Payne hits back at critics

Editor

Ulster utility back Jared Payne is not letting media reports or fans questioning his British and Irish Lions selection get to him.

There is a tendency among Lions fans to question the selection of those players not originally from the United Kingdom.

Willi Heinz of Gloucester is on the receiving end of this following his England selection and Payne says he has had the same experience following Lions selection. South African-born CJ Stander is another facing similar questions.

Payne, a former New Zealand U21 international, qualified to play for Ireland due to World Rugby's three-year residency rule
and played his first game in November 2014.

Since then, the Ulster man has been capped 20 times by Ireland, including the victory over his country of birth in Chicago last November.

And Payne is not worried about whether the the UK fans or media accept him, but is concerning himself more with whether his team-mates accept him.

"I've always said everyone is entitled to their own opinion," Payne told ESPN.

"I'm more about the guys you play with, if they all accept you. That's what counts. In my time with Ireland and hopefully the Lions, no one has brought it up.

"There's no skin off my back. I'm more than happy with the way the guys treat me and look on you as a local. I think I've been well and truly converted to an Irishman.

"This is the longest I've ever been in one place in Belfast, my fiancee is from Belfast, my nine month baby boy was born over here, I've got a house and a dog and the whole nine yards. I can't see myself going too far in the future."