"I wouldn’t be surprised" - Dan Biggar names five 'nailed-on' Lions for 2025 tour

Tuesday, 10 August 2021 at 10:20

byRugby Rucker

Lions fly-half Dan Biggar has admitted he won't make it to 2025 but is shockingly backing Alun Wyn Jones for a fifth tour.

"Looking ahead to 2025, there are one or two things they can learn from this tour," wrote Biggar.

"It will be completely different with the fans back. From a player’s perspective, I think the stability of staying in one base for a longer period of time really helps.

"You’re not packing your bags every few days and spending your day off travelling.

"I think they should have a midweek game between the first and second Test because some of the guys haven’t played a game for three weeks and mentally that’s not easy."

DAN BIGGAR'S 2025 LIONS:

#1. Marcus Smith (England)

Biggar wrote: "As a fellow No 10, I’m looking forward to watching Marcus’s career develop. He’s a great kid."

DID YOU KNOW? His Dad, Jeremy Smith lived in Hong Kong from 1992-97, playing for Valley and the national side at fly-half.

#2. Adam Beard (Wales)

Biggar said: "I would be surprised if Adam Beard aren’t in the Test team. He's come on leaps and bounds."

DID YOU KNOW? Beard made his debut for the Ospreys in 2012 having previously played for their academy team, Aberavon RFC and Birchgrove RFC

#3. Maro Itoje (England)

DID YOU KNOW? His full name is much more of a mouthful. The lock was born Oghenemaro Miles Itoje in Camden, London on 28 October 1994 to Nigerian parents.

#4. Louis Rees-Zammit (Wales)

Biggar said: Rees-Zammit will be there. He has been walking around wearing his Wales bucket hat and all the guys call him 'Scholesy', because he used to date Paul Scholes's daughter!"

DID YOU KNOW? Taylor Rees-Zammit had so much faith in his younger brother’s ability to take the rugby world by storm that he placed a bet four years ago that his sibling would be chosen for this summer’s tour of South Africa. As a result he picked up almost £1,000, according to a report from The Rugby Paper.

#5. Alun Wyn Jones (Wales)

Biggar wrote: "I wouldn’t be surprised if Alun Wyn Jones rocks up for another tour, either!"

DID YOU KNOW? In his youth, apart from having long hair, he had a pair of white rugby boots on, at a time when it was black or nothing. Second rows wearing white rugby boots was quite unusual. That’s how he got the nickname Alun Gwyn Boots.