Pierre Schoeman hits back at ‘plastic' players critics: ‘Lions is about the now, not the past'

Telegraph

4 days ago

Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman maintains he has every right to represent the Lions, insisting he and the other foreign-born players in the squad have fully bought into their adopted culture.
Critics including Lions great Willie John McBride and former England scrum-half Danny Care have questioned the number of foreign-born players selected by head coach Andy Farrell, with the former saying he was 'bothered' because squads used to consist exclusively of 'native' players.
Schoeman was born in Nelspruit, South Africa, and grew up dreaming of playing for the Springboks for whom he appeared at Under-20 level. But seven years ago he moved to Edinburgh and qualified to play for Scotland on residency grounds after three years.
In total there are eight players who were born in South Africa, New Zealand or Australia in the Lions squad and with head coach Andy Farrell likely to turn to a team dominated by Leinster players for Saturday's match against the Western Force there could well be five foreign-born players in the starting XV.
Yet Schoeman is adamant that he is unaware of the controversy brewing about those possible selections and says that the squad are fully united. 'If you're good enough to play for your country, and then you're good enough to play for the Lions, and you're selected, obviously you're going to do that,' Schoeman said. 'Scotland is home for us, my wife and myself. I know other players as well, like Mack Hansen has made Ireland home. You embrace that. You fully take that on. It's like the movie Outlander. You move to a different country, and now that's your house. You live there. If you work for one of the big four in finance, you get the opportunity, you're going to go for them. And you can really make that home.
'But this is much different. You buy into the culture. And now to represent the British and Irish Lions, you fully buy into that. You fully submerge into that. Nothing else matters. Not your past, not the future. It's about the now. There is a quote...that is, 'yesterday is gone forever, tomorrow might never come, now is the time to live'. That's what we do as Lions. It's about the now, this tour. This is what really matters.'
While Schoeman is a popular figure within the Lions camp, he has found himself ostracised as a room-mate on account of his prodigious snoring. 'I was with Tommy Freeman before, Hugo Keenan before that and then the wingers couldn't handle the snoring anymore,' Schoeman said. 'So they put me with Dan Sheehan. He was OK with the snoring, but they had to put me with Finlay Bealham now.'
Ellis Genge laid down an early marker for the starting loosehead role with a standout performance in the 28-24 defeat by Argentina while Schoeman also impressed as a replacement. Andrew Porter is likely to get his opportunity on Saturday against the Force and Schoeman says the competition is spurring all three props to new heights.
'It's a very healthy, competitive [relationship],' Schoeman said. 'Even with Porter now, we push each other, you know, every training session, every match. Genge had an amazing game, he's an amazing bloke, amazing player, very experienced and also captain quality. That's so good because we're competitive in the gym. We're competitive with everything, even jokes and banter. Who can stay in the ice bath the longest, but Porter as well. And that can really rub off and that's sharpening your swords or your axes together, really collectively for the team.'
Schmidt releases players for tour amid availability row
Meanwhile Joe Schmidt has partially bowed to the Lions demands by releasing two Wallabies to the Queensland Reds ahead of next Wednesday's warm-up match.
The Australia head coach had angrily questioned whether the Lions knew their own tour agreement, after chief executive Ben Calveley stated that the Wallabies needed to release their Test players to the Super Rugby franchises for the Lions' warm-up matches.
On Wednesday, Calveley met Phil Waugh, his counterpart at Rugby Australia, to smooth over the festering tension and in what amounts to a partial climbdown, Schmidt has released centre Hunter Paisami and hooker Matt Faessler to play in the Reds' match, a development which was welcomed by Lions assistant coach Andrew Goodman.
'Oh, lovely,' Goodman said. 'It's exciting. Hunter is a great player. If you look at the Force players who've been released, I've watched a lot of their rugby this year and they've got an exciting group. If you watch a Force team or a Reds team during Super Rugby, it's not an indication of what you're going to get against a Lions team. It's a once-in-a-life opportunity for most of those guys so the level of intensity is going to be through the roof.'
Farrell will announce his team to face the Western Force on Thursday but that is unlikely to include Hugo Keenan, who is still recovering from a calf injury. However, scrum half Jamison Gibson-Park and centre Huw Jones took full part in training on Wednesday and are considered available for selection.