British and Irish Lions coach, Ian McGeechan has today announced his 37 man squad to tour South Africa this summer in the Lions Tour 2009.
We already knew of only one player to be in the squad before the announcement, which was made at 13:30pm today, and that was Lions captain, Grand Slam winning Irish lock Paul O’Connell who will lead the Lions through the ten match tour which culminates with a three test match series against Rugby World Champions, the Springboks.
Brian O’Driscoll has made the side, as expected, though he’s not the captain. Only two Scots made the team: Hines and Murray (both forwards). As would be expected following the six nations, the bulk of the side is made up of Welsh and Irish players, bolstered by immense English forwards. Joe Worsley, as many expected, played himself into a Lions shirt in the Six Nations.
Table of Contents
2009 British and Irish Lions Squad
Below is the 37 man squad – coach McGeechan has named an extra man from the expected 36 – which will fly out to South Africa for the 2009 British & Irish Lions Tour 2009:
Backs
- Lee Byrne – Wales
- Rob Kearney – Ireland
- Shane Williams – Wales
- Leigh Halfpenny – Wales
- Ugo Moyne – England
- Luke Fitzgerald – Ireland
- Tommy Bowe – Ireland
- Tom Shanklin – Wales
- Jamie Roberts – Wales
- Brian O’Driscoll – Ireland
- Keith Earls – Ireland
- Riki Flutey – England
- Ronan O’Gara – Ireland
- Stephen Jones – Wales
- Mike Phillips – Wales
- Harry Ellis- England
- Thomas O’Leary – Ireland
Forwards
- Jamie Heaslip – Ireland
- Andy Powell – Wales
- David Wallace – Ireland
- Stephen Ferris – Ireland
- Alan Quinlan – Ireland
- Joe Worsley – England
- Martyn Williams – Wales
- Alun-Wyn Jones – Wales
- Paul O’Connell – Ireland
- Donnacha O’Callaghan – Ireland
- Simon Shaw – England
- Nathan Hines – Scotland
- Gethin Jenkins – Wales
- Adam Jones – Wales
- Andrew Sheridan – England
- Phil Vickery – England
- Euan Murray – Scotland
- Jerry Flannery – Ireland
- Lee Mears – England
- Matthew Rees – Wales
British & Irish Lions South Africa Tour 2009 Fixtures
The Lions are playing 10 fixtures from May to July 2009, below is the full list of fixtures:
- Highfield XV v British & Irish Lions – Rustenburg – 30th May
- Golden Lions v British & Irish Lions – Johannesburg – 3rd June
- Cheetahs v British & Irish Lions – Bloemfontein – 6th June
- Sharks v British & Irish Lions – Durban – 10th June
- Western Province v British & Irish Lions – Cape Town – 13th June
- British & Irish Lions v Coastal XV – Port Elizabeth – 16th June
- 1st Test – South Africa v British & Irish Lions – Durban – 20th June
- Emerging Springboks v British & Irish Lions – Cape Town – 23rd June
- 2nd Test – South Africa v British & Irish Lions – Pretoria – 27th June
- 3rd Test – South Africa v British & Irish Lions – Johannesburg – 4th July
