Northampton Saints stars Dan Biggar and Courtney Lawes have both been selected to tour South Africa with the British & Irish Lions this summer, following the announcement of Warren Gatland’s squad today.
Fly-half Biggar becomes the 26th player in the Club’s history to tour with the Lions. The 30-year-old did represent the Home Nations in New Zealand back in 2017, before he joined Saints from Ospreys, but this summer’s Test series against the World Cup-winning Springboks will mark his first Lions adventure in Black, Green and Gold.
Lawes meanwhile, a versatile tourist able to play at flanker or lock, is picked for his second Lions stint after starring in two Tests against the All Blacks in 2017.
How they found out 🙌
— Northampton Saints 😇 (@SaintsRugby) May 6, 2021
Watch the moment that Chris Boyd revealed to the squad – and the duo themselves – that Dan Biggar and Courtney Lawes had been called up by @lionsofficial 🦁 pic.twitter.com/L8OIQgTE8o
This is the ninth occasion in the Club’s history that multiple Saints have been called onto the same tour, with Biggar and Lawes the 15th and 16th Saints to tour South Africa with the Lions (the first being Freddie Blakiston in 1924).
Biggar becomes the third-ever Northampton fly-half called up by the Lions, following Paul Grayson and current coach Gregor Townsend – who both toured the Rainbow Nation in 1997 – and, if selected for any of the three Test matches, would become the 17th Lions international from Saints.
Northampton Saints’ British & Irish Lions
- Blair Swannell (1899 & 1904)*
- Robin Harrison (1910)*
- Freddie Blakiston (1924)*
- Eric Coley (1927)*
- Billy Weston (1936)*
- Jeff Butterfield (1955, 1959)*
- Dickie Jeeps (1955, 1959, 1962)*
- Frank Sykes (1955)
- David Powell (1966)
- Keith Savage (1966)*
- Bob Taylor (1968)*
- Peter Larter (1968)*
- Bryan West (1968)
- Ian Hunter (1993)
- Martin Bayfield (1993)*
- Nick Beal (1997)
- Gregor Townsend (1997)*
- Paul Grayson (1997)
- Matt Dawson (1997, 2001)*
- Tim Rodber (1997)*
- Ben Cohen (2001)
- Steve Thompson (2005)*
- Ewan Murray (2009)
- Courtney Lawes (2017, 2021)*
- George North (2017)
- Dan Biggar (2021)
* Denotes those capped by the Lions in a Test match.
