Latest news with #DannyCare
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Sport
- Telegraph
Stadium announcer calls Lions players ‘Aussie', ‘Kiwi' and ‘South African'
Australia continued their attack on the British and Irish Lions' overseas-born contingent via the team announcement over the tannoy ahead of the match against the Western Force. At the Optus Stadium in Perth, a number of players were described as 'Aussie', 'Kiwi' or 'South African' as the Lions team was announced to the crowd of 40,000. The descriptions included: 'The Aussie at No 14, Mack Hansen.' 'Another Aussie at No 12, Sione Tuipulotu.' 'The Kiwi now Irishman, James Lowe.' 'At prop, the former SA schoolboy now Scotsman, Pierre Schoeman.' The eight-strong foreign-born contingent in the Lions squad has been a major talking point in the build-up to the tour. Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt labelled the Lions' midfield pairing of Bundee Aki and Sione Tuipulotu as a 'southern-hemisphere centre partnership' ahead of the tour opener against Argentina while David Campese called them the 'British and Irish and Pacific Island Lions' ahead of the Western Force game. The selection of foreign-born players in Farrell's original squad sparked criticism from within Britain and Ireland, too. Lions great Willie John McBride said their selection 'bothered' him, and after the additional call-up of tighthead prop Finlay Bealham – who was born in Australia – former England scrum-half Danny Care said their presence did not sit well with him. Duhan van der Merwe, Pierre Schoeman, Aki, Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park all qualify to represent Scotland and Ireland respectively via the residency law. At the time they qualified, that rule stipulated a stay of three years in the country they were switching allegiance to but has subsequently been extended to five years. Hansen, Tuipulotu and Bealham all qualify to represent their respective nations and Lions on ancestral grounds. The Lions lost their first match of the tour to Argentina in Dublin with their match against the Western Force the first on Australian soil. They will play nine matches in Australia with three against the Wallabies to decide the Test series.
Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
"I trained with the Great Britain Sail team - they can produce when it counts"
I had the chance to train with the Emirates Great Britain SailGP team ahead of their home race in Portsmouth come July and their power and endurance is something you just don't grasp when watching on TV For a lot of sports you can make your own, relatively successful, prediction of how fit their competitors are. Rugby players for example speak for themselves, as would say a cyclist or a long distance runner. Their shape and size somewhat giving them away. When it comes to sailing though, me included, to tend to go in slightly blind. When you watch footage of them competing you see as much of the boat as you do the sailors themselves. So when I was invited to train with the Emirates Great Britain SailGP team I wasn't sure what to expect. Alongside myself, a relatively active individual but far from professional athlete, was England rugby great Danny Care and ex-Harlequins and Red Roses star, Shaunagh Brown. We were tasked with five exercises. Some a bit more tailored to sailing, others perhaps favouring rugby and some pretty neutral. Overseeing the action was Professor Greg Whyte OBE - a world renowned sport scientist and the human performance coach to the SailGP Emirates Great Britain team. It is safe to say it only took the first exercise to be complete for me to realise that, yes, these sailors had it. Neil Hunter had all the top tier physical characteristics you'd expect and Nick Hutton was absolutely shredded. Ellie Aldridge, the reserve sailor, was also in top condition. We embarked on a 30 second effort on the grinder. 30 seconds, not long right? Think again. The key here was maximising your output but making sure there wasn't a mammoth drop off. This movement is what trims the sails on the boats when the sailors are competing - in simple terms "the engine of the boat". They can be on these for minutes at a time when competing, but their max efforts had Hutton and Hunter well ahead of the pack. The final five to ten seconds really do take you to a dark place, so I can't fathom what minutes would be like. The SailGP athletes spend around 15 hours a week on that grinder machine. Base endurance is the core of what they are trying to achieve. The boats they compete in are only accessible for events so everything the athletes are doing is simulating race day. Imagine an F1 driver not jumping into the car until the first lap of qualifying. A simple exercise of who can smash out the most chin ups saw sailing edge out rugby with Hutton getting the better of Care - any mself, although that was no great surprise. Efforts on the Wattbike came next with the sailors needing less than ten seconds to produce their max efforts, hitting it hard when they got the go ahead from Whyte. Perhaps a personal highlight, and an entertaining show of competitiveness, was on the sled push. We were all timed and it was a race across eight metres. Pride was clearly at stake and, with one person still left to go, the SailGP Emirates Great Britain team were not top of the leaderboard. Hutton had the final say was told by his colleague Hunter that their reputation rested on him producing on his one and only run. If being out on the water is about relishing the concept of "your time to shine" and producing when its most needed, then boy did the man from Scotland come up trumps. A mega show of power saw him top the time charts to the delight of his team-mates. I think whenever you train with anyone your respect for them goes up and what took me back the most was the sheer power output they were capable of. The Emirates Great Britain team have already claimed victory at one of the events this year, coming out on top in Australia. Ahead of their home race in Portsmouth they look primed to close in on championship leaders Spain.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Sun
