'Southern hemisphere' Lions deserve their spot in team - Russell

The British and Irish Lions players have rallied around their foreign-born team-mates, after Australia coach Joe Schmidt highlighted the ancestry of some of the tourists' squad.

Schmidt referred to New-Zealand-born Bundee Aki and Australian-born Sione Tuipulotu as a "southern hemisphere centre pairing" as the Ireland and Scotland stars teamed up against Argentina in Dublin.

"For me, as a Scot, I have no issues with them being born in New Zealand or Australia," fly-half Finn Russell told BBC Sport.

"Everyone has their different background and different path into rugby and where we are now. These boys definitely deserve their spot in the team."

The irony this has been raised by Schmidt - a New Zealander guiding Australia, who made his coaching name in France and Ireland - has not been lost.

But Schmidt would know he is highlighting a topic that might rankle with some Lions fans.

"It doesn't sit that well with me," England centurion Danny Care told the Rugby Union Weekly podcast.

"There are lads that never ever once in their childhood or even their mid-20s, ever dreamed of wearing a red Lions jersey."

The legendary Willie John McBride, a five-time tourist with the Lions, said that aspect of the 2025 squad "bothered" him, highlighting it only consisted of "native players" during his playing career., external

Eight of the Lions' 38-man squad in Australia were born, raised and spent their whole education in the southern hemisphere before moving north.

They have taken two different routes to become eligible for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and therefore the British and Irish Lions.

Aki, his Ireland team-mates James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park, and Scotland duo Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman all qualify for their adoptive countries on residence grounds.

When that quintet were going through the process, three years living in a country was enough to be able to represent it.

Lowe played for the Maori All Blacks against the British and Irish Lions in 2017, before switching to Irish province Leinster later that year, aged 25.

Gibson-Park, who played for the Maoris against Leicester Tigers earlier in his career, had made the same switch the year before at the age of 24.

Both made their Ireland debuts shortly after passing three years in Dublin.

Aki has previously admitted that qualifying for Ireland and stepping up to the Test game was a big part of the motivation behind his own move to Connacht from New Zealand in 2014.

Van der Merwe and Schoeman both played for South Africa's under-20 team before signing for Edinburgh and, after serving their time there, qualifying for Scotland.

However, Scotland's Tuipulotu and Ireland's Finlay Bealham and Mack Hansen qualify via another path.

Despite being born and brought up in Australia, the trio have always been eligible to play for the Lions because of the birthplace of their parents or grandparents.

This is an important distinction.

The Lions picking players with southern-hemisphere roots is nothing new.

Mike Catt, born in Port Elizabeth, was educated in South Africa before moving to England after school and qualified through his mother. He toured with distinction in 1997 and then again in 2001 before winning the World Cup in 2023.

Brent Cockbain, whose brother Matt was a Wallaby, was part of the 2005 touring party. New-Zealand born Riki Flutey was in South Africa in 2009 and starred in the third Test victory against South Africa.

In 2017, Ben Te'o - raised in Auckland and a rugby league international with Samoa - started the first Test against the All Blacks.

CJ Stander, a former South African under-20 international, also featured against New Zealand after representing Ireland through the 2010s. There are plenty of other examples.

But it is the volume of players involved who were born overseas and, in some cases, only moved up to Britain and Ireland in their 20s that marks this tour out compared to others.

"There is an Antipodean look to this selection, more so than any other Lions tour we've seen in the history of the British and Irish Lions tour," explained former Lion Ugo Monye.

"But we have a forever-evolving world and the world is forever getting smaller. We understand and accept that."

It is something of a perfect storm. However, the issue is likely to become less contentious by the time the team tour New Zealand in 2029.

World Rugby extended the eligibility period to qualify for a country on residency grounds to five years in 2021.

Instantly it made the idea of bringing over a southern-hemisphere prospect in the hope that they will develop into a key Test player more risky and less appealing.

Ireland, Scotland and Wales all run programmes that focus on finding players who qualify to play for them, but live outside the country.

Russell says he sets more store by his team-mates' performances than their paperwork.

"The likes of Sione, he's so passionate when he plays for Scotland," he added.

"We are all here together, pulling in the right direction to try and win a Test series."

Josh van der Flier, a long-standing team-mate of Aki, Lowe, Gibson-Park and Hansen, also dismissed any suggestion their claim to a Test shirt was any weaker than his own.

"They are as Irish as the rest of us," he said.