogane says. Fen adds: 'Other people are more interested in rugby than he is. He would never watch it.' Freya tells another story: 'We went camping and fishing on his motorbike and I was on the back and we turned up at this camping site, just the two of us. We were just signing in and the man that was signing us in was like, 'Oh, Maurice Colclough, there used to be a famous rugby player called Maurice Colclough.' Dad said nothing and I was like, 'That's him!' ' At the start of this interview, Annie had laughed and said: 'Sorry, can I just ask? What is the reason for this?' It was to hear memories not from the Lion's mouth, but from the cubs. 'It's sad, obviously, to think that he died at 52, but I swear to God, that man lived 12 times more in those 52 years than so many other people do,' Brogane says. Now Annie: 'I'm just trying to think what he would have thought. He did philosophy, and he could be quite philosophical. Trying to imagine him, what he'd be doing now, and that's quite painful to think about. But then I don't know if he would actually enjoy being older.' Unanimously, they believe the seriousness of professional rugby would have been anathema to him. Those who recall him are still excited when they find out they are in the company of one of Maurice Colclough's daughters. 'One of our regulars found out and he's just brought in a Lions book today that he had,' Morgane says. 'He put notes where Dad's name was.' Rugby, again, as the gateway to the man. His approach to life continues fivefold through the women on a street in Blaenavon. 'I think about it more and more now — there is so much of Dad in all of us,' Brogane says. 'I feel like I've got that tin-of-beans-on-someone's-head energy.' Oh yes, the beans on the head. Well, that's a story for another time.
Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Fin Smith: My biggest regret is never meeting grandad. Now I'm a Lion too
Judith Smith will be in a unique position in the history of the British & Irish Lions when she takes her green plastic seat at the Aviva Stadium for Friday night's tour-opening game against Argentina. She will be in Dublin to witness her son, Fin Smith, emulate the feats of her father, Tom Elliot, in becoming a Lion. Never before, in 137 years of touring, has there been such a grandfather-grandson connection. When he was not helping out on the family sheep farm in the Borders, Elliot was a prop for Gala and Scotland who defied his father's initial wishes by accepting an invitation to tour with the 1955 Lions. He contracted pleurisy in South Africa and spent time in hospital but still played eight matches and was hailed upon the squad's return for his contribution to the tour effort. Elliot died of motor neurone disease in 1998. Smith was born four years later and grew up idolising his grandfather, running around in his old Lions gear and asking eager questions of the man he knew only from photographs. Smith heard the stories of Elliot's playing days, from his achievements on the field to some wild post-match celebrations in Edinburgh and the day he quietened a gobby opposition prop by dropping a worm into his mouth. And so when Smith was selected for the 2025 Lions tour to Australia, his emotions spilled over. He thought of his grandfather. He thought of this unique family connection. And he was choked with pride. Smith's tears and those of his family reveal why the legacy of the red jersey matters so much to so many, even in an age of rampant commercialism. 'I don't really cry but I was bawling my eyes out,' Smith, 23, said after being selected. 'I phoned my parents. They were both sobbing. We didn't actually say a word to each other, we just sort of watched each other cry and then hung up. All I've ever wanted to do is be like my grandad and to replicate him.' The Times arranged for Smith to be reunited with Elliot's blazer from 1955 for a unique photo shoot, connecting Lion No380 with (barring any late mishap) Lion No862. 'It was almost a tailored fit,' Smith says. 'Although I am not sure what that says about him as a prop if he could have fitted into the same clothes as me! 'I wore the blazer to a few things growing up. For any smart occasion at school, I would stick on a pair of chinos, a shirt and that jacket because I thought I was the bollocks wearing it. I wore it to show my mates. 'It has a slightly different feel now, trying on my grandad's Lions blazer having been fitted for my own. It will be cool for my mum having two hanging up in the wardrobe one day. 'It feels super special. We have photos all over the house of him playing for Scotland and the Lions. The same with my granny. When you never meet someone you have a real perception of what you think they are like. At a young age it was pure admiration and idolisation of him. 'I love rugby, so to think there was someone in my family who had played for the Lions, I was completely in awe of everything he had done.' When Smith was asked recently to name his dream dinner party guests, his grandfather was on the list. 'My biggest regret in life is that I never got to meet him,' Smith says. 'I look back on everything I have read and learned and footage I have seen of him with real joy. I am so proud to be part of the family with him. 