‘A funny feeling' – Sky Sports pundit ‘could play on British and Irish Lions Tour' after stepping back from TV duty
OWEN FARRELL could still play for the British and Irish Lions this summer despite starting the tour as a pundit on Sky Sports. That's according to former England teammate Danny Care, who has warned not to rule the 33-year-old out of contention. 5 5 Farrell, who was not selected in the Lions' initial 38-man travelling squad for Australia, worked as a pundit for Sky Sports during the Lions' summer series opener against Argentina last week. But the 112 time England cap has now stepped down from punditry for the remainder of the tour in a pre-planned move that keeps him available for selection in Australia should an slot open up. Farrell was snubbed by his father and Lions head coach Andy Farrell when the initial squad announcement was released last month, but there is still optimism that he could be called upon as a first reserve. Former teammate Care told the Mail Online that he has a "funny feeling" that Farrell might find a way to return to the Lions fold this summer. He said: "It's quite a young and youthful Lions squad, especially in that backline. "There's not many lads, barring Finn Russell and a couple of others, who have played for the Lions before and experienced it. "I know Owen is the ultimate competitor and its brilliant to have him back in the Premiership, I just have a funny feeling that we might see him in a red shirt at some point this summer." Farrell represented the Lions on the 2013. 2017 and 2021 tours, racking up six test appearances. 5 5 JOIN SUN VEGAS: GET £50 BONUS While he has worked his way back into the spotlight, and England contention, after announcing his return to English rugby with Saracens. The fly-half had spent the last year in France with Racing 92, but struggled with injuries during his foray to the continent - playing just 17 times for the Top 14 outfit. Watch as Ireland coach Andy Farrell comes off injured with son Owen replacing him during their time as teammates During his period of ineligibility in France, Farrell was replaced as England fly-half by Fin Smith - with Marcus Smith and George Ford also battling for the position for the Red Rose. Both Marcus and Fin Smith have been selected in the Lions squad. Dad and head coach Andy hasn't ruled out a call-up for Owen either, keeping the door open for the experience number 10. He said last month: "There's 38 picked, which leaves a couple of slots open for us during the track if and when needed, and Owen, like a few other guys as well, would be in that type of bracket. "He was in the conversation, obviously, an experienced player like that who is going for his fourth tour. "You cover all bases, that's for sure, with the leadership qualities and all of that. "But we got to a point where, like a few other players as well, we feel that Owen's still trying to find his way a little bit back to fitness, like others.' Andy Farrell's team will continue their tour with a match against Western Force on Saturday, hoping to return a better result than their 28-24 defeat to Argentina in Dublin last week. The Lions' first test match with Australia is scheduled to take place on July 19. 5
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Sport
- Telegraph
Pierre Schoeman hits back at ‘plastic' players critics: ‘Lions is about the now, not the past'
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 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.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Pierre Schoeman hits back at critics of foreign-born British and Irish Lions
Pierre Schoeman insists the British and Irish Lions ' overseas-born contingent have earned the right to be in Australia and have fully immersed themselves in the tourists' culture. The Scotland prop is one of eight Lions players who were born, raised and educated in South Africa, New Zealand or Australia but qualify for their home unions through residency or family lineage. Players who hail from the southern hemisphere representing the Lions is nothing new, but the number of them present in Andy Farrell 's squad has caused a stir. Lions great Willie John McBride said it 'bothered' him, while former England scrum-half Danny Care declared that 'it doesn't sit that well with me'. But Schoeman insists they are ready to give everything in the quest to complete a series victory over the Wallabies, with Saturday's fixture against Western Force their first assignment on Australian soil. 'If you're good enough to play for your country, you're good enough to play for the Lions and you're selected, then obviously you're going to do that,' said Schoeman, who made five appearances for South Africa Under-20s in 2014. 'Playing for the Lions is massive. Scotland is home for us, my wife and myself. I know that's for the other players as well, like Mack Hansen has made Ireland home. 'You embrace that. You fully take that on. It's like the series 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 it. And you can really make that home. 'But this is much different. To represent the British and Irish Lions, you fully buy into that and its culture. You fully submerge into that. Nothing else matters. Not your past, not the future. It's about the now. '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.' The Lions arrived in Perth on the back of a 28-24 defeat by Argentina in Dublin, where they were given a taster of the support to come in Australia. A sold-out Aviva Stadium was swamped in red for the tour send-off and Schoeman insists it is essential to deliver for the hoards of fans who will make the journey Down Under. 'It was an amazing experience in Dublin to see the red army. It was incredible,' he said. 'You have to feel the responsibility of 50,000 or more fans coming to Australia. So you have a massive obligation and responsibility. 'We as the selected guys, management and players in this team have to make it happen. 'There's no space for dead weight on this team. Everyone has to push in the same direction. 'It's about driving this whole team towards a collective goal of going beyond and being back-to-back winners against Australia.'
