{"id":219617,"date":"2025-06-27T21:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T21:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/219617\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T21:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T21:31:13","slug":"it-felt-like-a-gut-punch-scotland-star-rory-darge-opens-up-on-british-and-irish-lions-heartache-after-narrowly-missing-out-on-tour-down-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/219617\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It felt like a gut punch&#8217;: Scotland star Rory Darge opens up on British and Irish Lions heartache after narrowly missing out on tour Down Under"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"mol-bullets-with-font\">\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Glasgow Warriors flanker was left out of the 38-man squad by Andy Farrell<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Admits it was a tough pill to swallow after enjoying a strong campaign<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Ready to answer the call should anyone find themselves ruled out of contention<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>Will captain Scotland on summer South Pacific tour which begins next weekend<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" class=\"class\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/scotland\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to visit the Scotland home page for the latest news and sport<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"author-section byline-plain\">By CALUM CROWE <\/p>\n<p class=\"byline-section\"> Published:  17:00 EDT, 27 June 2025   |  Updated:  17:00 EDT, 27 June 2025   <\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rory Darge admits it felt like a \u2018gut punch\u2019 to miss out on selection for the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/british-and-irish-lions-tour\/index.html\" id=\"mol-b17b73b0-538c-11f0-b350-6f99f02262a2\" rel=\"noopener\">British and Irish Lions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">But the Scotland star insists he will be ready to answer the call if it comes from Andy Farrell over these next few weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Darge narrowly missed out on making Farrell\u2019s 38-man squad for the tour of Australia when it was announced last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The head coach has an embarrassment of riches in the back row, arguably the most competitive area in the whole squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Darge will instead captain Scotland on their summer tour of the South Pacific, featuring games against the Maori <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/all-blacks\/index.html\" id=\"mol-b17a8950-538c-11f0-b350-6f99f02262a2\" rel=\"noopener\">All Blacks<\/a>, Fiji and Samoa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">With injuries part and parcel of any Lions tour, however, the 25-year-old would only be a phone call away if anyone was to be ruled out.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-88620f2a660dded5\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99801401-0-image-a-1_1751052101545.jpg\" height=\"441\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Flanker Rory Darge admits he was gutted to be left out of the Lions squad this summer\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Flanker Rory Darge admits he was gutted to be left out of the Lions squad this summer<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-a8f8bd47f5669ca1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99801419-0-image-a-2_1751052107887.jpg\" height=\"828\" width=\"634\" alt=\"The 25-year-old insists he will be ready to step up if head coach Andy Farrell needs him\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">The 25-year-old insists he will be ready to step up if head coach Andy Farrell needs him<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-61c8dc9c83a69064\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99801435-0-image-a-3_1751052112883.jpg\" height=\"645\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Glasgow Warriors team-mates Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu were among eight Scots picked\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Glasgow Warriors team-mates Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu were among eight Scots picked<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">While that is not necessarily his main focus, the fact he is in the same part of the world as the Lions would do his chances no harm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018Before the squad announcement, I wasn\u2019t particularly expecting to be there,\u2019 admitted Darge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018Part of that might be you\u2019re protecting yourself a little bit for when you don\u2019t get announced. But I also just think my position is so competitive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018Even still, when the names are getting read out and you\u2019re watching it on TV, they are going in alphabetical order and it gets past your name, it does feel like a gut punch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018I was obviously delighted for the other boys who did get picked. But it\u2019s a weird mix of emotions. I\u2019ve got a lot on my plate with Scotland at the moment and we\u2019re focusing on trying to get three wins from three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018The Lions obviously aren\u2019t my main focus. But, yeah, if the call was to come, I would certainly be ready for it.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Scotland\u2019s tour begins next weekend against the Maori All Blacks, with Gregor Townsend selecting a strong squad for the three-game series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Darge\u2019s first ever visit to rugby-mad New Zealand will be enough to focus his mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018I have never been before. It\u2019s cool to experience these places and it\u2019s something I know that, if it wasn\u2019t for rugby, I wouldn\u2019t be able to do,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n<p>                    Share or comment on this article:<br \/>\n                        &#8216;It felt like a gut punch&#8217;: Scotland star Rory Darge opens up on British and Irish Lions heartache after narrowly missing out on tour Down Under<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glasgow Warriors flanker was left out of the 38-man squad by Andy Farrell Admits it was a tough&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,92,4884,4204,712,93,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-219617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-rugbyunion","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114757467210780762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}