Summer 2025 will see one of the most beloved events in the sport of rugby: the latest tour of the British and Irish Lions. A representative squad comprised of players from the British and Irish Isles, the Lions have a long and distinguished history of touring the three southern hemisphere behemoth rugby nations of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. The 2025 edition sees the Lions heading down under in a squad that will is dominated by Dublin-based players.
Unique sporting experience
It’s not often that players who are used to competing for a particular nation are merged into some kind of sporting super group. Something similar might be golf’s Ryder Cup, where team Europe compete against the United States, meaning players from, among other countries, Ireland and England, form part of a collective that fans boisterously get behind. The Lions are something special in that regard, with supporters of the normally rival nations of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales suddenly grouped together in a band of passionate supporters cheering their heroes on against the best that the south has to offer. And boy has it become a sporting phenomenon. The 2025 tour promises to be no different.
2025 vintage
Led by Andy Farrell, whose day job is coach of the Ireland national team, the 2025 Lions are set to play a total of nine games in a little over a month across the vast country that is Australia. And while most Lions tours feature a pretty even spread of players across the four rugby-playing nations that comprise this unique representative squad, the 2025 Lions are noted for having a distinctly Irish-, and Leinster-, dominated flavour.
No fewer than 15 Ireland internationals have been selected by Farrell and his coaching staff. England have 13 players and Scotland eight, while a struggling Wales have only two, a number well down on a usually strong Welsh contingent. And while the spread elsewhere is pretty well-matched, there is a massive Leinster presence that reflects the province’s dominance of Irish and, to some respects, European rugby in recent times, especially when France is taken out of the equation.
Of those 15 Ireland-based players, only three feature outside of Leinster. Connacht’s Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen are joined by Munster’s Tadgh Beirne. From there it’s a dominant contingent from Leo Cullen’s Leinster side, unsurprisingly seeing as those same players form the bulk of a successful Ireland national side that is coached by the same Andy Farrell who will lead the Lions this time around. Forwards Jack Conan, Tadgh Furlong, Ronan Kelleher, Joe McCarthy, Andrew Porter, James Ryan, Dan Sheehan and Josh van der Flier will form the nucleus of a strong Lions pack, with many of those players favourites to start the first test against the Wallabies.
Leinster is similarly well-represented in the backs. Jamison Gibson-Park will almost certainly start that same first test at number nine, with Hugo Keenan similarly well fancied at full back. And then James Lowe and Garry Ringrose will fancy their chances of making at least the bench for the test matches. A total of 12 Leinster players have been selected to the 38-man squad, more than Scotland and Wales combined, and only one fewer than England’s total. This is an impressive indication of the rugby talent to be found in Dublin and its neighbouring counties.
What will happen?
As ever with top class sport, we can expect the unexpected. But what we do know is that the Lions are heavily fancied against an Australia team that have struggled in recent times, and indeed the sports betting and casino Ireland sites tip the Lions heavily. But the three-match test series on Lions tours are nearly always close in terms of final result.
And as injuries and form take their toll too, we can expect to see plenty of Leinster players getting their game time. Dublin rugby has never been so well represented, in what is also a boon for Irish rugby. Irish players forming the nucleus of a successful Lions tour down under would make for one great sporting spectacle. We await to see what transpires.
