Greatest British and Irish Lions XV: Hooker

James While 01 Sep 2021 10:05 AM

With the 2021 Lions tour to South Africa complete, Planet Rugby takes a stab at selecting the greatest British and Irish Lions XV of all time.

For the next 15 days, we will pick our favourite players from four nominations per position – if you don’t agree with us you can vote on social media for your dream team.

We have judged our criteria solely on contributions to the Lions in Test matches and there’s a few surprises in store.

With something like 120 years worth of players to choose from, it’s been a tough task but here we go with the hooker.

Nominees

Bryn Meredith (Wales)

Caps: 8
Tours: 3
Points: 3

In 1955 he was part of the British Lions tour of South Africa, in which the British tourists shared the Test series against South Africa 2-2 and Meredith scored his record six tries for a forward.

On the 1955 Lions tour the all-Welsh front-row of Billy Williams, Meredith and Courtney Meredith was selected for a Lions Test match. This did not occur again until June 2009 when Gethin Jenkins, Matthew Rees and Adam Jones were picked as the British and Irish Lions front-row for the second Test against South Africa.

In 1959, Meredith was a Lion again, but found himself in the unfortunate position of competing against tour captain Ronnie Dawson for a place in the Test team. Consequently, he finished as the only Lion not to appear in an international, although many judges felt he should have been selected for the final match of the series.

Captaincy of the team against the Junior All Blacks was a small consolation, but he never complained about his lot and even appeared as a flanker when injuries demanded on the Australian leg of the tour.

In 1962, Meredith was a live candidate for the tour captaincy himself, and although he missed out to Arthur Smith he added to his reputation in South Africa once more with another excellent tour capped by appearances in all four Tests.

He retired at the end of that tour, having played eight Tests for the Lions. He was voted his country’s sportsman of the year in his final season.

Greatest Lions moment: In the second Test v South Africa in 1955, the Lions lost, but their hooker enhanced his reputation by winning a crucial strike in the scrum and then having the pace to get himself among the three-quarters and pop up outside centre Phil Davies to take a scoring pass.

John Pullin (England)

Caps: 7
Tours: 2
Points: 0

Pullin was one of the all-time great front-rowers – selected for two Lions tours, the first coming in 1968 to South Africa just two years after he broke through into the England team.

Possessing incredible strength and being renowned for the speed of his striking in the scrum, Pullin is widely considered one of the greatest hookers to have played the game. The then-26-year-old started in three of the four Test matches and made 11 appearances in all as South Africa won the series 3-0.

Pullin was again selected to wear Lions red for the 1971 tour of New Zealand. He featured 16 times on tour and played in all four Tests as the Lions secured a famous 2-1 series win.

Pullin won 42 England caps and captained them on 13 occasions. He became the first European captain to secure wins over Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – all in the space of 18 months.

The win against the All Blacks gave him the distinction of beating them with three different teams – England, the Barbarians and, most impressively of all, the Lions.

Greatest Lions moment: In the third Test in Wellington 1971, Pullin achieved a hat-trick of strikes against the head as the Lions took a 2-1 lead in the series.

Bobby Windsor (Wales)

Caps: 5
Tours: 2
Points: 0

With his impressive mix of technical skill, power and courage, Windsor was a key part of the British and Irish Lions squad that went on to beat the Springboks 3-0 in the four Test series.

Windsor started all four Tests on that tour, and as he recalled last year, he used an unusual technique in the scrum, hooking with his head rather than his foot due to the power of the Springbok front-row.

The 1974 tour went down in Lions history as one of the greatest ever, with the team going unbeaten, winning 21 out of 22 matches before drawing the final Test.

Windsor, sometimes known as The Duke or The Iron Duke, played an integral role in standing up to the formidable South African pack, with the Lions forwards more than holding their own to allow their dynamite backline to thrive on the hard grounds of South Africa.

Greatest Lions moment: Three years later and Windsor was once again selected for the Lions tour of New Zealand but this time he had Pontypool team-mates Charlie Faulkner and Graham Price alongside him, that legendary Pooler front-row fondly known as the ‘Viet Gwent’ and became the only all club front-row to represent the Lions.

Keith Wood (Ireland)

Caps: 5
Tours: 2
Points: 0

Wood grew up steeped in Lions history, after his father Gordon represented them on the 1959 tour of Australia and New Zealand, playing in 15 of the 33 games.

In 1997, a 25-year-old Wood was considered one of the premier No.2s in world rugby but hadn’t experienced much success on the international stage – losing in seven of his nine Test appearances for Ireland, who also hadn’t won the Five Nations since 1985.

But that would all change in South Africa, where he played every minute of the Lions’ two victorious Tests against the Springboks – despite suffering a painful groin injury in the closing stages of the second Test – as the tourists clinched a memorable series triumph.

Known variously as Uncle Fester or The Raging Potato, Wood is considered one of Ireland’s most iconic rugby players – a hard-nosed, driven player and one who became one of the most charismatic leaders in the game, and this showed through as he backed up tour captain Martin Johnson with some inspirational displays in their two Test match victories.

Greatest Lions moment: 1997, Durban and the second Test – deep in his own half, with the scores level, Wood flyhacks 50 metres down the field to clear his line. From the resulting lineout, the Lions secure possession and Jeremy Guscott dropped the goal to seal the series.

Our pick

With four outstanding candidates to choose from, any one of our four would be a worthy candidate. But for his inspirational leadership and his absolute personification of all things Lions at the turn of the century, our greatest hooker is the Lion from Killaloe, Keith Wood.

by James While