Saints duo selected for Lions tour of South Africa

Courtney Lawes and Dan Biggar have been named in the British & Irish Lions squad to tour South Africa this summer.
Courtney LawesCourtney Lawes
Courtney Lawes

Lawes and Biggar are part of a 37-man group named by boss Warren Gatland.

Fly-half Biggar becomes the 26th player in Saints history to tour with the Lions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

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 since becoming a Saint.

Dan BiggarDan Biggar
Dan Biggar

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.

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.

Lions squad for the tour of South Africa

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Backs: Josh Adams, Bundee Aki, Dan Biggar, Elliot Daly, Gareth Davies, Owen Farrell, Chris Harris, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart Hogg, Conor Murray, Ali Price, Louis Rees-Zammit, Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe, Anthony Watson, Liam Williams.

Forwards: Tadhg Beirne, Jack Conan, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Tom Curry, Zander Fagerson, Taulupe Faletau, Tadhg Furlong, Jamie George, Iain Henderson, Jonny Hill, Maro Itoje, Alun Wyn Jones (c), Wyn Jones, Courtney Lawes, Ken Owens, Andrew Porter, Sam Simmonds, Rory Sutherland, Justin Tipuric, Mako Vunipola, Hamish Watson.