British & Irish Lions 2025 – Foreign Born and Homegrown Players

The British & Irish Lions compete once every four years. The team is selected from the very best players from the national Men’s test teams of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The 2025 team will play a home match against Argentina in Dublin, Ireland on June 20 before touring Australia from June 28 to August 02.

There are Foreign Born players on the roster. That is to say, the roster contains players who were not born in one of England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales. The roster also contains players who are not homegrown. A homegrown player is someone whose senior Men’s team is the same which was primarily responsible for the player’s development prior to their senior careers.

 

WORLD RUGBY ELIGIBILITY LAWS

The British & Irish Lions roster is selected from players who are eligible for one or more of the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. They are eligible based on player eligibility laws as determined by World Rugby.

Regulation 8 requires players to meet at least one of three criteria: (a) be born in the country; (b) have one parent or grandparent from the country; (c) complete 5 years of consecutive residency immediately before representative duty; or (d) ten years of cumulative residency preceding the time of selection.

Under the leadership of former chairman Bill Beaumont, World Rugby changed eligibility laws to enable eligible players to represent a second country following a three-year stand-down period after their last binding representative appearance for their first country. This made it possible to become eligible by defecting to another.

World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin justified players defecting as a means of boosting the global game. While Samoa and Tonga gained advantages at Rugby World Cup 2023, the benefits were not equally enjoyed; indeed, players defected to represent Scotland and Wales but not Chile, Fiji, Georgia, Portugal or Uruguay.

Scotland selected Jack Dempsey and Wales selected Henry Thomas. Dempsey played for Australia at Rugby World Cup 2019 against Tier 2 sides Georgia and Uruguay but played for Scotland against Tier 2 side Tonga at Rugby World Cup 2023. Thomas played for England in 2013-2014 but for Wales at Rugby World Cup 2023, including against Georgia. Dempsey and Thomas were both homegrown to the first test nation they represented.

Scotland and Wales were involved in controversy following Rugby World Cup 1999. Shane Howarth and Brett Sinkinson played for Wales and Dave Hilton played for Scotland despite not being eligible. Howarth and Sinkinson were not eligible for the British & Irish Lions 2001 tour of Australia and Hilton was not eligible for Scotland at the time.

 

PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE

This article documents players that represent a country that is different to where they were born. It identifies who they are and how they qualify. In addition, the article identifies whether or not the players are homegrown; that is, where players were developed prior to their senior careers. This assists in determining the success of individual unions in developing from age groups.

Homegrown players are identified by the color blue in the homegrown category in the respective tables. Players shown in this color are products of the Home Union that they play for. Red indicates that the player is the product of the rugby systems of a different country.

Understanding player pathways and productivity can assist in determining the best direction for the sport in international competition including at Rugby World Cups. World Rugby seeks more competitive teams. Rugby World Cup 2007 is the most recent Men’s World Cup which featured a first-time Semi Finalist. It is hoped that collecting player eligibility data can help explain who benefits and who does not from the eligibility laws.

Click here to read about Homegrown / Foreign Born players in the 2024 Rugby Championship

Click here to read about Homegrown / Foreign Born players in the 2025 Six Nations

 

B&I LIONS 2025 – HOMEGROWN / FOREIGN-BORN PLAYERS

2025 British & Irish Lions Head Coach Andy Farrell initially selected a 38-man roster. Of them, fifteen play for Ireland, thirteen play for England, eight play for Scotland and two play for Wales. This meant that Ireland had contributed the most players; however, four of Ireland’s contributions were not homegrown players. This increased on June 09 with Finlay Bealham added.

Irish players Jamison Ratu Gibson-Park, Bundee Aki, Mack Hansen and James Lowe all arrived in Ireland as adults from Super Rugby on professional rugby contracts. Hansen arrived eligible while the three others did not. Bealham moved to Ireland aged 18. The five Irish players accounted for 55.6% of the initial foreign-born roster members that are not homegrown players.

Irish second-rower Joe McCarthy was born in the USA but raised in Ireland. Similarly, fly half Marcus Smith was born in the Philippines but is a homegrown English player. England’s contribution to the roster grew with Owen Farrell added on July 03.

Additional roster changes saw Jamie Osborne (Ireland), Tom Clarkson (Ireland), Jamie George (England), Rory Sutherland (Scotland), Ewan Ashman (Scotland), and Darcy Graham (Scotland) called-up. Of them Ashman is not homegrown. He was born in Canada and is a product of England not Scotland rugby.

Andy Farrell selected scrum-half Tomos Williams and flanker Jac Morgan as the only Welsh players. Both were born and raised in Wales. Williams was injured and replaced by Scotland scrum-half Ben White.

Five of Scotland’s nine contributions to the roster are not homegrown. One of them is Ben White. He and Huw Jones are from the UK but are not homegrown Scotland players. Pierre Schoeman and Duhan van der Merwe are South African born and raised players who arrived in Scotland as professional rugby players. Sione Tuipulotu also arrived for the purposes of professional rugby; however, he arrived already eligible to play for Scotland. Tuipulotu and Mack Hansen were Australia u20 teammates.

PLAYER	TEAM	BORN	HOMEGROWN	POS	ELIGIBILITY	OTHER REP.
Pierre Schoeman	SCOTLAND	SOUTH AFRICA	SOUTH AFRICA	LH	Residency (2021)	SA u18, u20
Ewan Ashman	SCOTLAND	CANADA	ENGLAND	HK	Parent	–
Finlay Bealham	IRELAND	AUSTRALIA	AUSTRALIA	TH	Grandparent	AU Schools
Joe McCarthy	IRELAND	USA	IRELAND	LO	Parent	–
Jamison Gibson-Park	IRELAND	NEW ZEALAND	NEW ZEALAND	SH	Residency (2020)	NZ Māori
Ben White	SCOTLAND	ENGLAND	ENGLAND	SH	Grandparent	England u20, England
Marcus Smith	ENGLAND	PHILIPPINES	ENGLAND	FH	Parent	–
Bundee Aki	IRELAND	NEW ZEALAND	NEW ZEALAND	CE	Residency (2017)	–
Huw Jones	SCOTLAND	SCOTLAND	ENGLAND	CE	Scotland Born	–
Sione Tuipulotu	SCOTLAND	AUSTRALIA	AUSTRALIA	CE	Grandparent	AU Schools, u20
Mack Hansen	IRELAND	AUSTRALIA	AUSTRALIA	WI	Parent	AU u20
James Lowe	IRELAND	NEW ZEALAND	NEW ZEALAND	WI	Residency (2020)	NZ Māori, Schools, u15 Basketball
Duhan van der Merwe	SCOTLAND	SOUTH AFRICA	SOUTH AFRICA	WI	Residency (2020)	SA Schools, u20

 

FOREIGN-BORN PLAYERS – COUNTRY OF BIRTH
AUSTRALIA – (3)
NEW ZEALAND – (3)
PHILIPPINES (1)
SOUTH AFRICA – (2)
USA – (1)

HOMEGROWN PLAYERS – PER NATION
ENGLAND – (15/15) 100%
IRELAND – (11/18) 61.1%
SCOTLAND – (6/12) 50%
WALES – (2/2) 100%

NON-HOMEGROWN PLAYERS – PER POSITION
PROP – (2/9) 22.2%
HOOKER – (1/5) 20%
SECOND-ROW – (0/6) 0%
BACK-ROW – (0/6) 0%
SCRUM-HALF (2/4) 50%
FLY HALF (0/4) 0%
CENTER (3/4) 75%
WING (3/5) 60%
FULLBACK (0/4) 0%