British and Irish Lions: The five greatest English hybrids who shone on tour including a ‘standout’ from 2021
Courtney Lawes, Owen Farrell and Elliot Daly for British and Irish Lions.
With the British and Irish Lions focusing on pace and mobility in their back-row selections for the 2025 series against the Wallabies, many pundits and fans have discussed the lack of a natural line-out jumping six in the party.
Jac Morgan, Ben Earl and Tom Curry have all played across the three back-row positions at Test level, but, despite Curry’s three takes on Friday in Dublin, none of those men are natural primary jumpers in the way of say a Courtney Lawes or a Derek Quinnell were on tours of old.
Sure, Ollie Chessum, Tadhg Beirne and Maro Itoje have all moved back a row for their respective country on occasions and it may well be that one of those three will fill the role against a very classy Wallaby lineout during the Test series.
Versatility key
Lions tours often throw up positional changes due to necessity – whether that be form or injury driven. Sure, there’s often movement in the three-quarter line and back three, with players like Liam Williams, Andy Irvine, Bruce Hay and Gregor Townsend all versatile enough to have fulfilled a dual role but, when you examine the records, for some reason it tends to be the English players that tend to be the ones that get shifted around and that’s our focus.
This got the editorial tongues wagging at Planet Rugby Towers as to who were the greatest Lions English hybrids to have worn the red jersey.
Here’s our top five – let us know if we’ve missed any off in the comments!
5 Austin Healey (1997, 2001)
Picked as a scrum-half in 1997, Healey ended up playing predominantly as a winger in 2001 but failed to get a cap. He was also scrum-half cover in that tour too, but remarkably his five appearances were all as a wing.
Healey ended up playing two Lions Tests in 1997, both at nine, as he replaced Matt Dawson in both the Cape Town and the Durban Test matches.
Some might say his 2001 chances went pear shaped when he went ‘off tour’ and spoke in the press about disquiet in the camp under Graham Henry, despite having a particularly effective campaign as a wing.
4 Elliot Daly (2017, 2021, 2025)
A man that’s played across the back three for England and the Lions but rarely featured in his favourite and optimal position of outside centre, Daly was absolutely pivotal in the 2017 series against New Zealand, where his long-range kicking and ability to make space for others in wide channels was a feature of his game.
He moved between wing and full-back during that tour, playing in all three Tests.
Warren Gatland wanted a more expansive backline in 2021 which saw Daly slot in at his favoured 13 for the first Test, then used as a replacement for Chris Harris in the second, as a greater focus in defence became a focus.
3 Owen Farrell (2013, 2017, 2021)
Much like his England career, Farrell has moved between 10 and 12 almost seamlessly in the red of the Lions.
His first cap came off the bench in 2013 in the third Test when he replaced Johnny Sexton, then in New Zealand in 2017, he started the first Test at 10, and the subsequent two at 12.
Travelling to South Africa in 2021, Farrell played the understudy role to Wales’ Dan Biggar, coming on in the first and second Test in the 10 shirt.
2 Courtney Lawes (2017, 2021)
Lawes was always a reluctant lock but an eager flanker – and there’s little doubt that it was in the back-row where his blend of peerless line-out, hard tackling and precision breakdown work shone brightest of all.
However, his first Lions tour in 2017 saw him employed exclusively as a second-row, playing five provincial matches but not getting a Test cap.
In 2021, Lawes was the Lions standout, shining like a beacon on the blindside and delivering three incredible performances which underlined his positional favouritism.
1 Roger Uttley (1974)
Picked exclusively as a lock to tour in the Invincibles in 1974, Uttley would have probably made two more tours, but for a back injury in 1977 and a hamstring strain in 1980.
At England level ‘Mutters’ played anywhere in the back five, from lock to eight and skippered England from number eight in the 1977 Five Nations. But it was in South Africa in 1974 where Uttley achieved rugby immortality; pushed into the loose trio to take on the sheer size of the massive Springboks, Uttley starred as the Lions key line-out man and delivered four world class Test performances.
In the pantheon of great Lions, Uttley is often overlooked, but nobody who saw the Gosforth and Wasps star will ever forget his massive contribution to The Invincibles of 1974.
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