And then there were eight.
The call-up this week for Finlay Bealham, a Canberra product and former Australian schools rep, into the British and Irish Lions squad as an injury replacement for Zander Fagerson has grown the Lions’ SANZAAR contingent to eight players.
How many is too many? If the Lions aren’t at that point already, they must be sailing pretty close to it.
Even Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt couldn’t miss Bealham’s nationality this week when discussing the tourists.
“I see they’ve added another Aussie to their team, Finlay Bealham,” Schmidt told reporters in Perth, before praising the Ireland prop’s attributes.
Schmidt isn’t a coach who likes to pour any fuel on the fire – although a quote in Ian Foster’s upcoming book seen by the Herald suggests there is still some lingering beef with All Blacks coach Scott Robertson over what Schmidt saw as Robertson’s public lobbying for the job while Foster was trying to prepare for a World Cup campaign.
But by referencing Bealham’s nationality, Schmidt has indirectly raised two questions that should be aired: why are there so many players of SANZAAR origin in the Lions squad, and does it matter?
Canberra-born Finlay Bealham has been called into the British and Irish Lions squad.Credit: Getty
To deal with the first question, it is helpful to look back at the original Lions squad of 2013, the most recent time they toured Australia.
There is certainly precedence for picking players who originate from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – former Crusaders winger Sean Maitland, Dylan Hartley and Matt Stevens, a Junior Springbok, all made the initial selection.
There has been a long history of players from the SANZAAR countries finding their way into the Home Nations’ Test teams: in that sense this Lions tour is nothing different, and the ‘nothing to see here’ argument put forward in some quarters in the northern hemisphere holds water.
There is no doubt, either, that all the SANZAAR Lions have displayed a level of personal commitment and passion for their adopted countries.
But this is really a numbers game, and the volume of SANZAAR players in this year’s squad is atypical.
In fact, it might never be repeated because World Rugby changed the eligibility laws at the end of 2020 to extend the residential qualification period from three years to five years.
It was a significant rule change advertised at the time to uphold the “integrity and sanctity” of the international game, but it came too late to affect this Lions squad.
The second question of whether it matters is an emotive one. Lions icon Willie McBride raised his head above the parapet a few months ago and said he was “bothered” by the presence of eight players who were not born in either Britain or Ireland.
McBride was subsequently labelled by some as an old man shouting at the clouds, but not so fast. This week, recently retired England halfback Danny Care voiced the same sentiment.
“Whatever I say here, you’re going to get stick. You open yourself up to it,” he told the BBC Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
“It doesn’t sit that well with me that some of these… both your starting wingers are going to be lads that never, ever once in their childhood or even their mid-20s ever dreamt of wearing a red Lions jersey.”
In other words, it does matter, and it matters to British and Irish players – this is not simply a topic being beaten up by the venomous Australian media to unsettle the tourists.
Schmidt, of course, has to be careful on the subject. As Ireland coach he benefited from the services of both Bundee Aki, a New Zealander of Samoan heritage, and CJ Stander, a South African, in a famous win against the All Blacks in 2018. And, as he said earlier in the week, he coached Bealham as well.
It would be hypocritical of him to use the SANZAAR players as a stick to beat the Lions with.
But for the rest of us, there is the nagging question of why the Lions have been permitted to turn SANZAAR players against the Wallabies in a series that is ultimately designed to test the quality of the rugby that is being played within the respective borders of the Australia and the British and Irish Isles?
