Bundee bungees into Lions squad
Ireland’s New Zealand midfield back Bundee Aki has gained a place in a British & Irish squad notable for high-profile omissions as coach Warren Gatland looks for success on the tour of South Africa.
The hard-running 31-year-old former Counties Manukau and Chiefs player booked his spot against expectation, on the back of 31 tests for Ireland since moving north in 2014.
Ireland captain Jonathan Sexton was the big absence in the 37-man British and Irish Lions squad that will tour July and August, with Gatland selecting an even spread of players from the four home unions.
In the great Alun Wyn Jones, Warren Gatland went with world rugby’s safest pair of hands as his captain for the Lions’ tour of South Africa.
The surprises were saved for elsewhere.
No Sexton, the Ireland captain who was world player of the year as recently as 2018 and top scorer in this year’s Six Nations.
No Billy Vunipola, the No 8 who has provided much of England’s goforward in the Eddie Jones era.
No Jonathan Davies, the reliable Wales centre who was the Lions’ player of the drawn series against the All Blacks in 2017.
But Gatland, understandably, wanted to focus on the players who were selected to go on a tour that was under threat until last month – and
still carries with it uncertainties because of the pandemic.
In a Lions squad that largely reflected this year’s highly competitive Six Nations, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland all had eight to 11 representatives.
Eight Scots is the country’s highest number since 1989, perhaps showing the influence Scotland coach Gregor Townsend – one of Gatland’s assistants – had on selection.
Jones, tour captain for the first time and in his fourth straight Lions squad, is one of 10 players from Six Nations champion Wales.
England had 11, a lower-thanexpected contingent which highlighted the team’s struggles in the Six Nations but included Sam Simmonds – a No 8 without a test cap since March 2018.
Quite why Simmonds has been ignored by Jones is a mystery, given he is the reigning European player of the year and a superstar for European champion Exeter.
Ireland’s eight players did not include 35-year-old Sexton, a player Townsend called one of the ‘‘best players in the world’’.
Owen Farrell, Dan Biggar and Finn Russell were the first fiveeighths chosen by Gatland, setting up what could prove to be the most competitive selection fights anywhere in the squad for the test series.
Other leading players overlooked were England pair Kyle Sinckler and Jonny May, and Ireland lock James Ryan.