'Only recently, as I have got older, I have found out more about him. I have read all about his rise as a second-team prop at Gala to become the first player from the club to play for the Lions. 'My granny has told me in such detail of what he was like and the games he played in. To then be able to tell her that I had been picked for the Lions, to say, 'This is the same team as grandad played for' is so special and makes it so emotional for me.' Elliot, who won 16 caps for Scotland, never spoke much about his rugby career but he touched so many people in the game that the turnout for his funeral was enormous. Judith and Andrew, her husband and Fin's father, recently discovered a letter from the Lions, sent in October 1955, hailing Elliot's contribution on the three-month adventure to South Africa. Judith tells the story. 'When he was invited to go on tour, his dad said, 'No you are not going. There is farming to do, we are too busy'. That could have been it. You can't imagine Andy saying to Fin, 'You are not going'. 'They would have discussed it. 'You can't have three months off work' — that sort of conversation. My dad would have said: 'I want to go'. We have since found a letter sent to my grandad saying, 'Thank you very much for letting him go.' ' The letter from L.E.L Donne, the honourable secretary of the Four Home Unions Tours Committee, to Mr J Elliot confirms the eternal truth about Lions tours: that their success rests on the contribution of the entire squad and the efforts of those who do not make the Test team. 'My committee has asked me to write to you on their behalf to express their appreciation of the facilities granted to Mr Thomas Elliot, which enabled him to be a member of the British Isles Rugby Union Team on the recent tour to South Africa and Rhodesia,' the letter says. 'My Committee would like you to know that his exemplary conduct and loyalty contributed in no small measure to the outstanding success of the team both on and off the field.' That description of Elliot tallied with the man Judith knew. He was humble and homely. 'He would farm in the morning, go up to Murrayfield in the afternoon to play for Scotland and come back the next day,' Judith says. 'Dad was one of the good guys. Although he was a prop forward, he was the kind of softest chap you can imagine. He was really kind. He had a great sense of humour. 'This man had been giving him loads of grief in the scrum once, niggling away at dad. So the next scrum they're in, when the chap was there starting the chat again, dad just picked up a worm and popped it in his mouth.' Judith sees traits between her father and son, particularly in how thoughtful they are. Smith has always been analytical. He has just completed his fifth year of an Open University degree in mathematics and economics. His dissertation, on how families make their spending decisions, was completed shortly after Northampton Saints had played in the Champions Cup final. 'The last words were written in the taxi on the way to his first Lions meet-up,' Judith says. As a sportsman, Smith was a tennis player first, competing as a schoolboy against Jack Draper, the world No6. He was an angry player, prone to smashing racquets, before switching his focus to rugby while at Warwick School, primarily to play with his friends. Smith's older brother, Angus, also played tennis and rugby. When they go home, they still tackle each other on the trampoline in the garden. 'It started for my grandad just running around with his mates and that is one thing with rugby that resonates with me: training and playing with my best mates every weekend,' Smith says. 'Having a nice full-circle moment with the Lions call-up has been great.' Andrew believes that the tennis background has been key to his son's rapid rise, securing the England No10 jersey in February and now starting for the Lions. 'When you're on the court by yourself, you've only got yourself who can help you,' he says. 'He's always had that resilience, that ability to look after himself, which he's then taken into a team environment. Ordering some big scary forwards around doesn't seem to phase him.' The prospect of being a professional had barely dawned on Smith until Worcester Warriors offered him a contract in the summer of 2020. 'The night it happened, he got in the lift and his little face, he couldn't believe it. That felt like the pinnacle of his career,' Judith says. The Smiths have one of their son's England Under-20 jerseys up on a wall at their house. The decor needs an emergency upgrade, now that he has become a Premiership champion with Northampton, England's first-choice fly half and a Lion in the space of 12 months. Smith is one of nine Englishmen selected to play Argentina, including his fellow Saints Alex Mitchell, the scrum half, and Tommy Freeman on the wing. Smith will have Maro Itoje as his captain and some heavy-duty weaponry outside of him in Sione Tuipulotu, Bundee Aki and Duhan van der Merwe, with Marcus Smith operating as a creative foil from full back. 'This is all a bit mad,' Judith says. 'It has all happened so quickly. Yesterday on Instagram there was a picture of them in a huddle and he's chatting away and you just think, 'You are only little!' 'But he can definitely hold his own. He has proved it. My dad would be very proud of Fin.'
