{"id":54416,"date":"2025-08-09T06:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T06:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/54416\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T06:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T06:35:10","slug":"the-12-least-used-british-irish-lions-of-the-2025-tour-to-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/54416\/","title":{"rendered":"The 12 least-used British & Irish Lions of the 2025 tour to Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even in a successful British & Irish Lions<\/a> series, not everyone sees the same share of the pitch. Injuries, late call-ups and selection realities meant several squad members played only bit-part roles in Australia.<\/p>\n

From those who got a decent look in to those who didn\u2019t make it onto the field at all, here\u2019s the 12 least-used players:<\/p>\n

Owen Farrell \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 172 minutes
Joined mid-tour from Saracens<\/a> and went straight into Farrell\u2019s plans. Started against the First Nations & Pasifika XV and came off the bench against the Invitational Australia & New Zealand XV, as well as in the final two Tests against the Wallabies. A controversial choice but proved his worth.<\/p>\n

Ben White \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 169 minutes
Brought in after Tomos Williams\u2019 injury, the Scotland<\/a> and Toulon<\/a> scrum-half played three matches, starting twice and scoring in the 48-0 win over the Invitational Australia & New Zealand XV.<\/p>\n

Elliot Daly \u2013 Injured on tour \u2013 167 minutes
Featured off the bench against Argentina<\/a> before starting against the Western Force<\/a> and Queensland Reds. A fractured forearm ended his involvement early, which was a shame as the Swiss Army knife of the backline had looked in excellent form.<\/p>\n

Luke Cowan-Dickie \u2013 Injured on tour \u2013 165 minutes
Started three games at hooker, including the Argentina clash before the series. His campaign was ended by concussion against the Invitational Australia & New Zealand XV.<\/p>\n

Jamie Osborne \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 80 minutes
There were plenty of naysayers who suggested an Irish bias, but the Leinster<\/a> back provided much-needed cover across the backline and started the mid-week match against the First Nations & Pasifika XV.<\/p>\n

Tomos Williams \u2013 Injured on tour \u2013 79 minutes
Made a flying start with two tries against Western Force and also featured off the bench versus Argentina. A hamstring injury brought his tour to a premature end and reduced the Lions to just one Welshman in the form of Jac Morgan.<\/p>\n

Jamie George \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 74 minutes
Arrived from Argentina duty to bolster the hooking stocks. Featured in two matches but didn\u2019t dislodge the starting pair.<\/p>\n

Tom Clarkson \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 29 minutes
Added as front-row cover and used briefly in a mid-week outing. Never close to Test contention.<\/p>\n

Gregor Brown \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 26 minutes
The Scotland forward made his Lions debut off the bench. Otherwise remained unused after joining from the national squad.<\/p>\n

Darcy Graham \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 17 minutes
Given a chance against the First Nations & Pasifika XV but lasted only 17 minutes before injury. Another frustrating chapter in a run of bad luck.<\/p>\n

Ewan Ashman \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 6 minutes
Came on late in a tour match. With the hooker depth already strong, he had little scope to make an impact other than give the Farrell the chance to rest potential first team options.<\/p>\n

Rory Sutherland \u2013 Late call-up \u2013 0 minutes
Remained unused for the short duration of his tour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even in a successful British & Irish Lions series, not everyone sees the same share of the pitch.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-54416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}