Who else agrees that players from the rep of Ireland shouldn’t be playing with the lions?
I believe that players from n. Ireland, wales, Scotland and England should only pick and should just be called the British lions
What do u think
Well the immediate problem you face is that the Irish Rugby Football Union has jurisdiction over players from the whole island — not just the Republic. So your scheme would require the elimination of Ulster based players as well.
And that said, the Lions tradition predates the split between the Republic and the UK, and it is one area where the two nations have managed to maintain a productive link. Why in the world would anyone want to eliminate that tradition?
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i dont think so at all, it completly corrupts the spirit of the game
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me
I can see your point, but doesn’t it have it’s roots in pre independent Ireland when the team was first created in 1888? I guess they just decided to carry on their involvement after independence, but it is a bit odd. It’d be like letting the USA still compete in the Commonwealth Games really isn’t it.
I just thought of something, perhaps they should let France be involved in it as well, didn’t England control parts of France for many years? lol.
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Well the immediate problem you face is that the Irish Rugby Football Union has jurisdiction over players from the whole island — not just the Republic. So your scheme would require the elimination of Ulster based players as well.
And that said, the Lions tradition predates the split between the Republic and the UK, and it is one area where the two nations have managed to maintain a productive link. Why in the world would anyone want to eliminate that tradition?
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WTF??? It’s the one thing that straddled the troubles you numpty. Rugby is bigger than politics and has been since the 1880′s. If you have really got views like these you should be changing your name, and fast.
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Nope
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Interesting question. Call it what you will, Lions or British Lions. What the hell are the Barbarians? A group of…..barbarians…that cover the area of…well I think you get the point.
Personally I think it is a ‘nice’ point, that Ireland (the real Ireland) is actually a part of the Lions. It might suggest that the politics of rugby are indeed mightier than the politics of individual countries.
At the end of many a great Captains speech, you might hear the words akin to "at the end of the day Rugby was the winner", and it seems appropriate here. Having said that the infamous springbok tour of NZ might put the sword to that, but I think most NZ’ers would like to think that rugby can ‘bridge’ troubled waters between countries in a way only sport can and politics simply cannot.
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Stupid Q !!!
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I think that’s ridiculous.
First of all players from the Republic have always been part of Lions Tours
Secondly, Rugby is almost unique in that it doesn’t differentiate what part of Ireland you come from. Why would you change that?
Also Northern Ireland is not part of Britain, it’s part of the United Kingdom. Great Britain is the Island consisting of Wales, Scotland and England and as such only people from that Island can be called British.
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No your ignorance goes against the whole point of the Lions. The Lions is rugby and a joining of the home nations for a few exciting games. The Lions is rugby not politics or a mixture of arrogance.
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the B & I lions are struggling to beat the boks at the moment a lions team without the Irish would have an even tougher time.
if people wanted a British lions (no Irish) then that’s fine by me but as an Irish fan i wouldn’t support them.
a N. Ireland rugby team would get thumped game in game out. It would effectively be Ulster without their overseas players.
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WTF!? I’m Irish and it really pisses me off when English people still act as if they own Ireland! The majority of English people are very nice and respect other people, but some of you! But face it the Lions without the Irish you guys would be Screwed alone!
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Mr Rugby I must strongly disagree with you.
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i don’t agree because if you look at the team picked for the game on saturday 7 of the 15 are irish and if flannery and ferris weren’t injuried they would also be on the team and that would take the number to possibly 9 irish on the team!
sure if you did that you would have a welsh team basically because the english and scots don’t have many on the team as it is and not many of the players are from the north!
explain to me how you would go about beating the springboks without brian o’driscoll for a starter??????
this is the stupidest idea i’ve heard!
ireland are six nations champions remember and grand slam champions and triple crown champions and irish club teams have won the other silverware with leinster winning the heineken cup and munster winning the magners league and last year leinster won the magners league and munster won the heineken cup so it shows how dominate the republic of ireland teams are!what have ulster won recently??
and the munster and leinster teams are fielded mainly by irish players because of the fact that there are only 4 club teams in ireland!and one being in the north!
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1) The Lions would be fairly fucked without Irish players – 7 starters on Sat and it would be nine or ten if TOL, Quinlan, Ferris and Flannery weren’t injured/suspended.
2) The Republic of Ireland split from Britain in 1922 – however the Lions were formed in 1888, before this split. Don’t you think it’s nice that sport for once rose above politics and the team stayed united? The Irish rugby team is about the only thing that remained united in Ireland for years, it’d be a shame to destroy it now.
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thats simply british cockiness and jealousy, i mean as somebody else said, rugby is above politics, the team is what it is because the four nations are united by it, no other team or sport does this. if the team was to be stripped of their irish players, the team itself would suffer, but so would the countries politically. it would become a political battle and would be good for nobody. and its also tradition, there has been violence between the irish and english for centuries, and the lions has existed for over a hundred years. and now in modern times where people are supposed to be more open minded about race and associated things, you ask a question like this? an odd and plain silly question, so no i dont agree:)
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It has to because it has always been. British lions is a proud historic team that only happens every so often.
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I agree 
but we could use the players 
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Although Northern Ireland is not part of Britain, it is one of the rugby union ‘Home Nations’.
I think this is more the emphasis rather than whether it’s part of Britain or not.
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Absolutely not!
Do you know what I find inspirational about the British and Irish Lions tour? The team’s ability to transcend the boundaries of their individual countries and play together as one. It is a pity others do not follow this glorious example of camaraderie.
Furthermore, Ireland displayed the ultimate gesture in sportsmanship by opening the gates of Croke Park to English, Scottish, Welsh, French and Italian rugby players – would it hurt to open your heart and be as welcoming?
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no and about france joining that a no too
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I disagree. The only reason to kick Ireland out of the Lions teams is for political motives and the last thing we want is to involve politics in rugby as we would then see the trouble that you get in Eire/N.Ireland football matches and the violence assosiated with Rangers/Celtic.
If I were you, I’d stick to your own petty squables and leave the rest of us to enjoy our sport.
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For what reason do not agree with it?
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Ireland play as a combined team (unlike football).
Ergo, both players from the Republic and Ulster are eligible.
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ehhhhhhh no
if we weren’t der the lions would be totally worse off
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I do not think so at all! (i wont exlain why, i’ll just get too annoyed with your exclusionist attitude!!)
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I think you’re part of the problem between Ireland and (Great) Britain.
It’s intentionally a team of both islands. You’re just mad that near half the skill of the team’s Irish. Although O’Gara did make a stupid mistake.
I could say so much more but I won’t.
Leave the best answer to a vote and see what people think.
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September 9th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
no one
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