Wales Online
a day ago
- Sport
- Wales Online
Gavin Henson and former Wales stars to play on same side against Welsh club team
Gavin Henson and former Wales stars to play on same side against Welsh club team The event on June 21 aims to be a celebration of rugby Former Wales and British Lions player Gavin Henson playing for his local team Pencoed RFC last year (Image: Mark Lewis Photography ) A number of Welsh legends are set to pull on their boots once again - and it won't cost fans a penny to come and watch. Usk RFC are inviting a number of stars from years gone by to compete in two touch rugby matches this Saturday, as they celebrate the end of their 150th season. The club, who currently compete in League 2 East, are believed to have played their first match against Newport in 1874, and have played every season since with the exception of the period during the two World Wars. They are now set to honour and celebrate a century-and-half of history this weekend, with a host of big names set to get involved. Gavin Henson, Sam Parry, Lloyd Williams, Elliot Dee, Aaron Wainwright, Ryan Jones, Scott Baldwin and Bradley Davies are all among those set to take part in the club's 'Legends Day' celebrations. The 'Legends' team will take on the club's under-14s side for a 2pm kick-off, before facing Usk's first team straight after. Article continues below Gates will open at midday, and entry is free. Food stalls, including a hog roast, and various activities will be on offer, with any proceeds set to contribute to the club's support for two Tongan teenagers, whom they decided to sponsor last year. As committee member Ro Kulkarni explains: "One was 17 and one was 18, and both came here last year from very poor families. They've both come over and they're studying here and they're now getting an education. "They're Nico and David, who's known as Tongan Dai! "Everyone's pooled together to help these boys. They're like our children. And the best thing is they're both wonderful rugby players. "Their education costs around £9,000 a year. They have college fees and then you've got to pay for food, accommodation, travel. All the other things. So it's a serious amount of money to raise every year. But so many people have given their support. "There's a butcher in Abergavenny that gives them a bucket of meat every two weeks, some have donated them food and clothes, the Celtic Manor have helped give them a flat for them to stay. Another family put them up for a few weeks. "We've had great support from Toby Faletau's dad, Sione Tu'ipulotu, and Kepu Tuipulotu, who plays for Bath. So the Tongan community have been so supportive. "So to celebrate our 150th year we thought we'd do something really nice. Partly to raise money, but it's not just to raise money. It's about giving back." Kulkarni, who worked as team doctor for the Dragons for the best part of 10 years before leaving in 2017, says the event will also be a chance for youngsters to meet and greet some of the game's biggest names. "It's open for all," he added. "It's for kids and there will be lots of food stalls, face painting etc. The fire service are bringing a fire engine for the kids. So there's a lot going on. "The event has also been sponsored by Heineken, who have donated five barrels of beer for the event. Article continues below "It's a day for everyone to mingle. Kids can meet their heroes and have pictures taken, sign autographs. "It's a celebration of rugby."
