{"id":289195,"date":"2025-07-25T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T00:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/289195\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T00:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T00:05:10","slug":"plans-change-lions-suffer-double-blow-ahead-of-second-test-showdown-page-2-of-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/289195\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPlans Change\u201d \u2013 Lions Suffer Double Blow Ahead of Second Test Showdown &#8211; Page 2 of 4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2.\u00a0<strong>Josh van der Flier \u2013 From World Rugby Player of the Year to Overlooked on Tour<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Crowned\u00a0<strong>World Rugby Men\u2019s 15s Player of the Year in 2022<\/strong>, Josh van der Flier arrived on the 2025 Lions tour with big expectations. Yet, in a stark contrast to his stellar individual accolades,\u00a0<strong>he hasn\u2019t featured in any Test match squad<\/strong>, nor has he been named on the bench \u2014 with Tom Curry and Tadhg Beirne preferred in the back row.<\/p>\n<p>Despite showing his usual work-rate and skill in midweek games,\u00a0<strong>Van der Flier\u2019s role on tour has been largely peripheral<\/strong>, and with fierce competition for starting spots, his chances of appearing in the final Test seem slim unless the series is already decided.<\/p>\n<p>For a player once regarded as a guaranteed Lions pick, this tour has been a clear step back, highlighting the brutal realities of elite squad selection.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/plans-change-lions-suffer-double-blow-ahead-of-second-test-showdown\/3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CONTINUES ON PAGE THREE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2.\u00a0Josh van der Flier \u2013 From World Rugby Player of the Year to Overlooked on Tour Crowned\u00a0World Rugby&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-289195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114910955012567649","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289195","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=289195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}