British and Irish Lions ‘icon’ who ‘propped up’ apartheid slammed over comments about foreign-born players
Ireland stars James Lowe and Bundee Aki, who have been selected for the 2025 British and Irish Lions, and former captain Willie John McBride.
British and Irish Lions legend Willie John McBride has been criticised for his stance on the foreign-born players who will tour Australia.
Two weeks ago, 2025 boss Andy Farrell selected a 38-man squad to head down under, with seven of those coming from the southern hemisphere.
That included Ireland quartet Jamison Gibson-Park, Bundee Aki, James Lowe and Mack Hansen, with Scotland’s Pierre Schoeman, Sione Tuipulotu and Duhan van der Merwe the other three.
McBride stated that he was ‘bothered’ by those picks in an interview with South African publication Rapport.
McBride’s controversial comments
“One thing that does bother me is that eight (sic) members of the squad are not born in Britain or Ireland,” he said.
“That’s how things have changed over the past 60 years. In my day, the team consisted only of native players.”
The 84-year-old was part of five Lions series between 1962 and 1974, and led them to a famous victory over South Africa in his final tour.
McBride is regarded as one of the great players to emerge from the Home Nations, but respected Irish rugby journalist Gerry Thornley very much disagrees with him on this issue.
“You would have thought that of all the islands in the world we’d understand expatriation and emigration – forced due to famine and economic scenarios and whatever else,” Thornley told Off The Ball.
“If Mack Hansen’s mother goes to Australia and Sione Tuipulotu’s grandmother goes to Australia, and their offspring can one day come back and play for Ireland and Scotland, it’s great.
“I think the fact that Willie John McBride is bothered by this means I’m even happier with my stance because I disagree wholeheartedly on this, as I have done throughout my life on a lot of things.”
Thornley went on to discuss McBride’s controversial decision to head to South Africa during apartheid and, as such, questioned whether the Lions great should be a moral arbiter on these matters.
McBride led ‘obscene tour’
“Yes, he is a Lions icon, no doubt about it, but this is the man who also led a so-called World Rugby XV tour in 1989 to South Africa when Nelson Mandela was still in Robben Island, when the apartheid regime was still in full force,” he said.
“The Anti-Apartheid Movement opposed the tour, the Irish government opposed the tour and the only player who went on it was Steve Smith, also from Ballymena.
“I remember bishop Desmond Tutu described the tour when black children were being beaten, teargassed and detained without trial as ‘obscene’, and I thought it was an obscene tour.
“Of course, typical Willie John McBride came out afterwards and said: ‘Politics never mixed with sport’. Well that’s very convenient.
“In South Africa, nothing propped up the apartheid regime in a sporting sense more than rugby.
“The opposition to the apartheid regime and the sporting boycott of South Africa, particularly in rugby, did as much to bring down the apartheid regime as anything else.”
Thornley then added: “For Willie John McBride to be bothered by it means I’m happy with my stance. I think it’s great that the seven southern hemisphere players [have been picked].
“What is the alternative? You can play for the British and Irish Lions only if you’re born in Britain and Ireland? So if you come from outside Britain and Ireland, even though you might have played 50 times and lived here for 10 years, and both your children were born in Ireland, you can’t play for the Lions?
“Sod that, that’s bull, I really think it’s bull. National identity is a complex issue and we in Ireland should be more open-minded than that.”
